"There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me. And the other is that then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good."
— Barbara Kingsolver (The Bean Trees)

"come on mama, let's rent us a boat
sail down that gibraltar moat
shed a tear every time we pass tangier"
— Townes Van Zandt