“Music could ache and hurt, that beautiful music was a place a suffering man could hide.”

“Carolina beach music," Dupree said, coming up on the porch. "The holiest sound on earth.”

“Fantasy is one of the soul's brighter porcelains.”

“Writing poetry and reading books causes brain damage.”

“It's politics . . . It makes everybody stupid. When you grow up, you'll know what I mean.”

“The pursuit of greatness means that laziness has no place in your life.”

“Seconds later, the female security officer grabbed a pair of my father's shorts from the top of the duffel bag, and emptied out the contents of his pockets. A lighter, three nail files, a pocket wr...”

“Wasn't Atlanta the murder capital of the U.S. last year?" "Yes, but the airport's perfectly safe.”

“He was, however, unable to give much prolonged or continuous thought to anything that evening , or to concentrate on any one idea; and anyway, even if he had been able to, he would not have found h...”

“Nature can counsel nothing but crime.”

“A criminal remains a criminal whether he uses a convict's suit or a monarch's crown.”

“Theres no way you can kill someone and get to the other side of the experience unchanged.”

“Why do we electrocute men for murdering an individual and then pin a purple heart on them for mass slaughter of someone arbitrarily labeled enemy?”

“He had also learned that there is no use murdering people; there are always so many left, and if you tried to murder them all you would never get anything else done.”