Fading light buttered the ridges until shadows licked them clean and they were lost to nightfall.

Long, dark, and lovely she had been, in those days before her mind broke and the parts scattered and she let them go.

Never. Never ask for what ought to be offered.

The heart makes dreams seem like ideas.

He unscrewed the lid, set it on the dash, snorted from the bottle twice, banged the steering wheel, and said, 'You got to be ready to die every day - then you got a chance.'

Ree, brunette and sixteen, with milk skin and abrupt green eyes, stood bare-armed in a fluttering yellowed dress, face to the wind, her cheeks reddening as if smacked and smacked again.

I said shut up once already, with my mouth.

This is how sudden things happened that haunted forever.

The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished.

I was not much used to women except for mothers. Everything I did, they did different.

Pine trees with low limbs spread over fresh snow made a stronger vault for the spirit than pews and pulpits ever could.

There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.

Even if producing CO2 was good for the environment, given that we're going to run out of hydrocarbons, we need to find some sustainable means of operating.

The first thing necessary to win the heart of a woman is opportunity.

The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity.

The most important question to ask on the job is not 'What am I getting?' The most important question to ask on the job is 'What am I becoming?'

Abandon knowledge and your worries are over.

You can’t have wasted a life you’ve barely lived.

I love not knowing. It keeps me guessing.

When does loyalty become martyrdom?