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

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

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

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.

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.

Darkness is an uncomfortable place, but that is where stars are made.

How sleep the brave who sink to rest. By all their country's wishes blest!

Reality is perfect light. It frees you from the limitations of this world, from the ugliness, from the unhappiness of limited perception.

The first duty of government is to protect the powerless from the powerful.

Do what you feel is right and back yourself up. Live the life you want to live.

I put myself under immense pressure.

It's interesting to be playing a father who's on the other side because that's not my world and not where I came from.

Now that I've seen her, I can't stop seeing her.

Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.

Real eyes, realize, real lies.