It is possible, however, that the artist is both thin-skinned and prophetic and, like the canary lowered into the mine shaft to test the air, has caught a whiff of something lethal.

Why has the South produced so many good writers? Because we got beat.

Americans are the nicest, most generous, and sentimental people on earth. Yet Americans have killed more unborn children than any nation in history.

Being uneducated is no guarantee against being obnoxious.

Classes? Categories? Was that what we had come to?

Life is fits and starts, mostly fits.

Losing hope is not so bad. There's something worse: losing hope and hiding it from yourself.