There were these deep, serious thoughts I sometimes had to drive from my head like flocks of pesky starlings… — Pat Conroy
There were these deep, serious thoughts I sometimes had to drive from my head like flocks of pesky starlings. I was too pragmatic and impatient to let such thoughts flog me into impotence, yet I sincerely needed a working philosophy on which to hang my hat. After the Halloween trip, one began to form and crystallize without my knowledge, and when I finally acknowledged its presence, it was already a part of me: simply, that life was good, but it was hard; we would prepare to meet it head on, but we would enjoy the preparation.
p. 158Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
More from this book
During the entire period of my banishment and trial, I wanted to tell Piedmont and Bennington that what was happening between us was not confined to Beaufort, South Carolina. I wanted to tell them about the river that was rising quickly, flooding the marshes and threatening the dry land. I wanted them to know that their day was ending. When I saw them at the trial, I knew that they were the soldiers of the rear guard, captains of a doomed army retreating through the snow and praying that the quick, dark wolves, waiting in the cold, would come no closer. They were old men and could not accept the new sun rising out of the strange waters. The world was very different now.
p. 311
Christ must do a lot of puking when he reflects upon the good works done in his name.
p. 49
Lightning flashed around the island; thunder played its favorite game of scaring the crap out of all the shivering mortals on the earth below.
p. 24
