"Lately we seem to get into arguments about what the country's about." "I thought that was the national pastime." "It is," Ernest said. - Robert Stone

It isn't religion they need down here," Heath declared after five minutes. "They've had plenty of that. It's the pill. If this coast had half the population it has it would be in damn fine shape.

The Deep Six comes for all, babe, the rich man and Lazarus.

In all the working systems, she thought, the weakness was always yourself - that spot of gristle in the gears. It applied on every level - even the act of getting through a day could be performed with gusto and dispatch if you kept out of your own way. Justin believed that she knew as much as anyone about self-struggle.