As I Lay Dying

by William Faulkner

Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sleep because he is not what he is and he is what he is not. Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it nor yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the wind and the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep. And since sleep is is-not and rain and wind are was, it is not. Yet the wagon is, because when the wagon is was, Addie Bundren will not be. And Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room. And so if I am not emptied yet, I am is.

When you have a stroke

made it on the bevel. There is more surface for the nails to grip. There is twice the gripping-surface to each seam. The water will have to seep into it on a slant. Water moves easiest up and down or straight across. In a house people are upright two thirds of the time. So the seams and joints are made up-and-down. Because the stress is up-and-down. In a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways. Except. A body is not square like a crosstie. Animal magnetism. The animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams and joints of a coffin are made on the bevel. You can see by an old grave that the earth sinks down on the bevel. While in a natural hole it sinks by the center, the stress being up-and-down. So I made it on the bevel. It makes a neater job. VARDAMAN My mother is a fish.

This is the best chapter(s) in As I Lay Dying. I was on a flight when I read this and died laughing.

I cannot love my mother because I have no mother. Jewel’s mother is a horse.

I laughed every time "Jewel's mother is a horse" or "my mother is a fish" was said in this book.

I am the chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth. But I be durn if He dont take some curious ways to show it, seems like.

I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.

people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.

One of the best quotes of the whole book.

Life was created in the valleys. It blew up onto the hills on the old terrors, the old lusts, the old despairs. That’s why you must walk up the hills so you can ride down.

it’s better to build a tight chicken coop than a shoddy courthouse,