That Old Ace in the Hole Quotes

“NPR faded from the radio in a string of announcements of corporate supporters, replaced by a Christian station that alternated pabulum preaching and punchy music. He switched to shit-kicker airwaves and listened to songs about staying home, going home, being home and the errors of leaving home.”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole

“Phrases offered to the grief-stricken, such as “time heals all wounds” and “the day will come when you reach closure” irritated him, and there were times when he sat silent, seeming half-buried in some sediment of sorrow.

“Closure? When someone beloved dies there is no ‘closure.’”

He disliked television programs featuring tornado chasers squealing “Big one! Big one!” and despised the rat-infested warrens of the Internet, riddled with misinformation and chicanery. He did not like old foreign movies where, when people parted, one stood in the middle of the road and waved. He thought people with cell phones should be immolated along with those who overcooked pasta. Calendars, especially the scenic types with their glowing views of a world without telephone lines, rusting cars or burger stands, enraged him, but he despised the kittens, motorcycles, famous women and jazz musicians of the special-interest calendars as well.

“Why not photographs of feral cats? Why not diseases?” he said furiously. Wal-Mart trucks on the highway received his curses and perfumed women in elevators invited his acid comment that they smelled of animal musk glands. For years he had been writing an essay entitled “This Land Is NOT Your Land.”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole

“cowboy walks into a bar, the place is almost empty, and he orders a beer. The bartender brings it to him and the cowboy says, ‘Where is everbody?’ “The bartender says, ‘Gone to the hangin.’ “The cowboy says ‘Hangin? Who are they hangin?’ “‘Brown Paper Pete,’ says the bartender. “‘That is a unusual name,’ says the cowboy. “‘Tell you what,’ says the bartender. ‘Call him that because he wears a brown paper hat, brown paper shirt, brown paper trousers, brown paper boots.’ “‘Dang!’ says the cowboy. ‘That’s weird. What are they hangin him for?’ “‘Rustlin,’ says the bartender.”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel

“It was a roaring spring morning with green in the sky, the air spiced with sand sagebrush and aromatic sumac. NPR faded from the radio in a string of announcements of corporate supporters, replaced by a Christian station that alternated pabulum preaching and punchy music. He switched to shit-kicker airwaves and listened to songs about staying home, going home, being home and the errors of leaving home.”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel

“for most of us it’s a matter of doing the best we can with what we’ve got and who we are.”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel

“I’m not exactly rich. In fact we’re poor. The car isn’t my car and my uncle runs a kind of junk shop and that’s where the shoes came from. I just don’t know what possibilities are best for me. I mean, should I go back to school or what? I don’t think I’m going to be a hog farm site scout much longer. I think Mr. Cluke is going to fire me.” “I heard the name Jim Skin,” the old man said. “Big fool. He’s part Cherokee and lies about it. His dad was half-Cherokee and he lied about it. The Skins are liars.” Bob could agree with him. “But,” said Brassleg, “there’s ways to make even a liar get honest.” “I wish I knew those ways,” said Bob. “This not-knowing thing is a young man’s question, to find out who and what and where. But you are lucky. There are chances for you, a white young man. How you like it on the reservation, forty to eighty-five percent unemployment, no jobs at all, no money to get out, no school, nothing but get drunk, make babies, use the ADC check for bottle? Young men there do not think, What am I going to be in my life? Answer: a drunk, die young and miserable, leave damaged chirdren behind. They think, How long will I live?”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel

“Simplicity, moderation, stability, prayer, work, responsibility and study.”
― Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel