Appalachian Fiction Quotes

“May your glass always be full, may there always be a roof over your head, and may you dirty sinners be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead.”
― Jason Jack Miller, HELLBENDER

“The best thing a father can do for his son is love his mother.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

“Men were doomed to repeat the sins of not only their fathers, but all their ancient forbears on back to Cain. That was the true mark upon man, scripted in his very blood.”
― Charles Dodd White, Lambs of Men

“Though the trials of life are never easy, someone to stand with you and help you with your burdens is one of the true essences of living. It is well that two should join together to face life as friends as well as lovers.”
― Micheal Rivers, Moonlight on the Nantahala

“We're all Hitler inside. We're all Christ inside. I'm not keen on the idea, but it's true, isn't it? We've all got a little bit of the devil in us.”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

“Here's how I'll tell you what I think—if you see white smoke then you know I picked a new pope. And if I'm drinking a Snapple then you know I don't give a shit.”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

“Nothing else in the whole wide world matters as much as avenging your sister.”
― Jason Jack Miller, HELLBENDER

“You are not a handgun. More like a pellet gun. Maybe even a slingshot.”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

“It's Coke, my man. You really think I'm going to let you pour any more alcohol into your body tonight?”
― Jason Jack Miller, HELLBENDER

“Sometimes this was much harder than trying to get an alligator in a suitcase.”
― Micheal Rivers, Moonlight on the Nantahala

“The mind of man can only teach what he has learned from others. It is how you use that knowledge that will decide who you are.”
― Micheal Rivers, Moonlight on the Nantahala

“Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through, Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through. He'd lay in bed 'til the morning came, but the devil'd visit him just the same. Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through.”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

“I'm sure you have drawers overflowing with panties the ladies throw at the stage. We saw you guys play down at Mon Brewing a few times. Way to keep the Nineties alive.”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

“Music lets you write your own checks. Don't ever forget that.”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

“Henry,that's how you get rid of fleas. You keep them from laying eggs. You go to war with them.”
― Jason Jack Miller, HELLBENDER

“Yeah, but a hellbender never dies. You ever see a dead one?”
― Jason Jack Miller

“They travel through the heartland, past cold factories and drifty towns, to the old, old mountains slumbering east of Tennessee.”
― Sarah Sullivan, Passing the Music Down

“Every day he wakes up to a grey world. The smell of damp earth seeps through the cracks and corners of the log cabin, windows frosted with the condensation. There are ancient apple trees with sprawling, gnarled roots outside, streams trickling down the mountain all around the home, and a decomposing body buried deep in the woods where the coywolves won’t get to it. Welcome to the holler.”
― Bailey Fouraker, Wolves In The Holler

“The snake watched her with small, black eyes, but Misty wasn’t afraid.
There was nothing that a snake could do to a girl’s bones.
There was nothing left on her that anyone could harm.”
― Ashley Blooms, Every Bone a Prayer

“Dolly’s house was a fifteen-minute drive from Misty’s trailer. It wasn’t a long trip, but there was something about the mountains that made it seem much longer. There was so much more than just distance between them. There were thousands of trees and brambles and vines, endless pounds of kudzu, countless dips and hollows and bumps. There were a dozen hollers between Misty’s and her aunts, and each of them had families and creeks and pets and people of their own. And every one between them added to the weight and the distance so that going to Dolly’s house felt like a great journey”
― Ashley Blooms, Every Bone a Prayer

“The crowd swelled like a lung, inhaling and exhaling, shuffling then still.”
― Ashley Blooms, Every Bone a Prayer

“Misty was a thin slip of gray cloud inside the glass, her features blurred until they disappeared, and she couldn’t even see herself as she nodded and William smiled.”
― Ashley Blooms, Every Bone a Prayer

“This old Appalachia is like a big Noah's ark. I'd rather be on the inside looking out, than on the outside looking in.”
― Michael Lockett

“...She had a body running at warp speed with a brain chugging along at a putter.”
― Michael Lockett, In the Cut

“It feels lonely, left out in the cold. I
long for the caw of crows in the treetops, a snap of a doe in the brush, a
squirrel barking on a high branch to claim his turf. But nothing stirs. Nature’s
no fool, I think. Not like man out here. But, then again, I reckon man’s the only creature to bury his own.”
― Michael Lockett, In the Cut

“It feels lonely, left out in the cold. I
long for the caw of crows in the treetops, a snap of a doe in the brush, a squirrel barking on a high branch to claim his turf. But nothing stirs. Nature’s no fool, I think. Not like man out here. But, then again, I reckon man’s the only creature to bury his own.”
― Michael Lockett

“It feels lonely, left out in the cold. I long for the caw of crows in the treetops, a snap of a doe in the brush, a squirrel barking on a high branch to claim his turf. But nothing stirs. Nature’s no fool, I think. Not like man out here. But, then again, I reckon man’s the only creature to bury his own.”
― Michael Lockett, In the Cut

“On Charles Dickens: Seriously old guy, dead, and a foreigner. But Christ Jesus, did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over. And nobody giving a rat's ass. You'd think he was from around here. (Appalachia)”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead