I’ve always believed that as an author, I do 50% of the work of storytelling, and the reader does the other 50%. There’s no way I can control the story you tell yourself from my book. Your own experiences, preferences, prejudices, mood at the moment, current events in your life, needs and wants influence how you read my every word.

When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as 'Catch-22' I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'

And okay, fair enough, but there is this unwritten contract between author and reader and I think not ending your book kind of violates that contract.

Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at night, but do not enter into relations. But not for the novel.

I think often people don't realize the great diversity of Southern writing because in their minds, if you're not from the South, it can seem regional and small, and of course that's not the case at all when you start to read the work.

A novel is a machine for generating interpretations.