Literature is one of the few areas left where black and white feel some identity of purpose; we all struggle under censorship.

A desert is a place without expectation.

The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.

A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.

The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.

Peace. The upland serenity of high altitude, the openness of grassland without indigenous bush or trees; the greening, yellowing or silver-browning that prevailed, according to season.

Writing is making sense of life.

Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.

I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.

Time is change; we measure its passage by how much things alter.

We are all capable!

It is a mistake, " Labruyère tells us, "to be in love without an ample fortune.

Remember: the universe neither judges, nor interprets, nor second guesses your will. If it did, there would be no poverty, no hunger, no suffering.

Things are always better in the morning.

If your ears are bigger than your mouth, you will go very far in life.

If only our great thinkers could learn to talk, and our great talkers could learn to think.

I had a very free childhood and ranged around on my bicycle the way boys do. I had few restrictions.

Ever notice how people wait until they're not going to see you anymore to say something nice to you?

Some people want to call me an Appalachian writer, even though I know some people use regional labels to belittle.

Every human being has a right to hear what other wise human beings have spoken to him. It is one of the Rights of Men; a very cruel injustice if you deny it to a man!