Rural Quotes

“...but these backwaters of existence sometimes breed, in their sluggish depths, strange acuities of emotion... ("Afterward")”
― Edith Wharton, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps

“I am talking of a place in India, at least a third of the country, a fertile place, full of rice fields and wheat fields and ponds in the middle of those fields choked with lotuses and water lilies, and water buffaloes wading through the ponds and chewing on the lotuses and lilies. Those who live in this place call it the Darkness. Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness. The ocean brings light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well off. But the river brings darkness to India—the black river.”
― Aravind Adiga

“Heard from whom? I always hated this small-town-grapevine nonsense. That's something I love about the city. The anonymity. No one knows who you are, and no one gives a shit about your business. It's a beautiful thing.”
― Rachel Harrison

“It was always something in Dixie County. A storm knocked out your power. A squirrel. A blown fuse. The reasons would vary. It made no difference. You were still sitting at home in the dark.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“My great-grandfather Delmar Thomas is buried beside his wife Lula now. Mount Horeb Cemetery near Bell, FL. As a kid I fell into a fire ant mound. Delmar rescued me. I cried. Covered in bites. He just laughed. Told me that is how you learn. This is what I learned.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“There is a bottle tree in Cross City, FL. Covered in locally bottled items. Seems Dixie County had a soda in the day. Ghosts keeping the ghosts away.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“A kid burned down the Scout Hut. That old log cabin in the Cross City park. When asked why he just said he was bored. All I knew could relate. Small town boredom. Rural gloom.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“On a walk down a remote 13th street I discovered a group of young teens with bell, book, and candle engaged in some manner of witchery. As I approached they fell silent. Apparently the possibility of a successful summoning was more terrifying than the reality of being a bored teen in rural Florida.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“Mythologist Joseph Campbell once spent 5 years living in a shack in rural New York where he read 9 hours a day. I did something similar as I was in middle school but I suspect Campbell read much better books. Most of my books were acquired at the flea market in Chiefland, FL where a hoarse voiced lady sold musty paperbacks 5 for $1.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“When I was a kid an older guy sat out front of a gas station in Old Town, FL. His favorite story involved roughing up a couple of guys because "you could tell they weren't from around here." The gruesome details were implied as he'd pull out a straight razor and a plastic bag containing Red Devil lye. "Deliverance", the end of "Easy Rider", and every "wrong turn" horror movie would later make more sense because of those childhood stops for gas and a Yoo-hoo.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“I grew up in a swamp. All who visit see the savage beauty of the place. Those who stay see more. A deep connection. Roots that have grown together for generations. Once as a teen I went with family to a fish fry and sing at Scrub Creek Baptist Church off County Road 351. There a teen girl was very friendly until told to stop. We were cousins. She stomped away – "Is everyone here my DAMN cousin?!" Yes, and we are blessed.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“Southern is a design element these days. A large craft market exists for this Decorative Southernness. Framed art and throw pillows saying – "I Love You Like Biscuits and Gravy" and "Bless Your Heart!" But I've yet to see a "You Don't Look Like You're From Around Here" dish towel. This was the phrase I heard most growing up in small town Florida.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“The quaint side of rural Southern narrative ignores that you'll grow old there and be killing rattlesnakes with your crutches.”
― Damon Thomas, Southern Gothic Children's Book: A Rural Gloom Graphic Novel

“They lived in rural Michigan in the pre-automobile age, and for the most part they had never been fifty miles away from the farm or the dusty village streets; yet once, ages ago, they had been everywhere and had seen everything, and nothing that happened to them thereafter meant anything much. All that was real had taken place when they were young; everything after that had simply been a process of waiting for death, which did not frighten them much -- they had seen it inflicted in the worst possible way on boys who had not bargained for it, and they had enough of the old-fashioned religion to believe without any question that when they passed over they would simply be rejoining men and ways of living which they had known long ago.”
― Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army

“Wind and sun have tanned the growing girl's skin, her eyes resting on green hills are as clear as crystal. Nature is her mother and teacher, making her innocent, lively, and untamed as some small wild creature.”
― Shen Congwen, Border Town

“In the countryside in the middle of nowhere, no one can hear your screams!”
― Steven Magee

“In the middle of nowhere, no one can hear your calls for help!”
― Steven Magee

“I spent a lot of time on the banks of the Suwannee growing up. Cookouts and swimming at Purvis Landing. There was a rope swing on an old cypress tree. Swing out into the dark brown water. The bank was lined with cypress knees. You learned to let go. We went fishing up near Log Landing Road. A remote area. More snakes than people. One Saturday we were joined by a boat. A new doctor in town. He raced up and down a short stretch of river. Blaring ZZ Top "Legs." The boat's wake crashed against the shore. Scared all the fish away. Changed our dinner plans. It ended with a crash. His boat raced into a log floating slowly downstream. He screamed for help over AC/DC "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution." Not help for himself. Help for his boat. It sank into the Suwannee. And the fishing improved.”
― Damon Thomas, More Snakes Than People: A Rural Gloom Graphic Novel

“Once I went to buy a turtle at the Chiefland flea market. They said turtles were only legal to buy for "educational purposes." Before I could buy I was asked to write "For Education" on a piece of paper. With the official paperwork completed we headed behind the booth to get the turtle. There was a capybara snoozing in a kid's wading pool. The capybara was not for sale.”
― Damon Thomas, More Snakes Than People: A Rural Gloom Graphic Novel

“English: "Laws designed for the big city destroy the rural areas."

