High Lonesome Quotes

“Her visits to her former hometown were infrequent and often painful. Pilgrimages fueled by the tepid oxygen of family duty, unease, guilt. The more Esther loved her parents, the more helpless she felt, as they aged, to protect them from harm. A moral coward, she kept her distance.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006

“the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006

“It was a very American story, somehow. 'Lost.' Each community had such stories. Possibly, each family.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006

“Nothing is more lonely than fucking ‘good works.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006