Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.

To know who you are, you have to have a place to come from.

This fear is one of the horrors of an author's life. Where does work come from? What chance, what small episode will start the chain of creation? I once wrote a story about a writer who could not write anymore, and my friend Tennessee Williams said, 'How could you dare write that story, it's the most frightening work I have ever read.' I was pretty well sunk while I was writing it.

Next to music beer was best.

While Time, The endless idiot, runs screaming round the world.

Now hoppin'-john was F. Jasmine's very favorite food. She had always warned them to wave a plate of rice and peas before her nose when she was in her coffin, to make certain there was no mistake; for if a breath of life was left in her, she would sit up and eat, but if she smelled the hopping-john, and did not stir, then they could just nail down the coffin and be certain she was truly dead.

But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.