My father managed to change his entire life after I wrote a novel about his brutal regime as a family man. It took resoluteness and courage for my father to change, and I need to acknowledge that.

In family matters you can get over anything. That's one thing you'll learn as an adult. There's a lot you have to learn which is a lot worse than that. You'd never think of forgiving a friend for some of the things your parents did to you. But with friends it's different. Friends aren't the roll of the dice.

A family is one of nature's solubles; it dissolves in time like salt in rainwater.

They love their families with their hearts and souls and they wage war against them to prove it.

It’s the great surprise of my life that I ended up loving [my father] so much.

A portion of guilt is standard issue for southern boys; our whole lives are convoluted, egregious apologies to our mothers because our fathers have made us such flawed husbands.

Love came in wounded and frantic ways to my dismaying family.

I've met many, many writers who say they would never write about their family, never write about people they did not totally make up. But that is not the composition of my character.