“ The Mississippi Delta is not always dark with rain. Some autumn mornings, the sun rises over Moon Lake, or Eagle, or Choctaw, or Blue, or Roebuck, all the wide, deep waters of the state, and when it d… Lewis Nordan
“ In a little while they were kissing. In a little while longer, they made their slow sweet love.The iron bed sounded like a pine forest in an ice storm, like a switch track in a Memphis trainyard, like… Lewis Nordan
“ Roy Dale suspected that Mississippi was beautiful. He wasn't sure. He didn't have anything to compare it to. He hadn't even ever been out of the Delta. Lewis Nordan
“ She said, Daddy thinks that all the world's magic is almost evolved out.I thought of Roebuck Lake, its swamps and sloughs and loblollies and breaks of cypress and cane, its sunken treetops and stobs a… Lewis Nordan
“ Alice leaned first one way and then the other, down the line of children. She said, Is everybody understanding this?One child said, The misuse of power is the root of all evil?Alice said, Well....Anot… Lewis Nordan
“ Even Solon Gregg was finding it hard to speak to a woman who had just paid hard cash for tampons and on her face wore the look of a woman who meant to use them, as advertised. Lewis Nordan
“ In my mind, I gave the woman gifts. I gave her a candle stub. I gave her a box of wooden kitchen matches. I gave her a cake of Lifebuoy soap. I gave her a ceilingful of glow-in-the-dark planets. I gav… Lewis Nordan
“ For one second the woman and I seemed to become twins, or closer than twins, the same person together. Maybe we said nothing. Maybe we only lay in the band of sunlight that fell across our bed. Or may… Lewis Nordan
“ Big G.B. said, Your Daddy ain't magic.I said, He ain't?He said, Naw, there ain't any magic.I said, What about the blind man's dummy? Is Joesph of Arimathea magic?He said, Get your shotgun, Sugar.I wen… Lewis Nordan
“ Self-blame is usually a way of avoiding something more hideous anyway, something you’re willing to be punished for but unwilling to change, or even something terrible in the imperfect structure of the… Lewis Nordan
“ The day Glenn Gregg's daddy got back from New Orleans was the same day Lady Sally Anne Montberclair decided to park her big white Cadillac out in front of Red's Goodlookin Bar and Gro. and leave the m… Lewis Nordan
“ Harris loved to read and he shared everything he read. He read to whoever happened to be in the room from whatever paper he happened to be making his way through. Ann Landers and the horoscope, of cou… Lewis Nordan
“ Mr. Raney named the porpoises - Sister Woman, and Renford, and Lamar, and St. Elmo - and could recognize them, and call each by its name, even at night, six feet long, some of them, with a million sha… Lewis Nordan
“ A thousand times, when the train slowed or stopped, I thought of jumping off. I wanted to die in a ditch. I wanted to disappear. I wanted a different history and geography. In rhythm with the wheels I… Lewis Nordan
“ Louis said, There ought to be a comic book about geeks.Dr. McNaughton said, There are books about geeks.He said, There are?Dr. McNaughton said, I'll read you some Faulkner sometime. I'll read you some… Lewis Nordan
