The Mississippi Book of Quotations brings together the artistry and cadences of the world s greatest storytellers. It blends powerful observations on love, truth, lies, race, women, war, humor, failure, fear, humility, evil, politics, religion, law, the blues, violence, drinking, death, endurance, and sacrifice the wide breadth of themes and emotions that make up life well lived and poorly lived. David Crews has compiled this collection of quotations from, and about, Mississippi, available from Nautilus Publishing this fall. The volume, called enriching, inspiring, and outrageous, includes quotations from writers, musicians, sports heroes, civil rights icons, and everyday Mississippians. There are searing insights, homespun wisdom, banal absurdities, and raucous humor from over 250 observers including Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Fannie Lou Hamer, Oprah Winfrey, Elvis Presley, Archie Manning, Morgan Freeman, and John Grisham. As Crews says in his introduction to the book, Mississippi, a fiercely complex land, is both mesmerizing and baffling. Our country s most impoverished state is undeniably our richest when it comes to writing, lyrics, and stories. Crews The Mississippi Book of Quotations takes the best of these and brings them together in a volume that is sure to be a treasure for any Mississippian. Mark Salzman, bestselling author of Iron & Silk, has expressed a wish that this collection finds its way into every public and private library, digital reading device, and bathroom in America. If only Oscar Wilde one of the most quotable people who ever lived could be brought back to life and presented with this volume as a welcome back gift! He would surely treasure it and go on to declare Mississippi the true heartland of America. The quotes range from the sublime to the absurd; the noble to the wicked; the deliciously ironic to the utterly sincere and profound. I hope this collection finds its way into every public and private library, digital reading device, and bathroom in America. --Mark Salzman, Bestselling author of Iron & Silk Among those at the top of my hero list is David Crews. Extraordinary in most every measurable way smart, courageous, disciplined, funny, spiritual, loyal, straightforward and totally honest. His collection of quotations is enriching and, to some extent, a reflection of his character and personality. --Robert Khayat, Chancellor Emeritus, The University of Mississippi David Crews has spent a lifetime collecting these quotes like some people collect baseball cards. I can't stop reading these quotes entertaining, inspiring, outrageous. This book features a mixture of writers, intellectuals, larger-than-life personalities, sports stars and buffoons. Mississippians have always had a way with words, and David Crews has captured some of the best. This is Mississippi s answer to Bartlett s, except a lot more fun to read and less pretentious. Reading The Mississippi Book of Quotations is like having a Who s Who of Mississippians over for dinner and getting to hear them utter their most memorable words. --Charles Overby, Former Chairman & CEO of the Freedom Forum David Crews has captured violent federal fugitives, earned a Phi Beta Kappa key, run forty triathlons, climbed the tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere, produced an Emmy Award-winning documentary, helped raise $2 million for a children s hospital, worked to secure progressive education reform in the state of Mississippi, and hiked the entire 450 miles of the Natchez Trace (he is thought to be the first person to walk the trail since the 1800s). He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his wife, children, and five dogs.