Česky: „Zákony navržené pro velkoměsto likvidují venkov.”
― Sebastián Wortys

“Remote rural areas have always been the best places to live during war.”
― Steven Magee

“If a Lumbee worldview exists, it radiates from Robeson.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“As the urban world becomes more hazardous, stressful, and complex, there are those who will be attracted to a simpler way of life.”
― John A. Hostetler, Amish Society

“Plantar és un començament i replantar una continuació, i no és fàcil discernir què és què. Un cep que es planta sempre serà un punt de partida, un inici d’una vida. Si es replanta, si es posa en els espais buits d’altres que van morir en vinyes ja plantades, és un punt de partida i un punt i seguit.

Que plantar sigui un començament no deixa de ser també una ficció. És imaginar els anys que vindran, els raïms, les formes que agafaran els rabassons i la visió de la uniformitat de la vinya, però també una mitja mentida.

Quin és el començament, doncs?”
― Júlia Viejobueno Cavallé, Quedar-se al tros

“Aquest disseny implica seguir un ordre meticulós que traça un entramat de línies perfectes. La funcionalitat, que neix de la necessitat i de l’orografia inevitable, dona lloc a una harmonia entre el conreu i l’entorn en què s’ubica. La mirada i l’obra del pagès configuren el paisatge.

El començament, però, ve de més lluny.

La terra conreada és herència d’una civilització antiga de la qual encara formem part. Hi va haver un seguit d’homes i dones que dècades i segles enrere, ves a saber quants, van posar els peus, les mans, l’esforç i el temps al mateix lloc que ara nosaltres trepitgem i conreem. Uns en ser els primers que van començar a transformar la terra salvatge en terra treballada i uns altres, molts, els van seguir. Tots ells en ser els que van marcar el començament, els que van fer les primeres feixes i els primers bancals, els que van treure les pedres per fer els primers marges, els amb què la terra preparada van aprendre a cultivar a base de proves i encerts.”
― Júlia Viejobueno Cavallé, Quedar-se al tros

“La meva realitat és heredada i és present. No m’agrada presentar-me com a pagesa, en part perquè crec que encara em falten moltes coses per aprendre i fer, però sobretot perquè l’ofici, la feina i la manera de viure i de guanyar-se la vida és un projecte col·lectiu que implica la família. D’aquí ve que prefereixi dir que soc de família pagesa i no que soc pagesa a títol individual.”
― Júlia Viejobueno Cavallé, Quedar-se al tros

“Definir la pagesia és gairebé impossible perquè la diversitat del sector és proporcional a la diversitat de persones que s’hi dediquen i també dels llocs on es desenvolupa l’ofici i la vida, però és precisament en aquesta heterogeneïtat territorial que hi ha la clau de volta: tot pagès està profundament lligat al seu lloc. El lloc és un petit regne que ocupa la centralitat de l’ofici i de la vida i el vincle que el pagès hi estableix va creixent progressivament a mesura que hi passa hores i hores i hores de feina, campanya rere campanya, any rere any. La vinculació és tan forta que gairebé es podria dir que els pagesos acaben arrelant literalment al seu lloc. Les arrels que neixen d’aquesta relació —i aquí la metàfora és més científica que romàntica— fan que els coneixements que els pagesos acumulen siguin inevitablement...”
― Júlia Viejobueno Cavallé, Quedar-se al tros

“A la fi és gràcies a totes aquestes persones i moviments que sé que no estic sola, que encara que en números absoluts siguem pocs, a cada racó del país hi ha joves que creuen en la pagesia, que lluiten i treballen fermament per tirar endavant una feina, un ofici i una manera de viure a pesar de totes les traves, dificultats i invisibilitzacions, i que al darrere i al voltant de tots plegats hi ha una xarxa de persones que sigui des de dins del sector o des d’altres àmbits diferents, fent més o menys soroll, no han deixat de batallar per obrir camps i camins que han mantingut ben llaurats i fresats perquè pugui ser així. La unió fa la força i la diversitat, la resistència.

(...)

...Quedar-me al tros perquè és a través de la terra, de treballar-la i treballar-hi, que he trobat la manera de defensar-la, defugint relats imposats i falsejats amb promeses de solucions màgiques i futurs brillants que mai arribaran i que contra el que prediquen el que acaben fent és ignorar-la, atacar-la i sentenciar-la, i perquè crec que és en la pagesia, heretada i en construcció alhora, on hi pot haver la llavor per revertir la decadència que comporta haver oblidat i donat l’esquena a la natura i als llocs que ens alimenten, aixopluguen i expliquen.

De moment soc aquí i ho celebro.”
― Júlia Viejobueno Cavallé, Quedar-se al tros

“The air was fresh so early in the morning, the sun was bright but not yet too hot, there were birds chirruping and a pleasant breeze and a view over green fields and all that sort of bloody pastoral nonsense that people used to justify their misfortune in living outside London.”
― K.J. Charles, Wanted, A Gentleman

“It isn’t just the US: the half of the world’s population that lives in urban areas generates more than 80 percent of global output, while 600 cities that account for just one-fifth of the global population generate more than 60 percent of global output. Urban living is also healthier for the environment as it tends to involve less travel and smaller housing. Add to that the fact that urban dwellers are ideologically different from their rural counterparts: comparatively liberal, international, trade- and migration-loving, in favor of gender equality and gay rights, environment-defending, and open-minded in matters of religion. The city is progressive—and it’s where progress happens.”
― Charles Kenny, The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease