Rachel Drenning

“But the look Charles Manson had given him one night, when he’d slammed the cell door shut, would stick in his mind always. It was the stare of a crazed lunatic, someone unpredictable, who you wouldn’t want to trust whether encountered in a dark alley or open field.”
― Eric D. Goodman, Setting the Family Free

“suppose my mother taught me a lesson that day; be grateful for what comes your way and don’t expect too much from life. A cynical viewpoint, some might think, especially in one so young.”
― Catherine McCarthy, Immortelle

“think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long. — Walt Whitman, Leaves”
― Eric D. Goodman, Setting the Family Free

“I had before me an object lesson, I thought: two ways to face the world. One way as embodied by this old woman—simple, unassuming, a kind of peasant dignity, a naturalness inherent in her every move. The other, exemplified by the girl—smartness, sophistication, veneer without substance. I was conscious that I have now opted for the old woman’s way, have thrown in my lot with a creature I would have jeered at a year ago. My present trip to the mountains is indeed a trip to that wellspring of naturalness she symbolized. And I admired my choice: the correct choice, the only choice for a sensitive and moral man in my dilemma.”
― Lee Smith, Oral History