Tongues of Angels

Many Americans would die naked in the middle of the road before they'd tell you what's hurt them most. But a born Southerner will show you the cell in their heart that burns the hardest. They'll hold it out to you in their bare right hand.
― Reynolds Price, Tongues of Angels: A Novel

Strength just comes in one brand - you. Stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you and keep your hair combed.
― Reynolds Price

Almost all of my really good times have been silent but have had to end.
― Reynolds Price

The happiness of others. He adored them through tears.
― Reynolds Price

Life is short and often stingy; feast the heart with what it craves, short of cruelty, and let the world wonder.
― Reynolds Price

Did I think then, or do I believe later, that the vision was in any sense a direct call to me from God or some other intelligent force in nature? Was it a gesture uniquely intended to draw me near? Near to whom and for what? Am I ready to say, at this late point in my life, that I was singled out in childhood for special attention from God?
No, I'm not. I think it's possible that such revelations await a good many people who are lucky enough, or careful enough, to spend solitary time in feasible places and to be prepared-consciously or accidentally-to listen to a widely available transmission.
― Reynolds Price, Letter to a Godchild: Concerning Faith

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Even now, after whatever gains feminism has made in involving fathers in the rearing of their children, I still think virtually all of us spend the most formative years of our lives very much in the presence of women.
― Reynolds Price

From the age of six I wanted to be an artist. At that point I meant a painter, but it turned out what I really meant was I was someone who was very interested in watching the world and making copies of it.
― Reynolds Price

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