Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live

If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you.

More than fear of loving bears or birds bigger than cows, I fear pathless nights. How, I wonder, can I find you in the dark?

And I am all the things I have ever loved: scuppernong wine, cool baptisms in silent water, dream books and number playing.

When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do.

My metaphor is that evil always has a top hat and a cape, and goodness is over there in the corner. For me it's just too easy, if you hate your country or your wife, so you kill them. You can't think through that, you can't feel through that, you can't do the work. And now we have guns. Solution? I don't think so.

So this is what insanity is. Not goofy behavior, but watching a sudden change in the world you used to know.