If respectability is the daughter of morality, her jealous sister is blackmail. - Parke Godwin

Hard men and women, from Barion’s firsthand recollection: not always thinking of God but seeing Him hard as themselves when they did. Their descendants much the same, not as hard but needing that peculiarly American form of religious ecstasy blended of poverty, ignorance, degenerated mysticism, collected injuries and the need for vengeance.

But what's it mean," Roy cried, agonized. "What is it for?"
"Not for anything. It exists.

Woody had more talent than drive, but a musician, even a poor one, was preferable to a fanatic. He could only assault the ear.