West Virginia Quotes:

The first time I went to West Virginia I was surprised by how poor it was. It was like north India, there's kids running around in bare feet. The white working class has been disenfranchised as well. It's been disenfranchised by the liberal-left as well as the conservative-right. You really have to get people right across America and Britain and Europe and the world as a whole concentrating on the economic issues that affect them, because when you don't have that, you have all these phony, racist and cultural wars, and sexist wars.

- Irvine Welsh

source: Source: www.macleans.ca

topic: Running, War, Kids, West Virginia, Disenfranchised

I think family is very important in West Virginia and has long been so because the mountains made travel difficult in the past, and family members had to depend on each other.

- David Selby

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Thinking, Past, Virginia, West Virginia, Family Members

In West Virginia, we're all family. We know how firefighters and policemen honor their own and we feel our miners deserve to be honored in a similar way.

- Ginger Baker

topic: Virginia, Firefighter, Honor, West Virginia, Miners

You West Virginia girls are one tough breed," he said. You got that right," I told him.

- Jeannette Walls

source: Jeannette Walls (2009). “The Glass Castle: A Memoir”, p.246, Simon and Schuster

topic: West Virginia

When I was incarcerated at Alderson in West Virginia for a five-month term, they had a ceramics class.

- Martha Stewart

source: "Party At Martha's: Stewart's Tips For 'Entertaining'". "Morning Edition" with Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. December 5, 2011.

topic: Virginia, Class, Months, West Virginia, Ceramics

Cause I'm carryin' your love with me From West Virginia down to Tennessee I'll be movin' with the good lord speed, carryin' your love with me It's my strength for holdin' on Every minute that I have to be gone I'll have everything I'll ever need Carryin' your love with me

- George Strait

topic: Country, Song, Virginia, West Virginia, Country Love Song

Growing up in the church in West Virginia, faith is always there. It's part of the fabric of the culture.

- DeVon Franklin

source: Source: www.beliefnet.com

topic: West Virginia

I'm going to come back to West Virginia when this is over. There's something ancient and deeply-rooted in my soul. I like to think that I have left my ghost up one of those hollows, and I'll never really be able to leave for good until I find it. And I don't want to look for it, because I might find it and have to leave." - from a letter to his mother Helen Pancake that Breece wrote in Charlottesville, where he was studying writing.

- Breece D'J Pancake

topic: Mother, Writing, Thinking, West Virginia, Rooted

In Southern West Virginia we live in a war zone. Three and one-half million pounds of explosives are being used every day to blow up the mountains. Blasting our communities, blasting our homes, poisoning us, trying to intimidate us. I don't mind being poor. I mind being blasted and poisoned. There ARE no jobs on a dead planet.

- Judy Bonds

topic: Jobs, War, Home, One Half, War Zones

Because I'm Irish, I've always done an accent. Not doing an accent is off-putting because I sound like me. I love doing an accent. Doing the accent from West Virginia was great, and we had to get specific with it.

- Eve Hewson

source: Source: collider.com

topic: Virginia, Sound, Done, West Virginia

A lot of West Virginia is untouched. It doesn't have as many strip malls, it has these old towns that feel like it used to be how it looked. Charleston has this river that runs through it, and it's really beautiful.

- Sam Trammell

topic: Beautiful, Running, Rivers, West Virginia, Charleston

Our workers comp debt is the Achilles heel of our state's economy, and I firmly believe that in order to create more good jobs in West Virginia this system must be fixed and it must be fixed now. We cannot afford to wait even one more minute.

- Joe Manchin

topic: Jobs, Believe, High Heels, West Virginia, Achilles Heel

It may be too late for West Virginia to save itself from the ravages of Big Coal. But it's not too late for America.

- Jeff Goodell

topic: Virginia, America, Too Late, West Virginia

I mean, I didn't ever watch 'Gilligan's Island' and think, 'Those people are actors.' I lived in West Virginia. Hollywood just felt like this total other universe.

- Jennifer Garner

topic: Mean, Thinking, Islands, West Virginia

Zip codes might be great for sorting mail, but they should not determine the quality of a child s education or success in the future workforce," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. "With common standards and assessments, students, parents, and teachers will have a clear, consistent understanding of the skills necessary for students to succeed after high school and compete with peers across the state line and across the ocean.

- Bob Wise

topic: Wise, Teacher, Children, Workforce, West Virginia

We were growing up in West Virginia. Everybody was poor there in the southern part of the state. It was like growing up in the Great Depression from the stories I hear people tell. Everybody was poor and so we didnt know that we were any different from anybody else.

- James Green

topic: Growing Up, Virginia, People, West Virginia

Im from northern Virginia, but I grew up next to the West Virginia border, so it was hills and farmland. We had that sense of adventure you get from growing up around old farmhouses and lazy, rolling hills, you know?

- Hilarie Burton

topic: Growing Up, Adventure, Virginia, West Virginia, Farmland

Yeah, I spent my teen years in West Virginia, and when I was a kid, in Louisiana. I definitely have that exposure to two different sorts of rural: the South and Appalachia.

