She wished there was some place where she could go to hum it out loud. Some kind of music was too private to sing in a house cram full of people. It … - Carson McCullers

Wherever you look there's meanness and corruption. This room, this bottle of grape wine, these fruits in the basket, are all products of profit and loss. A fellow can't live without giving his passive acceptance to meanness. Somebody wears his tail to a frazzle for every mouthful we eat and every stitch we wear—and nobody seems to know. Everybody is blind, dumb, and blunt-headed—stupid and mean.

The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.

In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise.