When a writer knows home in his heart, his heart must remain subtly apart from it.

Critics cited the author for his tender reflections on Southern smalltown culture and for the tone of those alienated expatriate Southerners who move north but retain nostalgia for the South they left behind. Willie Morris is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City close to the "grave" of the fictitious Witch of Yazoo a character from one of Morris' books Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood. He became a member of Delta Tau Delta international fraternity where he has a room named after him in the chapter house.

He wrote several works of fiction and non-fiction including his seminal book North Toward Home as well as My Dog Skip. In 1967 he became the youngest editor of Harper's Magazine. Morris' trademark was his lyrical prose style and reflections on the American South particularly the Mississippi Delta.