"Lightning flashed around the island; thunder played its favorite game of scaring the crap out of all the shivering mortals on the earth below."
Donald Patrick Conroy was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs; his books The Water Is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini were made into films, the last two being nominated for Oscars. He is recognized as a leading figure of late-20th-century American Southern literature.
"I went looking for the presentation copy of The Boo he had given me in 1970. I had never opened it that I could remember, and I wanted to see if he had signed it. When I opened it, I found these eight words written to me forty-one years ago: "To the lamb who made me, The Boo." These words made my whole writing career worthwhile."
"Everything that was wrong with me that night was my fault. I had tantalized the fates by embracing that life-defying trifecta: overeating, overdrinking, and lack of exercise. Im trying to develop the appetite of a parakeet, drink nothing stronger than Clamato juice, and try to do aerobics in a Fripp Island pool as often as I can. When I enter the pool I look as though Im trying out for a part as Moby Dick. Its not a pretty sight."
"I lived with the terrible knowledge that one day I would be an old man still waiting for my real life to start. Already, I pitied that old man."
"Teaching is a record of failures. But the glory of teaching is in the attempt."
"Ive never had anybodys approval, so Ive learned to live without it."
"The full moon hung low, a fresh coin that threw its silver grandly on the water in a ribbon that dazzled for a thousand miles."