Lewis Nordan said this quote

There were happy days, with watermelon, and sad days of whiskey.

~ Lewis Nordan

She said, Daddy thinks that all the world's magic is almost evolved out.I thought of Roebuck Lake, its swamps and sloughs and loblollies and breaks of cypress and cane, its sunken treetops and stobs and bream beds and sleepy gar rolling over and over and over, its baptizing pools and bridges and mussels and mosquitoes and turkey vultures and, now in the drought, the gray flaking mud-flats and logs crowded with turtles and sometimes a fat snake yawning its tame old cottony mouth like a well-fed dog in a pen.I said, Is that what the freak show is?She said, Dirty miracles.

~ Lewis Nordan

Alice leaned first one way and then the other, down the line of children. She said, Is everybody understanding this?One child said, The misuse of power is the root of all evil?Alice said, Well....Another child said, There is no justice on the earth?Alice said, Well...Another child said, We are all alone in the world?Alice said, Well...Another child said, The greatest depth of our loss is the beginning of true freedom?Alice said, Well...Another child said, The disposal of human waste is the responsibility of the brokenhearted?These were all phrases Alice had put on the chalkboard after other field trips. It occurred to Alice, hearing these phrases now, that she might have attempted to do too much with a class of fourth graders. She was willing to admit to some excesses.Alice said, Just listen.

~ Lewis Nordan

Roy Dale suspected that Mississippi was beautiful. He wasn't sure. He didn't have anything to compare it to. He hadn't even ever been out of the Delta.

~ Lewis Nordan