“You wake up in this here world, my sweet li'l mister, you got to wake up tough. You go out that front door tough of a mornin' and you stay tough 'til lights outhave you learned that?”

“The old man had been tanned by the light of too many beer signs, and it just goes to show that you cant live on three packs of Chesterfields and a fifth of bourbon a day without starting to drift f...”

“I think all regions have had their peculiarities of speech rounded off by television, radio, and people travel so much more now.”

“I guess it's ridiculously romantic, but I wanted to be a full tilt, sink-or-swim writer.”

“When poetry is on the money, 12 words can slay you. I admire that greatly.”

“I'm very attracted to poetry for all the reasons someone likes poetry. The notion of compression seems to fit my personality.”

“I never saw anything funnier than Texas politics.”

“I don't think I'm a celebrity. I'm just a guy from east Texas who loves cars and airplanes.”

“If terrorists are already on our southern border, a national-security failure has already occurred.”

“You could drown a kitten in her blue eyes.”

“I'm pretty into computers. I used to be a lot more into it when I was younger.”

“I'm pretty sure there is some genetic component towards intelligence.”