“Life in New Orleans is all about making the present--this moment, right now--as pleasant as possible. So New Orleanians, by and large, aren't tortured by the frenzy to achieve, acquire, and manage the unmanageable future. Their days are built around… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“The place looked more like a genteel horse farm than the roar-and-fume venues where they usually played. Vast, grassy ranges stretched in every direction,… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“Anybody could rise above anything in America. ... No, they can't, Marie said, from the backseat. How was I supposed to break out of… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“That was the point of Mardi Gras, was it not? To serve and honor all the people, to bring into hard lives a touch… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“Other people's children went off to college, which for years Ronald had interpreted as a positive thing. Lately, though, he wasn't so sure. The… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“But this home over here: it needed paint but had flowers neatly planted all the way around it. That one over there had a… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“The first time I saw Marcey Parker she was happily firing a submachine gun through a window.” — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“In New Orleans, no matter how much money you had in the bank, you looked on poverty every day.” — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“Life in New Orleans is all about making the present--this moment, right now--as pleasant as possible. So New Orleanians, by and large, aren't tortured… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“Americans, whether armed or not, were still looking everywhere but at social class when parsing the texture of their lives. It wasn’t so much… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“New Orleanians are notoriously late showing up, if they show up at all, because by and large they don't keep calendars. Calendars are tools… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
