That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?

It's not necessary to tell all you know.

They're real strong magic, they make you have good luck. Not like fried chicken when you're not lookin' for it, but things like long life n' good health, n' passin' six weeks tests...these are real valuable to somebody.

Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.

There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.

Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.

Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up - some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.