I Abhor The Idea Of A Perfect

When You Grow Up In A Totally Segregated Society, Where Everybody Around You Believes That Segregation Is Proper, You Have A Hard Time. You Can't Believe How Much It's A Part Of Your Thinking.

Generally The First Week In September Brings The Hottest Weather Of The Year, And This Was No Exception. Overhead The Fans Turned Slow, Their Paddle Blades Stirring The Air Up Close To The Ceiling But Nowheres Else.

People Want To Know Why The South Is So Interested In The Civil War. I Had Maybe, It's A Rough Guess, About Fifty Fistfights In My Life. Out Of Those Fifty Fistfights, The Ones That I Had The Most Vivid Memory Of Were The Ones I Lost. I Think That's One Reason Why The South Remembers The War More Than The North Does.

My Second Book, Follow Me Down Had Some Success, Got Good Critical Notices, Went Into A Second Printing And Things Like That, But Shiloh Was By Far The Most Successful Of Those First Five Novels.

I Think Making Mistakes And Discovering Them For Yourself Is Of Great Value, But To Have Someone Else To Point Out Your Mistakes Is A Shortcut Of The Process.