Mississippi begins in a lobby of a Memphis, Tennessee hotel and extends south to the Gulf of Mexico

The only environment the artist needs is whatever peace, whatever solitude, and whatever pleasure he can get at not too high a cost.

Love doesn't die; the men and women do.

A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences.

The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said. Shakespeare, Balzac, Homer have all written about the same things, and if they had lived one thousand or two thousand years longer, the publishers wouldn't have needed anyone since.

any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man

He [the writer] must, teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and compassion and sacrifice. See Poets & Writers