In that moment, when watches and clocks misbehave and you feel a cold vapor wrap itself around your heart, you unconsciously draw a line at the bottom of a long column of numbers and come up with a sum. Perhaps it's one that fills you with contentment and endows you with a level of courage and an acceptance that you didn't know you possessed.Or maybe not.

There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.

Age is a clever thief. It takes a little from you each day, so you're not aware of your loss until it'd irreversible.

Hackberry Holland's greatest fear was his fellow man's propensity to act collectively, in militaristic lockstep, under the banner of God and country. Mobs did not rush across town to do good deeds, and in Hackberry's view, there was no more odious taint on any social or political endeavor than universal approval.

The only thing an artist has to remember is to never lose faith in his vision.

There's no substitute for loyalty.

Louisiana is a fresh-air mental asylum.