Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.

That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," and he drove off with a look of disgust and righteousness.

He and the girl had almost nothing to say to each other. One thing he did say was, 'I ain't got any tattoo on my back.' 'What you got on it?' the girl said. 'My shirt,' Parker said. 'Haw.' 'Haw, haw,' the girl said politely.

In yourself right now is all the place you've got.

Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!

The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.