Southern gentility is evocative to me.
For through the South the custom still commands The gentleman to kiss the lady's hands.
Coming from the cotton plantation, the southern regions, I was brought up with real nice kids, mannered kids, who would go to church on Sunday.
I decided to deflect her attitude by giving a long, Southern answer. I come from people who know how to draw things out. Annoy a Southerner, and we will drain away the moments of your life with our slow, detailed replies until you are nothing but a husk of your former self and that much closer to death.
Southerners have many fine qualities, charm and civility among them, and a sense of the tragic.
In Nashville, if people don't like someone, they say, 'I don't really like him,' then add, 'bless his heart.' In Hollywood, they kind of leave that last part off.
One of the few things I like about Bill Clinton is that he has very good manners. If his momma were still alive, I would congratulate her.
We say grace and we say ma'am. If you ain't in to that, we don't give a damn.
Oh, all southern women say they're sorry. You could do almost anything, bump into some one, don't spread the jam right, you're always sorry. I've had people tell me to stop saying it so much!
I was raised a proper Southern boy.
Growing up in the South, we say 'Yes Ma'am' and 'No Ma'am.' Here in Hollywood, people get offended.
to a Southerner it is faux pas, not sins, that matter in this world.
My parents were from New England. It's very funny, but when I grew up, you always had to say, 'Yes, ma'am' and 'Yes, sir.'
Well, I'm from the South originally. I grew up in South Carolina definitely learning about manners and being proper and having to go to cotillions.
Now, now. Southern ladies don’t French-kiss and tell.
In the South, you don't say exactly what's going on or what's on your mind.
I guess I'm just courtly until people get in my way. You'll find most Southerners are like that.
It was always so hot, and everyone was so polite, and everything was all surface but underneath it was like a bomb waiting to go off. I always felt that way about the South, that beneath the smiles and southern hospitality and politeness were a lot of guns and liquor and secrets.
He had this old southern idea of what a lady should be. A lady should not carry a gun and spend most of her time covered in blood and corpses. I had two words for that attitude. Yeah, those are the words.
It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.
