It's like there was a fellow in every man that's done a-past the sanity or the insanity, that watches the sane and the insane doings of that man with the same horror and the same astonishment.

People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.

I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.

I am the chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth. But I be durn if He dont take some curious ways to show it, seems like.

Yet the motion of the saw has not faltered, as though it and the arm functioned in a tranquil conviction that rain was an illusion of the mind.

It's like it ain't so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.

... a man aint so different from a horse or a mule, come long come short, except a mule or a horse has got a little more sense.

There were worse things than dying, and those worse things happened to the people you left behind.

I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people's interests. The library is open, unending, free.

Thoughts lead on to purposes purposes go forth in action actions form habits habits decide character and character fixes our destiny.

I don't think there's a shortage of material in the world. Or in my head. I just pray for continued good health, because I've got other stories to tell.

It would be hilarious if I worked in a bowling alley.

Not all bits have equal value.

And when the sun goes down and the mood comes upon me, I'll watch the play of the colors on the water, yield to the fleetly dissolving images, and turn into pure feeling, all soft and nice.

A good writer of history is a guy who is suspicious.

I was born in Tyrone, 1956, for something I didn't do. I was innocent. But they gave me life. I still remember the midwife who extradited me.

It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.