Mississippi Authors Quotes

All my life, the library has always been one of my favorite places to go. (Larry Brown: A Writer's Life by Jean W. Cash) ~ Larry Brown

We know You love us. We love You, too. I mean, six, seven thousand years from now ... won't make no difference, will it? Everybody gonna be so mixed up by then that far in the future that they all gonna be the same color by then, ain't they? ~ Larry Brown

That's just it, Eva said with a gleam in her eyes that matched the rhinestones on her glasses, you had to get somebody to teach you, to facilitate. Literacy wasn't like a piece of my mama's lemon cake you handed over to somebody on a plate. ~ Minrose Gwin

She was always saying things like that but I let her be my best friend anyway. ~ Ellen Gilchrist

August in Mississippi is different from July. As to heat, it is not a question of degree but of kind. July heat is furious, but in August the heat has killed even itself and lies dead over us. ~ Elizabeth Spencer

But the book! The siren song of the book! ~ Ellen Douglas

I walked straight to the library. Mrs. Bloom, the librarian, always knows everything. ~ Augusta Scattergood

It never registered to them that I had time to read all of Balzac, Dickens, and Stendhal while Papa was dying, not to mention everything in the city library after Mother's operation. It would have been exactly the same to them if I had read through all twenty-six volumes of Elsie Dinsmore. (The White Azalea) ~ Elizabeth Spencer

We were running all over the front lawn and under the rainspouts, barefooted, in our underpants, with the rain pelting down, straight cold gray rain of Delta summers, wonderful rain. -Mexico ~ Ellen Gilchrist

He read it over twenty times and though the darkness that sang on held steady about him, the unhurried words fell bright through his mind, going down golden through deep water, and when one passed another came, ceaselessly, shining. ~ Elizabeth Spencer

I had never read a book written by an African-American. I didn't know that black people could write books. I didn't know that blacks had done any great things. I was always conscious of my inferiority and I always remembered my place - until the Civil Rights Movement came to the town where I was born and grew up. ~ Endesha Ida Mae Holland

For the rest of the afternoon, Miss Bloom smiled almost as bright as the big yellow sun shining through the front picture window. Her library was filled up with people who loved books. ~ Augusta Scattergood

People hear whispers as loud as guns. ~ Elizabeth Spencer

Generally the first week in September brings the hottest weather of the year, and this was no exception. Overhead the fans turned slow, their paddle blades stirring the air up close to the ceiling but nowheres else ... ~ Shelby Foote

Books, the books that I loved above all else to spend my time with, were the great tools for understanding one's life and the lives of other people. ~ Ellen Douglas

Just look what happens to poets," I used to tell my honors class on the first day of school. "Half the time they go mad. And you know why I think that happens? Too much truth distilled to its essence, all surrounding evidence ignored or discarded. And I'm not faulting them for that. ~ Steve Yarbrough

It's so nice to be around a man who isn't hung up about his car," she said.
"Mom, I can't believe you're saying that. You treat that Coupe Deville like it's a member of the family."
"But I'm a woman, darling. I'm supposed to feel that way about my Deville. ~ Martin Hegwood

She wore heavy sandals, with socks. No kid in the entire state of Mississippi wore black socks in the summer. Shoot, if I wasn't standing smack-dab in the middle of the library, I wouldn't be wearing shoes. ~ Augusta Scattergood

The sky had cleared, and now the sun was overhead, already baking the wet ground so that you could see the humidity drifting lazily above the cotton stalks. ~ John Grisham

As with many Southern Writers, I believe that the special quality of the land itself indelibly shapes the people who dwell upon it. ~ Willie Morris

Cuddle up. Rain always stops. It always stops. It always does. -The Brown Cape ~ Ellen Gilchrist

I have always had a love for American geography, and especially for the landscapes of the South. One of my pleasures has been to drive across it, with no one in the world knowing where I am, languidly absorbing the thoughts and memories of old moments, of people vanished now from my life. ~ Willie Morris

The boy didn't know where he and his family were, other than one name: Mississippi. ~ Larry Brown

Children's authors don't talk down or patronise their younger readers. ~ John Boyne

The quality of authors determines the quality of books.
The quality of musicians determines the quality of songs.
The quality of artists determines the quality of paintings.
The quality of architects determines the quality of buildings.

The quality of generals determines the quality of warriors.
The quality of preachers determines the quality of sermons.
The quality of scientists determines the quality of inventions.
The quality of leaders determines the quality of followers.

The quality of scholars determines the quality of lectures.
The quality of teachers determines the quality of students.
The quality of schools determines the quality of graduates.
The quality of graduates determines the quality of nations.

The quality of plants determines the quality of air.
The quality of air determies the quality of animals.
The quality of animals determines the quality of food.
The quality of food determines the quality of the planet. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Well, it would be helpful to not have to go through all of these in Braille," the man said. "I'm looking for the local wildlife guide and one other book." He held a paper out in front of him, and she took it. "The head librarian wrote the authors' names down for me," the man said, grinning. "I don't think she realized I couldn't read it." "That would be my boss," Julia sighed. "She's ... she's the kind of person who yells at deaf people. ~ Aubrey Rose

All the authors who've ultimately published Louder Than Words memoirs have been very happy to be chosen and excited about the possibility of having their memoir published. Even though these books deal with serious, often painful, issues, in all cases the authors felt as though writing their story would be an empowering and healing experience. ~ Deborah Reber

