Sharyn McCrumb Quotes

A man is always a little shamefaced on his wedding day, like a fox caught in a baited trap, ensnared because his greed overcame his better judgment. The menfolk laughed at Charlie that spring day, and said he was caught for sure now. As the bride, I was praised and fussed over, as if I had won a prize or done something marvelous that no one ever did before, and I could not help feeling pleased and clever that I had managed to turn myself from an ordinary girl into a shining bride. Now I think it is a dirty lie. The man is the one who is winning the game that day, though they always pretend they are not, and the poor girl bride is led into a trap of hard work and harsh words, the ripping of childbirth and the drubbing of her man's fists. It is the end of being young, but no one tells her so. Instead they make over her, and tell her how lucky she is. I wonder do slaves get dressed up in finery on the day they are sold.

I always, always wanted to be the Dungeon Master because that's where the creativity lies - in thinking up places, characters and situations. If done well, a game can be a novel in itself.

Nobody has time to write a book. Some people just do it anyhow.

Maybe staying single meant that you never had to grow up.

The people who live happily ever after - they don't appear in the history books. They just fade away. I reckon that's what happiness is.
Pauline Foster - " The Ballad of Tom Dooley ", Sharyn McCrumb, p. 271

Trying to act normal is the most unnatural behavior of all.

You take a handful of rocks and put them in a jar. Then once a week, you take one tiny pebble out of the jar and throw it away. When the jar is empty, why, you'll just about be over your grief ... Time alone will do if you're short on rocks.

The ones that landed near the bathroom are Bad Tolkien imitations or transcripts of a D&D adventure; bad Herbert, Heinlein, and Asimov are below the television; and these on the bed are the ones whose authors I want to hunt down personally and slap.

Half magic is no magic at all.

Boondocks' is simply the Tagalog word for mountains.

Cities are judged by their richest inhabitants and rural areas are judged

It couldn't be the beer. Donnie McRory was certain of that. If you sent American beer out to be analyzed, the lab would probably phone up and say, 'Your horse has diabetes.

High school and equality are forever incompatible.

Some people are born to fit the times.

Machines seem to sense that I am afraid of them. It makes them hostile.

Is the groom going to go where no man has gone before?

If it had taught them nothing else, twenty years of living past high school had taught them self-preservation ... No one was going to risk putting his ego on the line; they would come prepared with dates, flattering clothes, and a well-rehearsed, carefully edited biography. They would all be kind to each other. High school was enough torture for one lifetime.

Oh, son, hardly anybody wants to leave. These mountains are more than just a place for folks around here.

Life seems to be a choice between two wrong answers.

Being a professional writer is a lot like being a hooker. You'd better find out if you're any good at it before you start charging for it.

SHADOW KNIGHT'S MATE is a compelling story, extremely well-written and alarmingly plausible. Jay Brandon does for politics what Dan Brown did for religion.

Romulan or Vulcan?' the ushers asked each guest.
Marion, who had been poised to say 'friends of the bride' had responded to the question with an open-mouthed stare, and Jay Omega answered, 'Klingon! which got them seats in the back row of the Romulan side.

I wonder which is worse-the death, not knowing what comes after, or the wedding, when you think you know, but you're wrong.

Mountains have long-lost kinfolk on the other side of the Atlantic. The bloodline that marks that kinship is a vein of a green mineral called serpentine ...

Celebrity is having ten thousand friends and five really sick enemies , all of whom you have never met . WILL never meet if you're lucky . Either you accept that and resolve to live with it , or you get out of the spotlight and hope to God you left in time . Because if anybody still remembers you from one flash of fame twenty years ago , then anonymity is not an option .