“When Augustus Townsend died in Georgia near the Florida line, he rose up above the barn where he had died, up above the trees and the crumbling smokehouse and the little family house nearby, and he walked away quick-like, toward Virginia. He discovered that when people were above it all they walked faster, as much as a hundred times faster… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share
“Augustus wasn’t driving the wagon very fast because he had his family together again and all time was now spread out before… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
I've never been comfortable with the idea of using family and friends in stories. Which is why it takes me longer than… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
My mother worked in the white world, but I lived almost exclusively in a black world. I don't think I had ever seen a… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
Those of us with this ancient compulsion to tell stories sometimes start with a single kernel of something. — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
In the summer of 1964, my sister and I went to South Ballston, Virginia, to stay with my aunt and her kids. They passed… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
“You too heavy a man for me to carry...I done carried heavy men and I know how they can break your back. I ain’t… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
“Without all that young stuff, Stamford, you will die a slave. And it will not be a pretty die.” — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
“She went through her memory for the time, for the day, she and and her husband told him all about what he should and should not do. No goin out into them woods without Papa or me knowin about it. No steppin foot out this house without them free papers, not even to go to the well or the privy.… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share
“A man does not learn very well, Mr. Robbins. Women, yes, because they are used to bending with whatever wind comes along. A woman, no matter the age, is always learning, always becoming. But a man, if you will pardon me, stops learning at fourteen or so. He shuts it all down, Mr. Robbins. A log is capable of learning… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share
From my apartment in Arlington, I could see Washington. It was always nice to be near home. — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
Until I can read a story physically, with the eyes, it doesn't seem to exist for me. — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
“God is in his heaven and he don't care most of the time. The trick of life is to know when God does care… — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
I'm fascinated by the awful, awful things that human beings do to each other. — Edward P. Jones Copy Share Image
