I Believe The Causes That Create Them

If You Don't Compromise Your Gift, If You Write Each Day As Well As You Can, And Then Submit Your Work And Not Worry About It And Go On To The Next Piece, You Suddenly Find Oddly Enough That You're No More Interested In The Applause Than The Silence. You Don't Hear Either One Of Them. You Can Never Listen To The Naysayers. If You Do You Won't Survive.

I Looked At Lucas With The Pang That A Parent Feels When He Knows His Child Will Be Hurt And That It's No One's Fault And That To Try To Preempt The Rites Of Passage Is An Act Of Contempt For The Child's Courage.

I Also Believe My Home State Is Cursed By Ignorance And Poverty And Racism, Much Of It Deliberately Inculcated To Control A Vulnerable Electorate. And I Believe Many Of The Politicians In Louisiana Are Among The Most Stomach-churning Examples Of White Trash And Venality I Have Ever Known. To Me, The Fact That Large Numbers Of People Find Them Humorously Picaresque Is Mind Numbing, On A Level With Telling Fond Tales Of One's Rapist.

Don't Let Anyone Tell You That Age Purchases Your Freedom From Fear Of Death.

Write For The Love Of Your Art. Someplace Down The Road, The Money, The Fame, They'll Come, But By That Time You Won't Be Thinking In Terms Of Money Or Fame.