If you go into some of these small towns down the coast of Mississippi, there is no accounting system.

People in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny.

I've always been fascinated by the Mississippi River and the way of life in these small river towns.

There is a comfortable feeling in small towns. It is salubrious.

Admittedly, they [(places in novels)] didn't all have such ridiculous names as the ones in the Piddle Valley where her father's group of parishes was centered. It would have been hard to make credible a romantic fiction set in Farleigh Piddle, Middle Piddle, Nether Piddle and Piddle Dummer.

When I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' I was so struck by the universality of small towns.