There's an overlap between social-realist fiction and crime fiction - a sweet spot there.

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.

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.

Music moves the body, soul and spirit to the bliss.

All facades fall sometime, then the mask comes off and the real heart is seen.

Without hesitation, Dove chose the nowhere road. For that was the only place, in his heart of hearts, that he really wanted to go.

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.

We put ourselves there. The door to hell is locked from the inside.

And it occurred to me that friendship was a lot more dependable, not to mention long-lasting, than love.

If we can reform the man and make him a better man and a God-fearing man, then we have a chance, we believe, to build a better world.

Anything which is a hindrance to the fight of the soul is a delusion and a snare, even like the body which often does hinder you in the path of salvation.

Use the right word, not its second cousin.

Business is business and politics is politics and never between shall meet.