“Hard weather, says the old man. So let it be. Wrap me in the weathers of the earth, I will be hard and hard. My face will wash rain like the stones.”

“Wrap me in the weathers of the earth, I will be hard and hard. My face will turn rain like the stones.”

“Suttree stood among the screaming leaves and called the lightning down. It cracked and boomed about and he pointed out the darkened heart within him and cried for light. If there be any art in the weathers of this earth. Or char these bones to coal. If you can, if you can. A blackened rag in the rain.”

“Lost ye way in the dark, said the old man. He stirred the fire, standing slender tusks of bone up out of the ashes.The kid didn’t answer.The old man swung his head back and forth. The way of the transgressor is hard. God made this world, but he didnt make it to suit everbody, did he?I don’t believe he much had me in mind.”

“Hard people make hard times. I've seen the meanness of humans till I don't know why god ain't put out the sun and gone away.”

“In the spring or warmer weather when the snow thaws in the woods the tracks of winter reappear on slender pedestals and the snow reveals in palimpsest old buried wanderings, struggles, scenes of death. Tales of winter brought to light again like time turned back upon itself.”

“What could a child know of the darkness of God's plan? Or how flesh is so frail it is hardly more than a dream”