Greg Iles

I'll read anything that's good. I have no artificial barriers based on genre. ”

The South is just a dark place, man. ”

My ancestors fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War; I was raised in Natchez, Miss.; I performed in the Confederate Pageant for a decade; I dug ditches and loaded trucks with black men who taught me more than any book ever could; and I graduated from Ole Miss. Anyone who survived that is a de facto expert on the South. ”

A tourist will just walk up to a Natchezian on the street and ask, 'Where does Greg Iles live?' And they'll say, 'Oh, right over there; just go knock on the door.' I've had people just walk into my office, walk into my house like it's a museum just open to the public. ”

The thing about a small town is that there are people who just remember me as a musician, as a high school football player. ”

I've learned as much about writing from songwriters as I have from other writers. ”

I deal with the human psychology and evil. They are my twin issues. ”

Experiences are like hoarded gold. Whenever I dole out a piece of my private suffering, that is when I get letters from all over the world. ”

Southern Gothic is alive and well. It's not just a genre, it is a way of life. ”

I like taking a character at the most intense moments of their lives and exploring all that in full and then moving on. ”