“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.”

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

“Daddy named me Billie Jo. He wanted a boy. Instead, he got a long legged girl with a wide mouth with cheekbones like bicycle handles. He got a redheaded, freckle faced, narrow-hipped girl with a fondness for apples and hunger for playing fierce piano.”

“each day after class lets out,each morning before it begins, i sit at the school piano and make my hands work. in spite of the pain, in spite of the stiffness and scars. i make my hands play piano.i have practiced my best piece over and over till my arms throb.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”