“If I dont go will you go anyways?John Grady sat up and put his hat on. I'm already gone, he said.”

“I didn't mean I'd seen everything, John Grady said.I know you didn't.I just meant I'd seen some things I'd as soon not of.I know it. There's hard lessons in this world. What's the hardest? I dont know. Maybe it's just that when things are gone they're gone. They aint comin back. Yessir.”

“He was just hungry, Papa. He's going to die.He's going to die anyway.He's so scared, Papa.The man squatted and looked at him. I'm scared, he said. Do you understand? I'm scared.The boy didn't answer. He just sat there with his head down, sobbing.You're not the one who has to worry about everything.The boy said something but he couldn't understand him. What? He said.He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one.”

“John Grady looked at the table. The paper cat stepped thin and slant among the shapes of cats thereon. He looked up again. Yessir, he said. Just me and him.”

“He woke whimpering in the night and the man held him. Shh, he said. Shh. It's okay.I had a bad dream.I know.Should I tell you what it was?If you want to.I had this penguin that you wound up and it would waddle and flap its flippers. And we were in that house that we used to live in and it came around the corner but nobody had wound it up and it was really scary.Okay.It was a lot scarier in the dream.I know. Dreams can be really scary.Why did I have that scary dream?I dont know. But it's okay now. I'm going to put some wood on the fire. You go to sleep.The boy didnt answer. Then he said: The winder wasnt turning.”

“People will tell you it was Vietnam brought this country to its knees. But I never believed that. It was already in bad shape. Vietnam was just the icin on the cake. We didn't have nothin to give to em to take over there. If we'd sent em without rifles I dont know as they'd of been all that much worse off. You can't go to war like that. You cant go to war without God. I dont know what is goin to happen when the next one comes. I surely dont.”

“Ive seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away.”