An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

I could not think without writing.

God always prepare us for the great mission but we are unaware.All the stages are connected

She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear of finding herself less able than she could wish.

It's hard to know what to say sometimes, when someone does something so nice. It's hard to know where to look.

I don't write all my stuff. Everybody always thinks that. But in just about every album I've ever had has been about 50-50 songs I've written or co-written and other people's songs.

The confession of one man humbles all.

If you're an artist, you try to keep an ear to the ground and an ear to your heart.

A radical is he who has no sense...fights without reason...I have a reason. I am authentic. Yes, that's what I am.

Even during the rationing period, during World War II, we didn't have the anxiety that we'd starve, because we grew our own potatoes, you know? And our own hogs, and our own cows and stuff, you know.

The enticing allure of Nashville is that there is always something new coming down the pike. Put this record on and you’ll hear footsteps.