You can't really study people; you can only get to know them.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

I know lots of people who are educated far beyond their intelligence.

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

There's no such thing as being too Southern.

The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity.

Baptists never make love standing up. They're afraid someone might see them and think they're dancing.

It's better to have died a small child than to be a politician who gets caught in a scandal during a slow news month.

You call to a dog and a dog will break its neck to get to you. Dogs just want to please. Call to a cat and its attitude is, 'What's in it for me?'

Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and give her a house.

Silence, too, can be torture.

Author says the ineffectual U.S. Navy of two centuries ago lost two thirds as many men to duelist bullets as to sea hazards.

I tell the players that the bus is moving. This club has to progress. And the bus wouldn't wait for them. I tell them to get on board.

Our only hope rests on the off-chance that God does exist.

Oh my God. Lift me up out of this illusion, Lord. Heal my perception that I might know only reality and only you.

I still try to make the "next" book my "best" book. I want to grip and move you in unexpected ways.

If literature isn't everything, it's not worth a single hour of someone's trouble.

The gun issue is a big, unresolved issue in this country right now. I think it's out of control

Never underestimate the human capacity for delusion.

What a nasty act of cruelty, giving a dying man his last wish. Don't you realize he doesn't want it? His real wish is not to die.