I’m crazy about Grant: his character, his nature, his science in fighting and everything else. But I don’t like the idea that he never accepted the blame for anything, always found someone else to blame for any mistake that was ever made, including blaming Prentiss for Shiloh. Shelby Foote Read Quote
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. Shelby Foote Read Quote
Getting close to books, and spending time by myself, I was obliged to think about things I would never have thought about if I was busy romping around with a brother and sister. Shelby Foote Read Quote
And I really do think that the difficulty of research makes it more real to you than punching a thing to find out how many men were killed at this particular action. Shelby Foote Read Quote
And I’m a slow writer: five, six hundred words is a good day. That’s the reason it took me 20 years to write those million and a half words of the Civil War. Shelby Foote Read Quote
I don’t want anything to do with anything mechanical between me and the paper, including a typewriter, and I don’t even want a fountain pen between me and the paper. Shelby Foote Read Quote
If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That’s how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing. Shelby Foote Read Quote
I think that everything you do helps you to write if you’re a writer. Adversity and success both contribute largely to making you what you are. If you don’t experience either one of those, you’re being deprived of something. Shelby Foote Read Quote
