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Quote by Frances Mayes

“Growing up in Fitzgerald, I lived in an intense microcosm, where your neighbor knows what you're going to do even before you do, where you can recognize a family gene pool by the lift of an eyebrow, or the length of a neck, or a way of walking. What is said, what is left to the imagination, what is denied, withheld, exaggerated-all these secretive, inverted things informed my childhood. Writing the stories that I found in the box, I remember being particularly fascinated by secrets kept in order to protect someone from who you are. That protection, sharpest knife in the drawer, I absorbed as naturally as a southern accent. At that time, I was curious to hold up to the light glimpses of the family that I had so efficiently fled. We were remote-back behind nowhere-when I was growing up, but even so, enormous social change was about to crumble foundations. Who were we, way far South? "We're south of everywhere," my mother used to lament.”

Quote by Frances Mayes

Book:Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir
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Work

Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir

This memoir delves into the author's experiences and reflections on growing up in the American South, offering insights into the region's unique culture and history. more

Author

Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes is an American poet born on April 4, 1940. Her poetry is known for its profound emotion and unique style, which has won her a wide audience. more

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