Where is the angry machine of all of us? Why is God such a blurred magician? Why are you begging for your life if you believe those things? Prove to ….

What a bog and labyrinth the human essence is... We are all overbrained and overemotioned..

I found out about reviews early on. They're mostly written by sad men on bad afternoons. That's probably why I'm less angry than some writers, who ar….

I don't write under the ghost of Faulkner. I live in the same town and find his life and work inspiring, but that's it. I have a motorcycle and tool ….

I always intended to be light and open. I misjudged the American audience..

Whoever you are, be that person with all your might. Time goes by faster than we thought. It is a thief so quiet. You must let yourself be loved and ….

My best stories come out of nowhere, with no concern for form at all..

The Deep South might be wretched, but it can howl..

I grew up when people seemed actually to be hurting themselves for their art. Of course, some of it was phony..

My stories do have plot. They're not just scattered language; they're controlled, toward an end..

Literature is the history of the soul..

The alcohol had the code and mystery about it as a writer's drug, but I'm glad that's been debunked. But the trouble with the drinking, much as I hat….

Most novels I come across have all the excitement of a long trip on a bus with a sensitive glee club. Yammer and chat..

If you are able to explain suffering, a man once told him, you weren't really there..

I thought I was writing for a fairly hip, intelligent crowd; I just thought there were more of them out there. But they're not. They're not out there….

There was no one, when I was in school, who talked about going in and blowing up students. The teachers were very stern and hateable, but nobody ever….

You've got to lie to stay halfway interested in yourself..

Some writers are curiously unmusical. I don't get it. I don't get them. For me, music is essential. I always have music on when I'm doing well. Writi….

When you're not involved, other people's unhappiness seems to be about the funniest damn thing on earth because you think you can solve it, that you ….

The first two drinks were always wonderfully liberating. You think better. You're braver, and you'll say anything. If you could just hang in there wi….

Children will listen to anything elders say to survive, and if you grew up without an elder telling you there was a god, what did your parents say to….