William Faulkner
[…] and your illusions are a part of you like your bones and flesh and memory. — William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (Vintage, 1936)
Category: American History
Dee Brown
Nothing lives longOnly the earth and mountains — Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. (Holt Paperbacks; 30th Anniversary edition January 23, 2001) Originally published 1970.
Toni Morrison
There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind—wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and… Continue reading Toni Morrison
Stephen Crane
It appeared that the swift wings of their desires would have shattered against the iron gates of the impossible. — Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage ( Prestwick House Inc. , 2004; first published 1895)
Jonathan Safran Foer
I am always sad, I think. Perhaps this signifies that I am not sad at all, because sadness is something lower than your normal disposition, and I am always the same thing. Perhaps I am the only person in the world, then, who never becomes sad. Perhaps I am lucky. — Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything… Continue reading Jonathan Safran Foer
Dee Brown
Nothing lives longOnly the earth and mountains — Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. (Holt Paperbacks; 30th Anniversary edition January 23, 2001) Originally published 1970.
John Steinbeck
I shall tell them this story against the background of the county I grew up in and along the river I know and do not love very much. For I have discovered that there are other rivers. ― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. (Viking; 75 Anv edition April 10, 2014) Originally published April 14th… Continue reading John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. ― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (Viking; 75th ed. Edition, April 10, 2014) Originally published April 14th 1939.
Irene Hunt
We mustn’t give trouble a shape before it throws its shadow. ― Irene Hunt, Across Five Aprils. (Berkley; Reprint edition January 8, 2002) Originally published 1964.
Will Durant
A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. ― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers. (Pocket Books; 2nd edition, January 1, 1991)
The Vale of Soul-Making 