Mississippi begins in a lobby of a Memphis, Tennessee hotel and extends south to the Gulf of Mexico

...how false the most profound book turns out to be when applied to life.

I'm inclined to think that a military background wouldn't hurt anyone.

Let the past abolish the past when -- and if -- it can substitute something better.

I took out my watch and listened to it clicking away, not knowing it couldn't even lie

It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end.

She forced herself once more to think of nothing, to keep her consciousness immersed, as a little dog that one keeps under water until he has stopped struggling