it had been a winter of deadening seriousness, when all the illusions and bright dreams of my early twenties had withered and died. I did not yet have the interior resources to dream new dreams; I was far too busy mourning the death of the old ones a...
College was to teach me that I was one of life's journeymen, eager to excel but lacking the requisite gifts.
We had made the error of staying small – and there is no more unforgivable crime in America.
But even her demons she invested with inordinate beauty, consecrated them with the dignity of her attention.
It was growing dark on this long southern evening, and suddenly, at the exact point her finger had indicated, the moon lifted a forehead of stunning gold above the horizon, lifted straight out of filigreed, light-intoxicated clouds that lay on the sk...
You get a little moody sometimes but I think that's because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up.
There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory.
As his children, we were treated as some species of migrant workers who happened to be passing through. My father was the only person I ever knew who looked upon childhood as a dishonorable vocation one grew out of as quickly as possible.
These are the quicksilver moments of my childhood I cannot remember entirely. Irresistible and emblematic, I can recall them only in fragments and shivers of the heart.
I learned that if I could read, I could cook. I surprised myself I like it.
Rape is a crime against sleep and memory; it's after image imprints itself like an irreversible negative from the camera obscure of dreams. Though their bodies would heal, their souls had sustained a damage beyond compensation
The desolate narrowness, the definitive thinness of experience is both the vainglory and the dead giveaway of a provincial man.
I became one of those anonymous Americans who tries to keep his mind sharp and inquisitive while performing all the humiliating rituals of the middle class
Together they spent their whole lives waiting for their luck to change, as though luck were some fabulous tide that would one day flood and consecrate the marshes of our island, christening us in the iridescent ointments of a charmed destiny.
Teach them the quiet words of kindness, to live beyond themselves. Urge them toward excellence, drive them toward gentleness, pull them deep into yourself, pull them upward toward manhood, but softly like an angel arranging clouds. Let your spirit mo...
A family is one of nature's solubles; it dissolves in time like salt in rainwater.
In families, there are no crimes beyond forgiveness.
A portion of guilt is standard issue for southern boys; our whole lives are convoluted, egregious apologies to our mothers because our fathers have made us such flawed husbands.
