Change, When It Comes, Cracks Everything Open.

One Of The Strengths I Derive From My Class Background Is That I Am Accustomed To Contempt.

Fiction Is The Great Lie That Tells The Truth

And Of Course These Days I Feel Like There Is A Nation Of Us - Displaced Southerners And Children Of The Working Class. We Listen To Steve Earle, Mary J. Blige, And K.d. Lang. We Devour Paperback Novels And Tell Evil Mean Stories, Value Stubbornness Above Patience And A Sense Of Humor More Than A College Education. We Claim Our Heritage With A Full Appreciation Of How Often It Has Been Disdained. And Let Me Promise You, You Do Not Want To Make Us Angry.

It Ain't That You Get Religion. Religion Gets You And Then Milks You Dry. Won't Let You Drink A Little Whiskey. Won't Let You Make No Fat-assed Girls Grin And Giggle. Won't Let You Do A Damn Thing Except Work For What You'll Get In The Hearafter. I Live In The Here And Now.

Stories Are The One Sure Way I Know To Touch The Heart And Change The World.