I've never known, at least a modern historical instance, where the truth wasn't superior to distortion in every way.

Before the war it was always the United States *are*, after the war it was the United States is... it made us an is.

The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.

If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That's how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing.

People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.

When you grow up in a totally segregated society, where everybody around you believes that segregation is proper, you have a hard time. You can't believe how much it's a part of your thinking.

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.

As a Southerner I would have to say that one of the main importances of the War is that Southerners have a sense of defeat which none of the rest of the country has.

I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process.

I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore me to tears.

Longevity conquers scandal every time.

I am alone, but never lonely. I am lonely, but never alone.

The day of the sun is like the day of a king. It is a promenade in the morning, a sitting on the throne at noon, a pageant in the evening.

Adversity tests the sincerity of friends

happiness is a duty, not only because of its effect upon us but because of its influence upon others.

Rules are for the obidience of fools and interpretations of smart men.

It should be possible, in a 'debreviation' mode, to type 'clr' on the keyboard and have 'The Council on Library Resources, Inc.' appear on the display.

Just like ice, lives crack, too. Personalities. Identities.

The Imagi-Nation is a little country in your head. When you're young, you go there to play. When you get older, you go there to worry.

The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness, their character-building power.

North Carolina was never a battleground state until recently. Now it is, and it's because of migration from the Northeast.