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I had been to the South many times and I thought I knew what the South was, but not until you live with people and live through their lives do you know what it's really about.

I think we typically, as Northerners, stereotype what the South is in so many negative ways. We kind of forget all the beautiful things that they contribute to make this country a country.

While I've said that there are plenty of things I dislike about the South, I can be clear that there are things I love about the South.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs... I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.

Maybe we've been brainwashed by 130 years of Yankee history, but Southern identity now has more to do with food, accents, manners, music than the Confederate past. It's something that's open to both races, a variety of ethnic groups and people who move here.

Anything to do with the South resonates with me, because I'm Southern.

Driving through much of the southern part of the U.S. reminds me of where I grew up in Canada. The trees, homes, sense of community... I love the South.

You go down South, and they're quirky; they have culture, and it's not uniformly true of our country. Our country has gotten a little blanded out, big sections of it. Even if you disagree with the politics, you have to appreciate the cuisine, the music, the literature.

The South is full of memories and ghosts of the past. For me, it is the most inspiring place to write, from William Faulkner's haunted antebellum home to the banks of the Mississippi to the wind that whispers through the cotton fields.

It's the South that maintains the idea that they're different, which is interesting because nobody else really cares.