“Ree Dolly stood at the break of day on her cold front steps and smelled coming flurries and saw meat. Meat hung from trees across the creek. Carcasses hung pale of flesh with fatty gleam from low limbs of saplings in the side yards. Three halt haggard houses formed a kneeling rank on the far creekside and each had two or more skinned torsos dangling by rope from sagged limbs, venison left to the weather for two nights and three days so the early blossoming of decay might round the flavor, sweeten that meat to the bone.”

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

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

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

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

“Texas humor and Southern humor are pretty similar.”

“I was not much used to women except for mothers. Everything I did, they did different.”

“No god craves weaklings.”

“I, myself, often wished to be spared the expectation of better days ahead or such.”

“I slept for over a full day, as you know, but I won’t say I rested.”

“I FELL DEEP down in there, until this bright light raised me from sleep. Coming out of a pit such as that, you think the bright light could be God or a cop on patrol.”