The Prince of Frogtown Quotes

“Don’t worry about what people think, because once it’s all over the people who love you will make you what they want you to be, and the people who don’t love you will, too.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“Finally, I must thank the boy, for forgiving me for all that I have fumbled, broken and lost, and the simple fact that, sometimes, I just don't have good sense.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“That night, he just picked, and they let the liquor run through their blood, circle their heart, and soften their heads, like a pillow, without laying down.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“And, thought it is far too late, I must say how sorry I am for letting my feelings for my father keep me for so long from his people, from my grandmother, especially. I am told she loved without condition, loved my mother and loved us boys. I never gave her a reason. It was just the kind of person she was.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“And, thought it is far too late, I must say how sorry I am for letting my feelings for my father keep me for so long from his people, from my grandmother, especially. I am told she loved without condition, loved my mother and love us boys. I never gave her a reason. It was just the kind of person she was.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“In the Mountains, they cooked, too.
Joe Godwin made liquor in Muscadine. Moe Shealey made it in Mineral Springs. Junior McMahan had a still in ragland. Fred and Alton Dryden made liquor in Tallapoosa, and Eulis Parker made it on Terrapin Creek. Wayne Glass knew their faces because he drove it, and made more money hauling liquor than he ever made at the cotton mill. He loaded the gallon cans into his car in the deep woods and dodged sheriffs and federal men to get it to men like Robert Kilgore, the bootlegger who sold whiskey from a house in Weaver, about ten minutes south of Jacksonville. "I could haul a hundred and fifty gallons in a Flathead Ford, at thirty-five dollars a load," he said. Wayne lost the end of one finger in the mill, but he was bulletproof when he was running liquor, and only did time once, for conspiracy. "They couldn't catch me haulin' liquor," he said, "so they got me for thinkin' about it.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“I'm gonna take her away from you," he said.
He did not sound like he was joking.
The Boy could have fought for her, but the world is full of brave boys who limp home with their lips split and still no kiss good night. He was a rough fist-fighter himself and, my mother said, "could be mean as a scorpion." But my father's reputation, and his family's reputation, prevented a lot of violence in those days. A family that so routinely pulled knives on each other was not one you engaged without at least weighing the consequences.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“Jack frantically tried to herd my white-hot father into the car before he weighed into the congregation and gave the minister the left foot of fellowship right in his Sunday pants”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown

“The Pontiac dented and rust-flecked meant it was 1974, since cars are the way working-class people of the deep south truly mark their time. Listen to them sometime, when they’re roping for a memory – they will find it next to a yellow Oldsmobile.”
― Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown