My father lost an eye to a snapped cable while trying to rescue trapped miners, though he kept on working for fifteen years afterward.

My father use to say if coal died, the country died. He was right. Our economy rests on the back of the coal miner. If we did not have the black diamonds of the mountains to burn, we would lose more than half of the nation's energy reserves.

When I began to write my books about Coalwood, I was surprised to discover, upon reflection, that it wasn't an ordinary place at all.

Homer Hickam Quotes