The necessity of the idea creates its own style. The material itself dictates how it should be written.

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.

In the South you are ashamed of being a virgin. Boys. Men. They lie about it. Because it means less to women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women. Father said it's like death: only a state in which the others are left and I said, But to believe it doesn't matter and he said, That's what's so sad about anything: not only virginity and I said, Why couldn't it have been me and not her who is unvirgin and he said, That's why that's sad too; nothing is even worth the changing of it.

Whatever its symbol - cross or crescent or whatever - that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race.

...the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.

There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it's the risk, the gamble. In any event it's a thing I need.

I suppose that people, using themselves and each other so much by words, are at least consistent in attributing wisdom to a still tongue.