“And he goes round with a fat roll of dollar bills, and got this nice farm, and all them fancy machines, and man let his family starve.’ - Louisa Mae Cardinal”

“Number of children fathered got little enough to do with being a good daddy.’ - Louisa Mae Cardinal”

“Lou looked at Davis there praying like God was in his heart and home, while his family remained behind in rags and fear and would have starved except for the kindness of Louisa Cardinal. She could only shake her head.”

“Miz Louisa, she believed in God with all her soul. But she don’t subscribe to church much. She say the way some folk run they’s churches, it take God right out cha heart.’ - Eugene Randall”

“He looked around at the others....They were all staring at their computers, or reading books or newspapers. Not one of them has noticed the weather. Maybe that's how the world was now....Everyone was so wrapped up in his or her own little world that no one ever really saw anything anymore.”

“Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?”

“It had always bothered Tom that women thought they could win an argument with a man simply by appealing to his baser instincts, by holding out the mere possibility of award-winning carnal knowledge. It was the gender equivalent of a preemptive nuclear strike. He thought it unfair and, quite frankly, disrespectful of the entire male population.”