It's hard to think in terms of "moments" with Eugene--our moments were full-blown adventures, productions, excursions, and celebrations!
                                                                                                    Doris Wheeler
                                                                                                    Moments With Eugene...

Mobile's very own "legend" shuffled through the door of Hemmingway's restaurant wearing a pseudo-Nehru shirt, rumpled khakis, a pair of well-worn house slippers, and an overlong jacket that looked suspiciously like a man's bathrobe. Even from a distance I could see that an arm of his glasses had been re-attached to the frame with a scrap of adhesive tape.
                                                                                                    Jan Zimlich
                                                                                                    Moments With Eugene....

I first met Eugene Walter in Rome in the 60s. It was an instant friendship, and a week later he called to invite my husband and me to dinner, adding ever so casually, "Oh, by the way, afterward I'll be presenting my cats in ballet."

                                                                                                    Virgina Adair
                                                                                                     Moments With Eugene...

We picnicked under the grape vines and had our wine with the chicken salad sandwiches. As we were cleaning up to leave, I picked up the now-empty wine bottle, but Eugene stopped me with, "Oh, no, Da'ling, we'll leave that here as inspiration for them," as he gestured about the arbor.
                                                                                                      Sue Hawkins
                                                                                                      Moments With Eugene...

Eugene lived in a kind of fantasy world of monkeys, clowns, curiosa, mysteriosa, eccentric people, which he fashioned into poetry and artistic decorations.
                                                                                                        Robert E. Bell
                                                                                                        Moments With Eugene...

Eugene . . . opened my mind to many things. To the delights of monkeys, baroque music, and fireworks; to poetry and art as celebration; to caprice as the mother of invention.
                                                                                                         Geoffrey Strachan
                                                                                                         Moments With Eugene...

Eugene . . . could demonstrate remarkable knowledge about some arcane subject (say, a minor Italian composer) and yet prove--or pretend to be--remarkably ignorant about some aspect of everyday life (say, re-tuning his radio).


                                                                                                           Charlie Smoke
                                                                                                           Moments With Eugene...

What was remarkable is that I rarely met a single American who had not known Eugene Walter and could not share a tale about this pixilated, garrulous, and perfectly whimsical enchanter.

                                                                                                             Pat Conroy
                                                                                                             Moments With Eugene...

I have pondered the gifts Eugene gave . . . Perhaps the most obvious was his dispelling the common notion of many young people that poets and artists of all kinds tend to be stuffy old people. Eugene was fun.

                                                                                                               Dr. Frances Gardner
                                                                                                               Moments With Eugene...

There is a kind of continental divide: before meeting Eugene on one side, and after meeting Eugene on the other. . . . what was before Eugene was common, and what followed was uncommon.

                                                                                                                Dr. Bert Hitchcock
                                                                                                                Moments With Eugene...

Eugene is convinced that rocking in a rocking chair is an aerobic exercise. He sits on the porch of Termite Hall, the floorboards rumbling. . . "Dear Boy," he says to the nearest visitor, who happens to be about forty, "Would you mind?" Off trundles Dear Boy. He returns with bourbon, nuggets of ice, water.

                                                                                                                 Charles McNair
                                                                                                                 Moments With Eugene...

Eugene jumped up and got a vial of oil of rosemary and began rubbing it on our temples, one by one around the table--to keep the wine fumes down, he said. So anointed, we could drink glass after glass of wine and never get drunk!

                                                                                                                   Betty Rossell McGwin
                                                                                                                    Moments With Eugene...

As we rounded a corner, a brilliant golden bush burst into view. "Look at that," Eugene said. "God sittin' in there, burnin'."
                                             
                                                                                                                      Ann Gavell
                                                                                                                      Moments With Eugene...