Working- and Middle-class families sat down at the dinner table every night - the shared meal was the touchstone of good manners. Indeed, that dinner table was the one time when we were all together, every day: parents, grandparents, children, siblings. Rudeness between siblings, or a failure to observe the etiquette of passing dishes to one another, accompanied by "please" and "thank you," was the training ground of behavior, the place where manners began.

The Western notion of masculinity goes back a long way. It doesn’t allow for women, and it’s also racist - it doesn’t allow for other cultures.

I don't see how being married could be any worse than listening to you talk for twenty years, but that still ain't much of a recommendation for it.

I think its a sickness to grieve too much for those who never cared a fig for you.

Listening to women ain't the fashion in this part of the country.

Maybe you can make art out of unredeemed pain, but only if you're a genius -- Dostoyevsky perhaps.

I hate rude behavior in a man,' he explained in his quiet, unassuming drawl. 'I won't tolerate it.' He politely tipped his hat, and rode away.