Erskine Caldwell Quotes

United States, Novelist
December 17, 1903 – April, 11, 1987.

Erskine Preston Caldwell was an American novelist and short story writer. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native Southern United States, in novels such as Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre won him critical acclaim, but his advocacy of eugenics and the sterilization of Georgia's poor whites became less popular following World War II.

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

Erskine Caldwell
- Writer
- Listener
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.

Erskine Caldwell

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

Erskine Caldwell
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.

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

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

Erskine Caldwell
- Respect
- Influence
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.

Erskine Caldwell