SOURCE: Gaines, Ernest J., and Calvin Skaggs. “Interview with Ernest J. Gaines.” In The American Short Story: Volume 2, edited by Calvin Skaggs, pp. 443-51. New York: Dell Publishing, 1980.

In the following interview, which was originally conducted in 1979, Gaines comments on the origins of “The Sky Is Gray,” discusses his metaphorical use of colors, and identifies the literary works that influenced the story.

[Skaggs]: Do you have any memory of when the idea for this particular story, for “The Sky Is Gray,” occurred to you? What was the germ of the story? Or what made you put these particular events together?

[Gaines]: I don't know exactly when—or what. I was writing stories all along. I had just left Stanford in nineteen fifty-nine, and I was working on a novel. Whenever I'd send a novel back to my agent, I would try to write short stories. And I'm pretty...