Ralph Stanley is like an uncle to us and now that all my uncles are gone, Ralph's singing is even more precious. This album of classic folk songs is one of his best.

Sometimes you have to avoid mentioning things because people's feelings are tender.

It is more worthy in the eyes of God . . . if a writer makes three pages sharp and funny about the lives of geese than to make three hundred fat and flabby about God or the American people.

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

Spending time in a church does not make you religious, any more than spending time in a garage makes you a car.

Ha! Easy for nuns to talk about giving up things. That's what they do for a living.

You'd learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news.