“Accepting the world’s realities, even when you didn’t understand them, was a basic necessity of existence in Ozark life.”

“Even needing to get to Angel, we couldn’t forget the basic necessity of eating.”

“He emphasised basic truths: you are not dying yet, you have to live your life until you are. Underpinning them was the belief that the grim reality of impending death can be talked away by trying to invest in the present reality of life. I didn’t believe that at the time, but now I do. By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.”

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them”

“Let your feelings flow freely, accept each one of them, know that they are your feelings and no one is to blame for them. Live from your essence and watch your feelings flow; only when you accept them can you understand the story of your life.”

“There are those who hold that to quibble over matters of taste in the basic necessities of life is an extravagance”