Joshie

“Can’t have an active hooker going to churches. She might recognize a john in the pews, I guess.”
― Ruth Coker Burks, All The Young Men

“I'm here," I'd say. And I'd listen to them cry for an hour, because they couldn't get it out or they didn't know how. "It's okay, just go ahead and cry. And if you can talk then you can talk. And if you can't, well, you know, you let me know when you want to hang up because I won't.”
― Ruth Coker Burks, All The Young Men

“He wanted me to know he thought I was getting away with something wrong. I thought about the time Billy was sick and said he wanted strawberries. How Paul asked him, "Do you want them cold or room temperature? Cooked down or raw? Narrow it down, because whatever you want, I'll get it for you." Anything Billy wanted, Paul got, whatever it took. And this pathetic excuse of a man had no idea what that kind of devotion meant, and he didn't deserve an answer. The denial of real love-- *that* was the perversion.”
― Ruth Coker Burks, All The Young Men

“Perhaps each man had his moment during the day when his vision came, a vision not unlike the one before me.”
― Sam Keith, One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey