Clay's Quilt Quotes

“When Clay was little, newscasters boasted that the War on Poverty was being waged in those very mountains, but if the government had fought any battles close to Free Creek, no one in the holler heard the guns.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Clay wished that he could piece the story of his mother together in the same way. He might find scraps of her life, stitch them together, and have a whole that he could pull up to his neck and feel warm beneath.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Paul told him everything about quilting, things he would never remember, but he savored each word as if they were lost verses of Scripture.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Her granny used to say,
We've always been poor as Job's turkey and most likely always will be.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“what else could have given him this sense of intoxication, if not the soup of a whole field of wildflowers?”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“It would be nice not to give a damn about anything. People like that certainly lived longer, free of grieving themselves to death.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Being with Alma felt like standing atop the mountain at Free Creek, breathing in the cool, crisp air that seemed to heal him.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“THERE IS A COOL that sometimes comes down over the mountains in the evening. The day slips away slowly, so quietly and secretly that no one really notices until it is gone. The peach light stands like steam along the horizon, changing the shape of things. Night does not come quickly, does not even give a hint of its coming, and for a while, there is just the cool, when there is no night and no day, only time, stretched out like ice. No clocks ticking away the minutes, no movement of the earth, nothing growing or changing.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“A person so full of life couldn’t just up and die; a life like that had to be taken by force.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“He caught a glimpse of what would never become of her, because she was killed that day, alongside his mother and the man driving the car.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“It’s a good thing, being able to find your place in the world,” Easter said.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“It’s a good thing, being able to find your place in the world,” Easter said. Clay drained his”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“AUTUMN SETTLED ITSELF down over the land like a colorful skirt. Dusk came earlier and touched the leaves with sharp breath.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“On the mountain, he was able to recognize the Lord hanging in the trees, blowing against his face.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Autumn settled itself down over the land like a colorful skirt. Dusk came earlier and touched the leaves with sharp breath. The hills were filled with the smoke from smoldering patches of forest fires.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“She had woken up with the song swirling around in her mind and couldn't make it sizzle down her arm and out onto the stiff strings of her fiddle.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“He had spent his whole life listening to stories from the past and now he had his own, and it was slowly building chapter by chapter.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“It would be a story made up of scraps, but that was all he had.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“There were too many twists & turns to this story, too many oddly shaped pieces to fit into this quilt.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“They would catch the lightning bugs that came up out of the laurels lining the creek and then put them into mason jars or wear them as glow rings on their fingers.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“If there had been mile markers on the side of the road, they would have clicked off the years instead of the miles: 1994...1982...1974.”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt

“Easter, I don't want you to die and go to Heaven without having a little fun. The Lord forgives all things, honey. Live, sister!”
― Silas House, Clay's Quilt