It’s more important to show him how to be good to people than how to judge them. Silas House, Southernmost

“Strange, how such a small realization can affect everyone's life forever. In movies there is always a carefully staged moment - a big crescendo of music, close- ups of the actors' faces, the camera slowly pulling away to let all this sink in for the viewer...but, in real life, most all of the extraordinary things happen with no more loudness than a whisper.”
― Silas House, Eli the Good

“Now I had seen the grief of the two strongest people I knew. And somehow, Daddy's and Edie's crying made them seem even stronger to me. It was better to cry than to suck it up and go around conjuring hate in your heart”
― Silas House, Eli the Good

“Maybe all the trees were God.--A Parchment of Leaves”
― Silas House

“I wondered if we were put on this earth only to destroy every beautiful thing, to make chaos. Or were we meant to overcome this? Did bad things happen so that goodness could show through in people?”
― Silas House, A Parchment of Leaves

“When he was nearly thirty-six, my brother Jem got his heart badly broken when his fourth marriage fell apart, mostly because his wife never could get used to Boo, who lived with them and creeped her out by making little wooden dolls of her and putting them in the hollow tree out front.”
― Silas House

“I appreciated that Nell was talking to me like a grown-up, but I had no idea what she meant. Still, I could see that the words flowed together like water over a riverbed.”
― Silas House, Eli the Good

“Writing is a supernatural thing.”
― Silas House

“When they lived in Key West Justin thought the Everything lived in the ocean. Sometimes he thought the ocean was God. But if the Everything lives anywhere, it's in a river. Because the river moves along and touches every little thing on it's way. An he thinks the Everything would be quiet like a river. Event still sometimes. The ocean is always moving and noisy. The sky's always changing. But rivers are always there, even when the water has moved on. You've got to find the Everything wherever you are.”
― Silas House, Southernmost

“Forgiveness is the easiest thing in the world, Justin thinks. All you do is just decide to do it, and then it’s done. Instantly you feel better, like pushing aside a quilt that is too heavy for sleeping. Forgetting is the hard part.”
― Silas House, Southernmost

“I wondered if the trees were God. They were like God in many respects: they stood silent, and most people only noticed them when the need arose.”
― Silas House, A Parchment of Leaves

“It’s more important to show him how to be good to people than how to judge them.”
― Silas House, Southernmost

“Learn how to forgive others, including yourself.”
― Silas House

“When you have a child, you have to put things aside, though. You have to live for them, if not for yourself. I was aware of this. I knowed that I could not let myself die inside, so I struggled through and made a way for myself. Most important, I tried to find a way to get joy into my life. I made a way for the possibility of joy. I looked for it anywhere I could find it. I got up early and stepped out onto the porch to see day come in.”
― Silas House, A Parchment of Leaves

“Autumn air is good for the lungs.”
― Silas House, A Parchment of Leaves

“When Clay was little, newscasters boasted that the War on Poverty was being waged in those very mountains, but if the government had fought any battles close to Free Creek, no one in the holler heard the guns.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Surely there is a light in that boy that will never go out, no matter what he has to face along the way. That's all a father can hope for his child, that a little fire will burn in them to keep them going, to keep them strong.”
― Silas House, Southernmost

“Later in my life I would come to understand that history books are the least reliable witnesses”

“But in real life, most all of the extraordinary things happen with no more loudness than a whisper.”
― Silas House, Eli the Good

“Paul told him everything about quilting, things he would never remember, but he savored each word as if they were lost verses of Scripture.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt