“I hear the first drops. Like the tapping of a stranger at the door of a dream, the rain changes everything.”

“It almost rained Saturday.The clouds hung low over the farm.The air felt thick.It smelled like rain.In town,the sidewalks got damp, that was all.”

“the way i see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up.”

“I have a hunger,for more than food.I have a hungerbigger than Joyce City.I want tongues to tie, and eyes to shine at melike they do at Mad Dog Craddock.Course they never will,not with my hands all scarred up,looking like the earth itself,all parched and rough and cracking,but if I played right enough,maybe they would see past my hands.Maybe they could feel at ease with me again,and maybe then,I could feel at east with myself.”

“I don't know what I am thinking. But I am alone. I am trapped in the net of the room. In the net of humans. I think maybe I am drowning in the net of humans.”

“And I know now that all the time I was trying to getout of the dust,the fact is,what I am,I am because of the dust.And what I am is good enough.Even for me.”

“Anyway, this time I caught her in the slow stirring of biscuits, her mind on other things, but anyhow, she was distracted enough, I was determined enough,this time I got just what I wanted. Permission to play at the Palace.”