Fathers and Crows Quotes

“But how could he explain anything to them, when they understood good but not goodness, strong but not strength, black but not blackness?

Give us bread! the Savages cried. Heal us!

They were frightened by the consecrated wine, believing that the Black-Gowns drank human blood.

This is the blood of JESUS, said Pere Masse.
Was that a man? they asked.
He was the SON OF GOD, but He became a man to die for us. In memory of his sacrifice, we drink His blood.

At this they drew back and whispered in their language, with many terrified glances. ”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes

“There was no one as good as he at using the ovens of logic to bake agreeable results. ”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes

“As surely as the town of Rochelle is Protestant I can see you now becoming impatient. The covers of my book are between your relentless palms. A single hint of insolence on this page, the faintest shine of gloating over all these delays, and you will slam the volume shut - don't claim I can't predict it!”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes

“My heart weeps tears of blood. I must blot out this outrage with blood.”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes

“We all strive to be icons of what we adore, in order that we may better adore ourselves.”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes

“Do usurers lend their coin to men who truly need it? Do Roys confer their favor on those who would be most benefited thereby? Do Mademoiselles love Cavaliers who have found no one to love them? — Sometimes. Sometimes palm-trees grow in Canada.”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes

“...he was a happy man — the more so because he belonged to a Nation intelligent enough to build a brewery and a cheese-factory in this wilderness, first thing.”
― William T. Vollmann, Fathers and Crows: A Book of North American Landscapes