“A cockroach stepped out from behind the ketchup, gave me a quick impassive once-over, decided that I was of the Brahmin faith, and walked earnestly across the table on errands of his own. Somebody had left a newspaper on the bench beside me, and I picked it up and swatted the cockroach, permitting his soul to transmigrate into the body of a quartermaster.”

“A good friend once told me that the problems are like cockroaches. If drawn to light, they'll get scared.”

“The next day Georgia left for school before I even got to the breakfast table. From behind his newspaper, Papy asked tiredly, "Are you girls on World War Four now, or is it Five?”

“personally my ambition is to get my time as a cockroach shortened for goodbehavior and be promoted to a revenue officerit is not much of a step up but i am humble”

“At the end of time, all that will be left is cockroaches and Texans.”

“The script sits in front of you. The writer’s translated into ink what is in his spirit and his soul and his mind. Bum. [Thumps table.] I come along, I pick it up, and the ink goes into my eyes, into my mind, into my body, flows around and that part starts to inhabit me. And I know a good part when I see one.”