“I think if we are realistic, the South - the old Confederate states - really only has one entirely unique feature that other parts of the country don't have, and that is this nearly 400-year history of tremendous intimacy, in every sense of the word, good and evil, between two very different kinds of peoples: people who were brought here against their wishes from Africa and a largely Anglo-white population.”
“Our mothers, our aunts, the grandmothers, the babysitters, and if you're a boy, and you're a sensitive boy, which theoretically novelists are supposed to be, you do subliminally pick up a great deal about female sensibility.”
“I always say the late 60s, early 70s in American education were really exciting times to teach. The late 70s, on the other hand, were awfully dull. People tended to be quiet and repressed and all headed off to business school or something.”
“Everybody was there. A bachelor aunt or uncle. You would all come to the table, even some stone-deaf member of the family, usually the oldest ... and he would mumble something under his breath.”
“You have to realize that your work is done by your body, and if your body is in very bad health, it's not going to work for you no matter how young you are. So, I'm a bit of an athletic coach when it comes to trying to respect my body's needs and tendencies, and when I teach students, I try and persuade them of the same.”
“From the age of six I wanted to be an artist. At that point I meant a painter, but it turned out what I really meant was I was someone who was very interested in watching the world and making copies of it.”