Skyqueen

“They named him James, for Charlie's daddy. In the South, you do not have to love someone a real whole lot to name a child for them. It is just something you do, naming the first boy after his grandfather.”
― Rick Bragg, Ava's Man

“Newt thought that it was Charlie who was beating his wife to death, instead of the other way around, . . .. So he reached into his overalls pocket, fished out his pocketknife and flicked out a blade long enough to cut watermelon.
Ava took one look at that knife and flung her body across her husband, to shield him. Then she looked up at Newt, and when she spoke there were spiders and broken glass in her voice.
"Don't you touch him," she hissed.
. . .
Everybody has a moment like it. If they never did, they never did love nobody truly. People who have lived a long, long time say it, so it must be so.”
― Rick Bragg, Ava's Man

“You can dream on welfare. You can hope as you take in ironing. It is just less painful if you don't.”
― Rick Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin'

“If you cannot eat what you want in the South, life is not worth living.”
― Rick Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin'