He was getting that look he gets, oh boy, like Here comes Moses tromping down off of Mount Syanide with ten fresh ways to wreck your life.

That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we stretched out our hands we could practically feel it rising up from the ground. I don’t know how a person could ever describe that scent.

God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.

You know things are bad when a woman without any legs and who recently lost two of her own kids feels sorry for you.

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.

Wherever I am, let me never forget to distinguish want from need

He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story. I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible.