“Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.”

“What is there to see in Europe? I'll bet those foreigners can't show us a thing we haven't got right here in Georgia.”

“If Gone With the Wind has a theme it is that of survival. What makes some people come through catastrophes and others, apparently just as able, strong, and brave, go under? It happens in every upheaval. Some people survive; others don't. What qualities are in those who fight their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those that go under? I only know that survivors used to call that quality 'gumption.' So I wrote about people who had gumption and people who didn't.”

“The whole world can't lick us but we can lick ourselves by longing too hard for things we haven't got any more - and by remembering too much.”

“I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can't... My dear, I don't give a damn.”

“Why, my goodness, honey. After looking at all those pictures of seraphic and perspirationless babes for so long in the privacy of a foxhole, what is a poor doughfoot going to do when he comes home and discovers that American women are, after all, biological and given, under stress, to shiny noses?”

“Men and women, they were beautiful and wild, all a little violent under their pleasant ways and only a little tamed.”