“He seems to be giving his people a (mostly) gently worded lecture on their lack of willingness to work even when it appears almost pointless to do so. For that reason, the book should have been titled Hillbilly Reprimand, because Vance doesn't want to mourn his hillbilly family. He wants to make them good proletarians like they allegedly were in the twentieth century.”
Source: Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
“In Appalachia, everyone has a fierce granny story.”
Source: Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
“Then Penny turned off the television, sighed, and said, “I swear that man’s corn bread ain’t done in the middle.”
Source: Every Bone a Prayer
“Grandma saw our red dog road as a place where I might fall down and get hurt.
But I knew if I did I'd get back up.
And that red dog road would lead me to every place I would ever go in my lifetime.”
Source: Running on Red Dog Road: And Other Perils of an Appalachian Childhood
“She heard it from her friend Sax's cousin that lived in Northern Virginia. Kids up there evidently had brains coming out of their ears, to the extent of needing to meet up with other kids for brain-to-brain combat.”
Source: Demon Copperhead
“And what exactly is a frog hair, Ms. Monroe?”
Source: Revealed Truth: A Journey From Fear to Faith
“Her girlhood was spent in graceless toil and crowned by an early marriage. Wasted by a quarter-century of childbearing, she saw a row of graves dug for her children. Often she survived as a widow to fend for the remainder of her brood. She could rarely influence the impetuous decisions of her husband and sons, and, never far from the family graveyard, mourned through long years the results of their errors.”
Source: Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area
“If reading makes you happy, do it. Whatever makes your heart sing and brings you joy, do that too.”
“It wasn't my fault, yet I could have prevented it.”
“Appalachia is often portrayed as a place separate and apart from the rest of America. Among other things, this allows Americans to absolve themselves of any accountability or relation. But Appalachia is America, even if those who live outside the region do not want to admit it.”
Source: The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal