Annotation on 2023-12-16T03:50:15.000
“Anything,” Mother corrected, smiling again. “Grammar should be stressed until it becomes a habit.”
Annotation on 2024-01-16T00:42:29.000
gentle and kind to every creature on this earth. And, Dad, I would rather be dead than be the kind of man you taught me to be.”
Annotation on 2023-12-04T04:09:05.000
that whole vast infinitude of cultural opportunities beckoned me with promises of enrichment.
Annotation on 2024-01-10T01:55:56.000
of being strong, supportive, wise, and kingly that I may puke if I have to pretend I’m any of those things again.”
Annotation on 2024-01-05T02:00:05.000
Then we huddled and something magic had happened. In the eyes of my teammates I saw that sacred gleam of oneness, of solidarity, of brotherhood, which is the most glorious thing in the kingdom of sport.
Annotation on 2024-01-16T00:11:51.000
I became one of those anonymous Americans who tries to keep his mind sharp and inquisitive while performing all the humiliating rituals of the middle class. I subscribed to five magazines at the teacher discount rate: The New Yorker, Gourmet, Newsweek, The Atlantic, and The New Republic.
Annotation on 2024-01-10T01:57:03.000
twist of rhetoric you have succeeded in putting me on the defensive and making me look like a horse’s ass in the process.”
Annotation on 2024-01-15T23:03:41.000
I was fighting because I live in a country where they put you in jail if you tell them you won’t fight. I was earning my right to get back to Colleton,” he said. “And I’m never going to leave this island again. I’ve earned the right to stay here for the rest of my life.”
Annotation on 2024-01-16T00:13:42.000
When I died, I wanted Sallie to say when she kissed me for the last time, “I chose the right man.”
Annotation on 2024-01-16T00:42:21.000
, Dad, and I want to thank you for that. Because it made me want to be a man like your father, Amos. I want to be weak and
Annotation on 2024-01-05T01:42:36.000
Again, I am overwhelmed with the love of my sister and brother, and of their love for me.
Annotation on 2023-12-27T01:46:53.000
The question had taken her by surprise and I realized Savannah had asked one of those forbidden questions, one with daunting implications, whose mystery predated our own birth.
Annotation on 2024-01-10T03:18:52.000
“My God, Lowenstein. This mousse is fabulous,” I moaned. “I can feel battalions of calories marching toward my bloodstream. I’d like to get a job gaining weight in this restaurant.”
Annotation on 2024-01-13T05:02:20.000
but not much, that I was feeling the most wonderful stirrings of lust for my sister’s psychiatrist.
Annotation on 2024-01-14T02:57:31.000
“Did you enjoy making love to me, Tom?” she asked. “You must remember, Lowenstein, that I’m Catholic,” I said. “I like sex, but only if it’s dark and I don’t have to talk about it later. I’ll feel guilty all day because it was so goddamn fantastic.”
Annotation on 2023-12-25T23:10:23.000
. He was a hard-working and respected shrimper, but his talents were not amphibious; they did not follow him up onto dry land.
Annotation on 2024-01-15T22:48:03.000
ghastly papers of my students, who seemed gifted in destroying all vestiges of beauty or grace from the language.
Annotation on 2023-12-16T07:00:57.000
. But we grew into our task, learned the rhythms of the work, and developed an expertise based on our initial mistakes.
Annotation on 2024-01-06T02:06:25.000
. There was a fruitful exchange between her reading and writing.
Annotation on 2024-01-13T00:19:52.000
In the lowcountry, the smell of the marshlands is offensive to visitors, but is the fragrant essence of the planet to the native born.
Annotation on 2024-01-13T00:35:42.000
. I plan to be not only wild but positively sinful.
Annotation on 2024-01-15T19:11:28.000
. I played good football for the rest of my career at Carolina but I would learn that nature is uncommonly cheap in its allocation of gold.
Annotation on 2024-01-17T04:31:36.000
thought we were southerners and that our love of the land was what made us different from all other Americans.
Annotation on 2024-01-10T01:57:10.000
By some
Annotation on 2024-01-09T03:41:49.000
think my sister thought it was good for her poor redneck brothers to be screamed at about the evils of wearing a penis in the modern world.
Annotation on 2024-01-15T03:34:44.000
The thresholds of my talents were modest and my desire far exceeded my abilities.
Annotation on 2024-01-16T00:01:46.000
“That’s not true,” she said. “I just have a better perspective since I only get home every couple of years. I see things immediately that you can’t see because you’re so close to them.
Annotation on 2024-01-03T03:40:38.000
The sea has always been feminine to me but Florida had softened its hard edges and tamed the azury depths with clarity.
Annotation on 2023-12-04T04:08:33.000
There is no fixing a damaged childhood. The best you can hope for is to make the sucker float.
Annotation on 2024-01-13T01:12:10.000
In the hour it took to finish that meal, I learned that silence could be the most eloquent form of lying.
Annotation on 2024-01-13T05:05:38.000
but not until this moment had my single talent seemed so picayune or cheap to me.
Annotation on 2024-01-04T02:01:38.000
But my racism issued forth from my passionate need to conform rather than from any serious credo or system of belief.
Annotation on 2024-01-15T18:37:36.000
Like Savannah, Sallie understood the power of writing things down.
Annotation on 2024-01-15T22:46:36.000
I taught my English students literature and composition for five hours every day, drilling them in the treacherous architecture of English grammar
Annotation on 2024-01-13T00:23:52.000
He’s too big to be a human being and too dumb to be a hippopotamus.
Annotation on 2024-01-04T02:00:04.000
I could talk nigger talk with the best of them, and had a glossary of a thousand nigger jokes on file to entertain my contemporaries should my loyalty to the tribe ever be questioned.
Annotation on 2024-01-11T03:30:00.000
and I heard the old, fretted menace creep into her voice and braced myself for the assault.
Annotation on 2024-01-21T04:23:15.235
Indisposed,” I said. “I like the way you use the language, Covington.”
Annotation on 2024-01-24T03:43:25.876
When she had finished we returned to Charleston knowing that we had the rest of our lives to learn how to live without Luke. We had years to learn how to fall apart at the seams and to do it prettily.