Holler Quotes

“Then came July like three o'clock in the afternoon, hot and listless and miserable.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“He said, "Go and sin no more."

And let me tell you, I was gonna.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I knew what my mama did, but I never feared her ghost.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Spring was coming, either way, even in nasty old March---in like a lion, out like a lamb. That's what folks say. But that year, it came less like a lion and more like a mule with a skittish streak and muscly haunches; one solid kick and that was all. One hard, white freeze and that was all.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I loved you all my life," he said. "Now ain't I a fool?”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Even them that knew better what say those things, just the same; rebuilt his story like a shabby house with good bones. A bit of plaster, a splash of paint; the crags and breaks are filled---the shadows have no hollow place to fall. That's how it goes. The good fills in the cracks. And from a distance it's all new and light and promise.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“She was here and she was ours and she was herself---life in the midst of the dying things, born when the trees were naked and the earth and sky were all the same muddy gray color. The world beyond our window was ugly and dark, and we wrapped her in a pale blanket while she slept between us.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“My brother Junior said there was only one baptism, but I think of how the earth goes to be baptized every year. For what is snow but water? And what is winter but the cleansing death? And then spring comes fit to bursting with new life---comes out from the death of winter like Lazarus from the cave, and heaven and nature starts itself over again.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“You don't got to pull me back up, Preacher. It's just as well you hold me down beneath the waters.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Is it like a place? Where is Tarnation?"

O'Malley said, "Think it's in Oklahoma, Bill.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“He must have seen. But like a child who believes there's a monster in the corner of his room, the truth was too simple and ordinary to bear. I told him I didn't love him, and he watched me like a ghostly shadow on the wall---watched hard for me to flicker, or twitch, or form the shape of a miserable thing. Hoping he might catch a glimpse of the Ozark Woman after all.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“And I'm here to say that time does heal things up---all things, I reckon; but some things...Some things leave behind dreadful ugly scars.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I can recall the way he swung back and forth in the wind, for I remember thinking in my child's mind, Ain't a body no heavier than that?”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Was I to go on living forever in love with a man who had no care for me, and never had? Was that what he wrote in the dedication? I hadn't lived my whole life. I was only twenty-two years old; and was I to love him for the rest of it, miserable and lonesome? Was that what James Sutton thought of Ozark women---women like me? That we just go on and on for want and never do find peace?

He had us all wrong. At least, he had me all wrong.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I just...I got scared is all. What if he's right and the Kingdom is at hand? And I got this hate in my heart for my own husband?"

Jean-Louise sighed, long and weary. "Well, honey, let me tell you---the Kingdom probably ain't at hand. But if you hate the man, it's alright. 'Least you feel something on account of him.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“When you're burning inside and burning outside, hot and crazy, that's the time---that's always the time---when a traveling revivalist preacher-man come to town.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“What in the hell has gotten into you?" Jean-Louise shoted. "Have you been possessed by a roving spirit of stupidity?”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Cause let me tell you, Llewellyn Jackson was a loser.

Bigshot bootlegger with nothing to show for it, thieving off of his own people to the everlasting shame of his dead father.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I got a mind to say yes," I said. "You ask me to marry you.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Honey, if you must swear in the Lord's house, the lease you can do is keep it quiet enough so it stays between you and God.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“It was hard to tell a thing about my new self when I didn't look so different after all.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Well. You look like shit," she said.

"I love you, too, baby."

Her eyes narrowed harder. "I reckon there's nothing to say to all this."

"Don't fret now, sugar. You'll think of something. You always do.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Eliza, if I asked you to marry me right now, would you say yes?"

I crossed my arms. "No, but---"

"Then I ain't asking. I don't want you like this. I want you to love me, and I ain't having you any other way.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Everybody's got their sins, in secret or out in the open. Everybody's got their sins, and you find it in you to stomach looking at them just the same.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“There is a time for morning, Ecclesiastes says, and of course there is. But up in the hills, in the Thirties, morning and joy almost always breathed the same air...Our world was bitter and sweet; more like cough syrup than good whiskey---hits your throat and leaves you shuddering and gagging and wanting just a little more. That's how it was in the holler---sad songs set to banjo-twanged two-steps; hard times and laughter and kinship and the deep, unsettling fear of the Lord. Praise Him so His hand don't turn against you. Praise Him for the good things. Praise Him in the hard times; bittersweet.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Perhaps it makes as much sense Junior's way as any way, to believe hanged folks are still hanging gray and smoky overhead.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I never was much for ghost stories. Never have been too easily spooked. I believed that a body that abides in the Spirit didn't have to trouble over that. What I didn't know then was how human evil drives harder, and closer; how the evil one man will do to another is enough to give you chills and keep you up at night.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“Back then I thought that men, like sins, could be done away with a little water.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I was sharp and thin, a bone-faced girl like all the other bone-faced girls they printed in magazines: Here is the Great Depression. Color of dust; pale brown hair and drab, blue-gray eyes. Color of the sky on days when bad things are about to happen. Color of droughts and heat and withering things.”
― Allie Ray, Holler

“I take it they're given to vulgarity in front of ladies in New York, too."

He grinned. "Oh, there are no ladies in New York."

"Then they can keep their indoor toilets because I'd rather have my dignity.”
― Allie Ray, Holler