- Sam Trammell

topic: Kids, Virginia, Years, West Virginia, Appalachia

I, for one, despite being a pretty solid climate hawk, I am extremely sympathetic to West Virginia and its coal-country needs. I lived there for a year. I've seen it. And the same for Wyoming, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky. They all have parts of their state where that really matters. And I think that home-state constituency issue is a pretty constant one. And I think the problem of extreme lobbying by the corporate sector, which runs about $30-to-$1 compared to everybody else in the world, and the constituent aspect combines to give those industries a consistent advantage.

- Sheldon Whitehouse

source: Source: www.businessinsider.com

topic: Running, Country, Home, West Virginia, Home State

I was recruited by a number of schools including Miami University, University of Kentucky, University of Cincinnati, Indiana university, West Virginia University as well as others.

- Graham Taylor

topic: West Virginia

I grew up down in the hills of Virginia. I can be in Kentucky in 20 minutes, Tennessee in 20 minutes or in the state of West Virginia in 20 minutes. And it's down in the Appalachian Mountains, down there. And it's sort of a poorer country. Most of the livelihood is coal mining and logging, working in the woods and things like that. Most people has a hard life down that way.

- Ralph Stanley

source: Source: www.npr.org

topic: Country, Kentucky, Virginia, Coal Mining, Logging

Imposing excessive new regulations, or closing coal-fired power plants, would produce few health or environmental benefits. But it would exact huge costs on society - and bring factories, offices and economies to a screeching halt in states that are 80-98% dependent on coal: Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

- Paul Driessen

topic: Virginia, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia, Missouri

We have to concentrate back on: Where is the money going? Where's it been going for the last thirty years? How do we start to redistribute the cake more evenly, and give people opportunities? That's as much about poor white people in West Virginia as it is about poor black people on the Southside of Chicago.

- Irvine Welsh

source: Source: www.macleans.ca

topic: Opportunity, Virginia, Years, West Virginia

Five states - Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois and North Carolina - have been identified by the EPA as contributing significantly to Rhode Island pollution. As of 2010, 284 tall smokestacks - stacks over 500 feet - were operating in the United States: needles injecting poison into the atmosphere.

- Sheldon Whitehouse

source: "Good News in the Fight Against Bad Air" by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 13, 2012.

topic: Rhode Island, Islands, Virginia, Tall, Carolina

Voters replaced Democratic senators with Republicans in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, and likely in Alaska, and appear on track to do so in a runoff next month in Louisiana. At the same time, voters kept Republicans in GOP seats in heavily contested races in Georgia, Kansas, and Kentucky. That is at least ten, and as many as a dozen, tough races, without a single Republican seat changing hands. Tuesday's voting was a wave alright - a very anti-Democratic wave.

- Byron York

topic: Kansas, Alaska, Race, Dakota, West Virginia

So, in Kennedy's case, he was a Catholic. And people thought after the Al Smith election and so forth that a Catholic couldn't win in the United States. But when he was able to win in West Virginia, he proved that a Catholic could win, even in a heavily Protestant state.

- Geoffrey Cowan

source: "The American Political Invention That 'Let The People Rule'". "Weekend Edition Saturday" with Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. December 26, 2015.

topic: Winning, Virginia, People, West Virginia

In West Virginia, the most vulnerable people we have are people who get up every morning and go to work.

- Joe Manchin

source: "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace", www.foxnews.com. October 24, 2010.

topic: Morning, Virginia, People, West Virginia

I can assure you that my wife and I - every penny of income we've ever had, our taxes were paid in West Virginia.

- Joe Manchin

topic: Virginia, Wife, Pennies, West Virginia

Come to West Virginia and we'll show you how to live... how to treat people. We're open for business. West Virginia is truly on the move.

- Joe Manchin

topic: Moving, Virginia, People, West Virginia

From a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia Rode a boy with a six-gun in his hand And his daring life of crime made him a legend in his time East and west of the Rio Grande. Well, he started with a bank in Colorado In the pocket of his vest a Colt he hid. And his age and his size took the teller by surprise, And the word spread of Billy the Kid.

- Billy Joel

topic: Kids, Gun, Boys, Wheeling, Colts

I want to talk about jobs and health care and pension security and what we're going to do to stop the brain drain in Ohio and make it possible for our young people to stay here and build a life in Ohio rather than in Pennsylvania or West Virginia or God knows where.

- Ted Strickland

topic: Jobs, Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, Brain Drain

I am a former Kleagie of the Klu Klux Klan in Raleigh County and adjoining counties of the state, having been appainted to this office [by] Mr. J. L. Baskin of Arlington, Virginia, in 1942... It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union.

- Robert Byrd

source: "McGovern Would Oppose Byrd; Rules Out ‘a Racist’ for Court" by Fred P. Graham, www.nytimes.com. October 12, 1971.

topic: Virginia, Order, Ku Klux Klan, West Virginia, Democratic Party

I'm from West Virginia. If you didn't know what was happening in NASCAR, you were on the outside. NASCAR is a big league sport, but it's still also country and redneck.

- Randy Moss

topic: Sports, Country, Redneck, West Virginia, Nascar

Whoever is president, my first priority is the same - as always. I look for what's best for West Virginia and the nation as a whole.

