It has always seemed to me that the only painless death must be that which takes the intelligence by violent surprise and from the rear so to speak since if death be anything at all beyond a brief and peculiar emotional state of the bereaved it must be a brief and likewise peculiar state of the subject as well and if aught can be more painful to any intelligence above that of a child or an idiot than a slow and gradual confronting with that which over a long period of bewilderment and dread it has been taught to regard as an irrevocable and unplumbable finality, I do not know it.

To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.

Pouring out liquor is like burning books.

Knowing not grieving remembers a thousand savage and lonely streets.

I do not rewrite unless I am absolutely sure that I can express the material better if I do rewrite it.

It's all now you see: tomorrow began yesterday and yesterday won't be over until tomorrow.

We cannot choose freedom established on a hierarchy of degrees of freedom, on a caste system of equality like military rank. We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.