“Towns [in the Midwest] with immigrants are growing. Towns without immigrants are shrinking. It's as simple as that.”

“...the Midwest is coping with a twenty-first-century problem [globalization] with a nineteenth-century political and social structure [relying on state and city solutions rather than regional solutions].”

“I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches.”

“Let me make sure I have this straight. The cavalry just now rode into town and it's a Czech Gypsy porn-star zombie killer. Have I got that right?”

“Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”

“A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.”

“... Well, some day i'm going to get in with that wild artistic group. It's the only thing that makes this town different.""The 'wild artistic group,' as you put it, has an average age of fifty-seven, and most of us have heart disease and bladder trouble...”