"City people try to buy time as a rule, when they can, whereas country people are prepared to kill time, although both try to cherish in their mind's eye the notion of a better life ahead."

"The question of whether it's God's green earth is not at center stage, except in the sense that if so, one is reminded with some regularity that He may be dying."

"Like a kick in the butt, the force of events wakes slumberous talents."

"Many people have believed that they were Chosen, but none more baldly than the Texans."

"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog."

"Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga - stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts."

"Country people do not behave as if they think life is short; they live on the principle that it is long, and savor variations of the kind best appreciated if most days are the same."

"Land of opportunity, land for the huddled masses where would the opportunity have been without the genocide of those Old Guard, bristling Indian tribes?"

"Men greet each other with a sock on the arm, women with a hug, and the hug wears better in the long run."