- Joe Manchin

source: "YIKES: A Democratic Senator Says He Might Not Vote For Obama" by Brett LoGiurato, www.businessinsider.com. April 20, 2012.

topic: Virginia, Priorities, President, West Virginia

I fully expect to be able to complete one more campaign goal - and that is to proudly report that signs have been erected as you enter our great state that say 'Welcome to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia: Open for Business!'

- Joe Manchin

topic: Virginia, Goal, Able, West Virginia

Deep down, I'm just a West Virginia hillbilly.

- Brad Paisley

source: "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Virginia, West, Hillbilly, West Virginia

In West Virginia yesterday, a man was arrested for stealing several blow-up dolls. Reportedly, police didn't have any trouble catching the man because he was completely out of breath.

- Conan O'Brien

topic: Blow, Men, Virginia, West Virginia, Arrested

Okay, so. You, Belikov, the Alchemist, Sonya Karp, Victor Dashkov, and Robert Doru are all hanging out in West Virginia together.” “No,” I said. “No?” “We’re, uh, not in West Virginia.

- Richelle Mead

source: Richelle Mead (2010). “Last Sacrifice: A Vampire Academy Novel”, p.196, Penguin

topic: Virginia, Alchemist, Together, Sonya, Sonya Karp

I am happy to be a regional writer. My region is the American West, old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, the human heart, and the male groin.

- Edward Abbey

source: Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.30, RosettaBooks

topic: New York, Heart, Virginia, West Virginia, American West

Violence against women is not random or anonymous. In West Virginia, 88 percent of sexual-assault victims already know their attacker. In my hometown, Alicia McCormick, an advocate for our domestic-violence shelter at the YWCA, was killed in her home by a man doing handiwork in her apartment complex. That one of my greatest advocates could fall victim to something she fought against her whole life was a tragedy that moved me to action.

- Shelley Moore Capito

topic: Fall, Home, Men, West Virginia, Handiwork

Are we going to New Orleans?" "No", she said, backing out of the spot. "We're going to West Virginia." "I assume by 'West Virginia,' you actually mean 'Hawaii,'" I said. "Or some place equally exciting.

- Richelle Mead

source: Richelle Mead (2013). “Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection”, p.1156, Penguin

topic: Mean, Virginia, New Orleans, West Virginia, Backing Out

Wherever there is one job on the verge of being lost, I will fight to save it. Wherever there is one company looking to grow in West Virginia, I will fight to make that growth a reality.

- Joe Manchin

topic: Jobs, Fighting, Reality, West Virginia

That was Sydney Sage," said Lissa. "I thought they were all in West Virginia. Why isn't she with Rose?" "That," said Abe darkly, "is an excellent question." "Because they were apparently kidnapping Jill Mastrano in Detroit," said Christian. "Which is weird. But not the craziest thing I can think of Rose doing.

- Richelle Mead

source: Richelle Mead (2010). “Last Sacrifice: A Vampire Academy Novel”, p.235, Penguin

topic: Christian, Thinking, Virginia, Sydney Sage, West Virginia

Where did she come from, and where can I find one?" "Picked this one up at a gas station in West Virginia, bargain price. Last one on the shelf, sorry.

- Alexandra Bracken

topic: Sorry, Virginia, Lasts, West Virginia, Bargains

I grew up in Palestine, West Virginia, which is mostly a farming community; there aren't a lot of jobs.

- Jessica Lynch

source: "I'm Jessica Lynch and Here's My Real Story" by Abigail Pesta, www.glamour.com. June 3, 2007.

topic: Jobs, Virginia, Community, West Virginia

I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation.

- Christopher Dodd

source: "Dodd praise for Byrd hit by GOP". www.washingtontimes.com. April 8, 2004.

topic: War, Thinking, Virginia, Senators, West Virginia

My father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant the place to go if you really wanted an education.

- John Knowles

topic: West Virginia, New England

New Jersey boasts the highest percentage of passport holders (68%); Delaware (67%), Alaska (65%), Massachusetts (63%), New York (62%), and California (60%) are close behind. At the opposite end of the spectrum, less than one in five residents of Mississippi are passport holders, and just one in four residents of West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas.

- Richard Florida

topic: New York, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware

I think that we need more economic-based solutions to the problems afflicting the Black community, and I think that that's a way to redefine affirmative action. I grew up with poor white people in West Virginia, and I know there's a culture of poverty. I know that I've seen white people perform exactly the same pathological forms of behavior as Black people do when they're systematically deprived, whether it's getting pregnant, doing drugs, dropping out of school, whatever we're talking about. I think that we should have affirmative action for poor white people too.

- Henry Louis Gates

source: "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. October 21, 2013.

topic: School, Thinking, Virginia, Dropping Out, West Virginia

As editor of the largest newspaper in West Virginia, I scan hundreds of reports daily . . . and I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant.

- James A. Haught

source: James A. Haught (1995). “Holy Hatred: Religious Conflicts of the '90s”

topic: Hate, Editors, Virginia, West Virginia, Hate Religion