“Never trust an ugly woman. She's got a grudge against the world,' said Grandma who was no oil painting herself.”

“Grandma, how old is she?""Oh I don't know." Grandma said. "You'd have to cut off her head and count the rings in her neck.”

“That meant I could come back whenever I could manage it. And she was telling me to go. She knew the decision was too big a load for me to carry by myself. She knew me through and through. She had eyes in the back of her heart.”

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

“Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer.”

“And I'll tell you something else for free. If you set a foot over that doorsill, I'll wring your red neck.”

“Blue lightning flashed in the kitchen, and for a split second you could see every calendar on the wall in there. Than an almighty explosion like the crack of doom. She'd rolled a cherry bomb across the floor, and it went off right under the eight feet of the Cowgill brothers, the three big bruisers and Ernie.”