Quotes from James Agee

Talking to that fool is like trying to put socks on an octopus!

on D. W. Griffith] There is not a man working in movies, or a man who cares for them, who does not owe Griffith more than he owes anybody else.

and gentle happy and peaceful, tasting the mean goodness of their living like the last of their suppers in their mouths.

I believe nothing. Nothing whatever.

for the other sort of intimate acquaintance

No clamor, only the thick quietude of crumpled talk.

It's hell... Just hell. It's just plain hell... But you gotta go through with it.

At moments I wonder whether those who go, as I do, for a Full Life, don't get their exact reward, which is that The Full Life is full of crap.

Begetting a child is at least as serious an act as murder...

To own your life is hardly good Unless you own your livelihood: To own your livelihood's as bad If, in exchange, your life is had.

Well we can't teach 'em, better pass 'em. Let those eradicate who can Man's inhumanity to man Through teaching boys to kiss the Flag, Keep their rooms tidy, kick a fag, Follow the leader, mind the rules, Blunt and ignore the only tools That interest the half-mature.

That horrid little man!" "What's wrong with him?" his father asked, not because he didn't know what she would say, but so she would say it.

God is not here, Hannah said to herself; and made a small cross upon her breastbone, against her blasphemy.

I can read them now, he reflected. I even know how to say "Sturkeys." But he thought it best not to say so; he remembered how his father had said, "Don't you brag," and he had been puzzled and rather stupid in school for several days, because of the stern tone in his voice. What was bragging? It was bad.

That's my boy," he said warmly. "Six years old, and he can already read like I couldn't read when I was twice his age." Rufus felt a sudden hollowness in his voice, and all along the bar, and in his own heart. But how does he fight, he thought. You don't brag about smartness if your son is brave. He felt the anguish of shame, but his father did not seem to notice, except that as suddenly as he had lifted him up to the bar, he gently lifted him down again.

Yes, for every child, rich or poor, there's a time of running through a dark place; and there's no word for a child's fear, and no ears to head it if there was a word, and no one to understand it if they heard. God save the little children! They abide and they endure.

He felt that although his father loved their home and loved all of them, he was more lonely than the contentment of this family love could help; that it even increased his loneliness, or made it hard for him not to be lonely.

he was warmed by the simplicity with which she got up for him, thoroughly awake.

Now there was nothing to take their eyes from each other; and still, for some reason, they had nothing to say. They were not disturbed by this, but both felt almost the shyness of courtship.

What a heavenly night, Jay," she said in the voice which was dearest to him. "I almost wish I could come with you"-she remembered more clearly "—in whatever happens." "I wish you could, dear," he said, though his mind had not been on such a possibility; frankly, he had suddenly looked forward to the solitary drive. But now the peculiar quality of her voice reached him and he said, with love, "I wish you could.

His first impulse, when he saw the horse and rider ahead, was to honk, both in self-advertisement, warning and greeting, but he remembered in time the seriousness of the occasion and did not do so, reflecting, after it was too late, that Thomas might feel he was snubbed, as if he had passed him in the street without speaking, and he was angry with Thomas for possibly having any such feeling about such petty matters, at such a time.

and every time, he was still more acutely aware of their eyes on him and of the thoughts behind their eyes

Or is there something else you'd rather have?" she asked, her voice a little too gentle. He felt a great dilation in his chest. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed with passion. "Oh, no!" "Very well then, let's see what we can do about it," she said, more than reassured; and suddenly she suspected in something like its full magnitude the long, careless denial, and the importance of the cap to the child.

Now go on to sleep then, son," his father said. He saw that the child very badly did not want him to go away, and realized suddenly that he might have lied about being scared, and he was touched, and put his hand on his son's forehead. "You just don't want to be lonesome," he said tenderly; "just like little ole Jackie. You just don't want to be left alone." The child lay still.