“I have a gift for enraging people, but if I ever bore you it will be with a knife.”— Harold Brodkey
“Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine.”— Preston Brooks
“She was a beautiful, innocent creature. What'd she ever do to you? You fucking killed her!”— Joe Pantoliano
“The only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, measure it, sound its depths and go down into it.”— Cesare Pavese
“I have been accused of being a ‘hater.’ When I see a rattlesnake poised to strike, I don’t wait for it to bite me and then build a hospital in its honor.”— Westbrook Pegler