Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.

The Southerner is usually tolerant of those weaknesses that proceed from innocence.

I don't have my novel outlined, and I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it over again.

Conviction without experience makes for harshness.