Constance Rourke

“The backwoodsman was afoot and on horseback, a rover, a gambler, a sharp-shooter, a great laugher.”

“Exaggeration is a universal human trait, but it has been noted that the American has a peculiar and powerful gift for it.”

“They were all bent upon an inner life, and the external world was a pageant.”

“His comic triumph was to create a baffling stillness.”

“From the beginning the American has been a wanderer.”

“Laughter produced the fabric of relief.”

“A genuine culture is recognizable by the fact that it is not a monolithic structure but a complex of trends and forces.”

“The arts do not create a culture; they are its product.”