Quotes from Roy Blount, Jr.

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods.

Studying literature at Harvard is like learning about women at the Mayo Clinic.

Somebody informed me recently that the key to every art, from writing to gardening to sculpture, is creativity. I beg to differ.

People may think of Southern humor in terms of missing teeth and outhouse accidents, but the best of it is a rich vein running through the best of Southern literature.

I studied French in high school and German in college and I once took a 24-hour Italian crash course. English has by far the most words in it of any other language. Our money might not be worth anything anymore, but the language is.

Being president of too many well-meaning organizations put my father into an early grave. The lesson in this was not lost on me.

A good heavy book holds you down. It's an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic.