Erskine Caldwell Quotes

Many Southern writers must have learned the art of storytelling from listening to oral tales. I did. It gave me the knowledge that the simplest incident can make a story.

I think acceptance of human rights is going to progress from one day to the next. I don't think there's going to be any violent revolution about the whole thing anywhere. Of course, it looks like it every once in a while. You hear about it on television and in newspapers: riots here and there. But that is a passing phase.

I think you must remember that a writer is a simple-minded person to begin with and go on that basis. He's not a great mind, he's not a great thinker, he's not a great philosopher, he's a story-teller.

Influence is a very tenuous matter. I try to avoid it in every respect. I don't want to be influenced by anybody.

I was not a writer to begin with; I was a listener.

To me there is no such thing as creative writing. It's either good writing, whatever the subject, or it's not creative.

I'm not interested in plots. I'm interested only in the characterization of people and what they do.