I used to write sonnets and various things, and moved from there into writing prose, which, incidentally, is a lot more interesting than poetry, including the rhythms of prose. – Shelby Foote
I began the way nearly everybody I ever heard of – I began writing poetry. And I find that to be quite usual with writers, their trying their hand at poetry. – Shelby Foote
Im crazy about Grant: his character, his nature, his science in fighting and everything else. But I dont 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
I think that everything you do helps you to write if youre a writer. Adversity and success both contribute largely to making you what you are. If you dont experience either one of those, youre being deprived of something. – Shelby Foote
A knowledge of general literature is one of the evidences of an enlightened mind; and to give an apt quotation at a fitting time, proves that the mind is stored with sentential lore that can always be used to great advantage by its possessor. – James Ellis, quoted in Day’s Collacon: An Encyclopædia of Prose Quota