In Charleston, more than elsewhere, you get the feeling that the twentieth century is a vast, unconscionable mistake.

(You) don't leave the chicken to watch the feed.

Once he had drawn first blood, his war against the property of the state lost all its moral resonance.

Mama always taught her children that words were pretty, but anyone can talk. She said, pay attention to that man or woman who acted, who did, who performed. She taught us to trust in thing we could see, not that we heard.

I loved my parents... but that can never change the fact that my father's violence ruined my childhood.

William Ferris has long reigned as the unimpeachable source of the entire southern experience. His work on southern folklore and the composition of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture have made him both legendary and necessary. His book, The Storied South , is a love song to the South Bill helped illuminate. It's a crowning achievement of his own storied career.

Through sports a coach can offer a boy a secret way to sneak up on the mystery that is manhood.