He told us that most of us would die violently, and those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts.

Ernest Gaines

Categorized in : Would Be Levels Beast

We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave? by Ernest Gaines

We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?

bravery waiting men

I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to writ... by Ernest Gaines

I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.

wanted writing feels

The mark of fear is not easily removed. by Ernest Gaines

The mark of fear is not easily removed.

mark fear

"You going back," she said. "You ain't going to run away from thi... by Ernest Gaines

"You going back," she said. "You ain't going to run away from this, Grant."

dying said running

"What for?" I said. "What for, Tante Lou? He treated me the same way he treated her. He wants me to feel guilty, just as he wants her to feel guilty. Well, I'm not feeling guilty, Tante Lou. I didn't put him there. I do everything I know how to do to keep people like him from going there. He's not going to make me feel guilty."

dying feelings people

I suppose I started writing seriously at 16 years old. I thought I wrote a novel at 16 and sent it to New York! They sent it back because it wasn't novel.

new-york writing years

Now, about that mulatto teacher and me. There was no love there for each other. There was not even respect. We were enemies if anything. He hated me, and I knew it, and he knew I knew it. I didn't like him, but I needed him, needed him to tell me something that none of the others could or would.

dying teacher enemy

All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive... by Ernest Gaines

All writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened.

writing trying past

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

neglect wife writing

What I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion, that old singing, that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being, of my writing.

singing missing writing

When I'm sitting in the church alone, I can hear singing of the old people. I can hear their singing and I can hear their praying, and sometimes I hum one of their songs.

singing song people

Grace under pressure isn't just about bullfighters and men at war. It's about getting up every day to face a job or a white boss you don't like but have to face to feed your children so they'll grow up to be a better generation.

day men war children

In the beginning, I tried to be a more cosmopolitan writer, but I realized that I was a country boy, and I had to deal with things I knew about and where I came from.

boy beginning things country