Blood, Bone and Marrow

Lakes of Fire

“Hell came right along with God, hand in hand. The stink of sulfur swirled in the air of the church, fire burned in the aisles, and brimstone rained out of the rafters. From the evangelist’s oven mouth spewed images of a place with pitchforks, and devils, and lakes of fire that burned forever. God had fixed a place like that because he loved us so much.” —Harry Crews, A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, 1978

A Shirt Full of Puke

“Alcohol whipped me. Alcohol and I had many, many marvelous times together. We laughed, we talked, we danced at the party together; then one day I woke up and the band had gone home and I was lying in the broken glass with a shirt full of puke and I said, ‘Hey, man, the ball game’s up.'”
—Harry Crews, quoted in Getting Naked with Harry Crews (edited by Erik Bledsoe, University of Florida Press, 1999)