“ While writing the first draft is an exercise in shutting down all of the things we think we know so that the story features come tumbling out, the revision is the end of the joy ride. We pull on the g… Patricia Hickman
“ Humans need each other for equilibrium and support. But writers must pull aside to take a quiet walk alone, not just for the sake of serenity but to hear the Voice inside. That is how the storyteller… Patricia Hickman
“ Facing the sagging middle when writing a novel, while inevitable, may be overcome by pre-planning. I divide my collection of proposed scenes into three acts, each scene inciting tension that builds to… Patricia Hickman
“ I started out hoping to remind people at some point in the novel that we should be loving and kind. But then the theme usurped my life, spilling over into my novels until love was no longer a small vo… Patricia Hickman
“ Because of sorrow, my awareness of life's pulse is strongly detectable. It is syncopation while I journey, a lap of ocean in the eyes of every person I meet. This awareness informs the flesh of my sto… Patricia Hickman
“ The central character is an incomplete package of yearning that takes the length of the novel to complete. Completion, though, is not to be confused with perfection. Patricia Hickman
“ The conflict each day is whether to immerse in books or writing. I can't do one without the other, but I can't do both at the same time. It is the writer's paradox. Patricia Hickman
“ The confessional writer will treat her story like a wailing wall. She kneels, and her story spills out, messy, improper. It isn’t a protest or even graffiti, but her story is an offering of things tha… Patricia Hickman
“ He takes a draw on a cigarette, blows out a smoky ghost. I reach to catch the phantom in my hands, but it eludes me. I've been trying to catch a ghost for as long as I can remember. Brenda Sutton Rose
“ Hiding had been effortless in New York City. Getting lost in a sea of people was as easy as stepping onto a crowded Subway car. Sweet Laurel Cove would be very different. Generations of families fille… Teresa Tysinger
“ The woods are full of regional writers, and it is the great horror of every serious Southern writer that he will become one of them. Flannery O'Connor
“ Kevin knew he had to always outrun the enemy inside him, and if that meant playing football, he'd do it. During puberty, he had taken off running and found too late that he couldn't stop. In dreams th… Brenda Sutton Rose
“ Seasons didn't come behind the nicotine-stained walls of Mountain City's prison, so Harm always imagined it spring--the locust trees clustered with shaggy white blooms, the wet woods flecked with bloo… Sharyn McCrumb
“ Nothing helps your partner keep his mind on Jesus more than having a sign of His love tanned on your primary erogenous zones. Scott B. Pruden
“ I loved these salt rivers more than I loved the sea; I loved the movement of tides more than I loved the fury of surf. Something in me was congruent with this land, something affirmed when I witnessed… Pat Conroy
“ The ultimate downfall of the computerized holographic receptionist was that there was no amount of flattery, flirtation or chocolate that could convince one to lie for you. Scott B. Pruden
“ By the standards of a tourist strolling past looking for a quick lunch, the place was a dive. The sign on the window was small and easy to miss, and the antique feel of the place wasn't the prepackage… Scott B. Pruden
“ Wild steep mountains floating in a haze of cloud...a sea of green trees swallowing the hills and valleys, and curling around the trails and rivers, with the wind in the leaves as its tide. Sharyn McCrumb
“ The mind of man can only teach what he has learned from others. It is how you use that knowledge that will decide who you are. Micheal Rivers