When, on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Jerome had played his parents an ethereal, far more beautiful version of 'Hallelujah' by a kid called Buckley, Kiki had thought yes, that's right, our memories are getting more beautiful and less real every day. And then the kid drowned in the Mississippi, recalled Kiki now, looking up from her knees to the colourful painting that hung behind Carlene's empty chair. Jerome had wept: the tears you cry for someone whom you never met who made something beautiful that you loved. Seventeen years earlier, when Lennon died, Kiki had dragged Howard to Central Park and wept while the crowd sang 'All You Need is Love' and Howard ranted bitterly about Milgram and mass psychosis. ~ Zadie Smith

Most authors would be the first to admit the best of their writing is beyond even them. It comes from someplace outside the conscious realm. ~ K.M. Weiland

And now, I have another good reason to speed up my baby narratives to make my author's profile appear more respectable. ~ Armineonila M.

By fulfilling our divinely appointed jobs as parents, we can be God's tools that define and refine our children as they are sculpted into the individuals that He wants them to be. ~ Tamara L. Chilver

My mum was a children's librarian, so I spent a lot of time in the library. My reading life, because of my mum's work, was evenly split between American, Canadian, Australian and British authors. ~ Eleanor Catton

I know one writer who has been subscribing authors without their permission and sending out what she thinks are helpful advice sheets, but they come off as if she's a know-it-all. She thinks she's marketing herself and her work. All she's really doing is turning readers off. ~ M.J. Rose

Lucas, I never wanted children. I just want to be CEO. I want money, power, and on occasion, sex ~ Norian F. Love

I'm concerned about the cost, just like everybody else. There's no question that we have an obligation to help the people of Louisiana and Mississippi to rebuild. ~ Saxby Chambliss

Where evil walks, hell follows. ~ Asa Swift

Good horror offers a sense of an upended, lawless world and that's appealing to anyone who grew up feeling like an outsider. ~ Christopher Rice

Time meant nothing.
She loved him in an instant.
She would love him forever. ~ Ellen Read

With my ninth mind I resurrect my first
and dance slow to the music of my soul made new. ~ Aberjhani

When authors write a predominantly white cast, it reflects who they're paying attention to in life. ~ Kira Hawke

There are many great authors of the past who have survived centuries of oblivion and neglect, but it is still an open question whether they will be able to survive an entertaining version of what they have to say. ~ Hannah Arendt

But anyone can write, right?'" Conner asked. "I mean, that's why authors get judged so harshly, isn't it? Because technically everyone could do it if they wanted to."
"Just because anyone can do something doesn't mean everyone should," Mrs. Peters said. "Besides, anyone with an Internet connection feels they have the credentials to critique or belittle anything these days. ~ Chris Colfer

Authors were, at heart, no matter how much they blustered or how suavely they carried themselves, insecure creatures with sensitive egos, as delicate in the constitution as movie stars, only much poorer and less glamorous. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

Later, I collaborated with a number of wonderful co-authors, all of whom are friends as well: Stan Finkelstein, ~ Eric Von Hippel

Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have not the time nor means to get more. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

For the New Testament authors, Jesus' resurrection is not an isolated miracle, but a crucial revelatory disclosure concerning the nature of reality, the identity of God, and the destiny of human beings. ~ Stefan Alkier

It is the writer's job to craft a story so compelling that strangers will pay to hear it. ~ Seeley James

Being who you are is so much more important that fitting in will ever be. ~ Cheryl B. Evans

One of the best things about my job is that I get to meet a lot of great children's and YA authors at events all over the country. So I figured it might be fun to interview some of them and turn the interviews into short online comics. ~ Steve Sheinkin

The window of her sadness was so vast that it almost opened a path to her soul. ~ Ondjaki

You don't have INSOMNIA.
You're a writer with an unfinished book! ~ T.N. Suarez

Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. ~ Chinua Achebe

People see a Macbeth film. They imagine they have seen Macbeth, and don't want to see it again; so when your Mr. Hackett or somebody comes round to act the play, he finds the house empty. That is what has happened to dozens of good plays whose authors have allowed them to be filmed. It shall not happen to mine if I can help it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Writing in the first person helps to make clear the author's role in constructing rather than discovering the story/knowledge. ~ Gayle Letherby

What a signal convenience is fame. Do we read all authors to grope our way to the best? No, but the world selects for us the best, and we select from these our best. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

My duty as a member of the Council of the Twelve is to protect what is most unique about the LDS church, namely the authority of priesthood, testimony regarding the restoration of the gospel, and the divine mission of the Savior. Everything may be sacrificed in order to maintain the integrity of those essential facts. Thus, if Mormon Enigma reveals information that is detrimental to the reputation of Joseph Smith, then it is necessary to try to limit its influence and that of its authors. ~ Dallin H. Oaks

The first phase of modernism, which so far as the English language goes we associate with Pound and Yeats, Wyndham Lewis and Eliot and Joyce, was clerkly enough, sceptical in many ways; and yet we can without difficulty convict most of these authors of dangerous lapses into mythical thinking. All were men of critical temper, haters of the decadence of the times and the myths of mauvaise foi. All, in different ways, venerated tradition and had programmes which were at once modern and anti-schismatic. This critical temper was admittedly made to seem consistent with a strong feeling for renovation; the mood was eschatological, but scepticism and a refined traditionalism held in check what threatened to be a bad case of literary primitivism. It was elsewhere that the myths ran riot. ~ Frank Kermode