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1408042 felt foolish and wondered if I had entered that self-deluded stage in an aging man's life when others have to protect him from knowledge James Lee Burke
f1b4429 about himself. James Lee Burke
f485ea9 The band played "La Jolie Blon" a second time. For me, there is no more haunting ballad in the world. Its origins go back to the eighteenth century, but the rendition by Harry Choates is the one that never leaves you." James Lee Burke
cb3e0fe Why don't you try to make me feel bad? James Lee Burke
54b7ad4 a novel by Ron Hansen titled The Kid, the best story I ever read about the Lincoln County cattle wars. James Lee Burke
7a82d79 If anyone tells you he's from New Orleans and doesn't drink, he's probably not from New Orleans. Louisiana is not a state; it's an outdoor mental asylum in which millions of people stay bombed most of their lives. That's not an exaggeration. Cirrhosis is a family heirloom. James Lee Burke
1d13fb6 thankful James Lee Burke
5fb6927 for anyone? James Lee Burke
61eb881 he had kept encased in glass hanging from an James Lee Burke
330458a Mortality is not kind, and do not let anyone tell you it is. James Lee Burke
9021c9d Like many my age, I believe people in groups are to be feared and that arguing with others is folly and the knowledge of one generation cannot be passed down to the next. James Lee Burke
bcf4d5e She was one of those women who seemed to choose solitude and plainness over beauty, and anger over happiness. James Lee Burke
6e63caf Louisiana is not a state; it's an outdoor mental asylum in which millions of people stay bombed most of their lives. That's not an exaggeration. Cirrhosis is a family heirloom. James Lee Burke
116b8b6 there are moments when we understand that the earth and the sky and the presences that may lie behind them are always with us. James Lee Burke
e718d7a while you're laying off the hooch and working the program, your disease is doing push-ups and waiting for the day you slip. You can ease back into the dirty boogie or hit the floor running, but I promise you, the electric tiger, or your version of it, will come back with a roar. James Lee Burke
31c65d3 When I closed my eyes, a lantern lit up the inside of my head, as if I had punched a hypodermic loaded with morphine into my arm. James Lee Burke
3b1efe1 one of the basic tenets of A.A.--that there is no possession more valuable than a sober sunrise, and any drunk who demands more out of life than that will probably James Lee Burke
417b076 But as William Faulkner said, and as I was about to learn, the past is not only still with us, the past is not even the past. The warning call from Wally, James Lee Burke
29a732a arguing with others is folly and the knowledge of one generation cannot be passed down to the next. Those may seem cynical sentiments, but there are certain truths you keep inside you and do not defend lest you cheapen and then lose them altogether. James Lee Burke
036e1a1 I could see the uncertainty, the fear about her job, her paycheck, her relationship with her boss, the prospect of offending people with power and authority over others, the dark figure sitting in the shadows at the end of the bar when it's closing time. I wondered how many people would understand her frame of reference. James Lee Burke
6f096eb Get a lot of gone between you and this situation. James Lee Burke
79f3dda Wars of enormous importance are fought in places nobody cares about. James Lee Burke
ae1ff30 Sometimes if you listen, you can hear the earth stop, like it's waiting for you to catch up with it. Like it's your friend and it wants you to be at peace with it. James Lee Burke
58474d5 Alcoholism is not a disease here but a venerated family heirloom. James Lee Burke
198c411 Sometimes the father poured a sack full of dry rice on the floor and made Clete kneel on the kernels until sunrise; sometimes he sat on the side of the bed and gently touched Clete's face with a hand that was as callused as a carpenter's; sometimes he lay down beside Clete and wept as a child would. James Lee Burke
2ef4a5e Louisiana is not a state; it's an outdoor mental asylum in which millions of people stay bombed most of their lives. James Lee Burke
e06a9fa But a line sergeant told me something I never forgot. 'Don't think about it before it happens, and don't think about it when it's over. James Lee Burke
8acba2a The wind becomes your indispensable ally. When the trees and undergrowth and sometimes the elephant grass begin to thrash, the object that does not move or the shadow that remains like a tin cutout becomes the entity that is out there in the darkness, preparing to take your life. Except in this case, the presence on James Lee Burke
6c0973a But as John Steinbeck had said long ago, we had come to fear a man with a hole in his shoe. James Lee Burke
9eee765 Instead, he lived inside his loneliness James Lee Burke
566a895 A man is what he does. Titles are a distraction created to deceive obtuse people. James Lee Burke
aeee487 These thoughts robbed the light from my eyes, James Lee Burke
c18cdc0 gandy dancers James Lee Burke
66a226c the crowd, bathed in light, his posture and trim James Lee Burke
e23beea The woman considered the wisest person in old New Orleans was a witch by the name of Marie LeVeau. James Lee Burke
4e0e7dd crowd again. "I think we blew an opportunity. But maybe" James Lee Burke
fce2fc0 I didn't mind being alone. Solitude and peace with oneself are probably the only preparation one has for death. James Lee Burke
18f6905 about voices that can cry out for help in our sleep. James Lee Burke
3d98a6a money and money and money, the one item that human beings will go to any lengths to acquire. James Lee Burke
6142766 PEOPLE ARE WHAT they do, not what they think, not what they say. James Lee Burke
056ccee Sometimes when that kind of evil comes into our lives, we can't explain it, so we blame it on God or ourselves. In both cases we're wrong. Maybe it's time you let yourself out of prison. James Lee Burke
742b275 At age nineteen I did not want to accept the possibility that a man's murder could be treated with the social significance of a hangnail that had been snipped off someone's finger. James Lee Burke
c9280fd We are the sum total of what we have done and where we have been, and I sincerely believe that in many ways the world in which I grew up was better than the one in which we live today. James Lee Burke
86e70e3 As a police officer it has been my experience that pedophiles are able to operate and stay functional over long periods of time and victimize scores, even hundreds, of children, because no one wants to believe his or her own intuitions about the symptoms in the perpetrator. James Lee Burke