“Washington was a small town run by people who believed that they lived in the center of the universe.”

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

“Living in a small town...is like living in a large family of rather uncongenial relations. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s perfectly awful, but it’s always good for you. People in large towns are like only-children.”

“To be surrounded by sixty people who make your life miserable is to be at a family reunion. But to be surrounded by 600,000 people who make the whole world miserable is to live in Washington DC.”

“Free enterprise runs on self interest. This is socialism and it runs on loyalty . . . if people were going to live by comparison shopping, the town would go bust . . . If you live there you have to take it as a whole. That's loyalty.”

“People fear anyone who differs from what is considered normal, and in a small town the idea of normal can be as narrow as the streets.”