Facile with words, Quillen took inconsistent political, economic, and racial positions; but he was "not afraid to bare his soul, express personal views, and even vent scorn and anger."Moore, xvi. For instance, in 1943, Quillen wrote that "the mixing of races violates the law of nature," and he sought to defend "racial purity." Robert Quillen, "Leaders Can't Get Anywhere Till They Tell People What Their Goal Is," Atlanta Constitution, November 1, 1943, 6. For instance, he hated patent medicine, people who put on airs, late night noises (both human and natural), and the cats and jays that killed his beloved song birds.Moore, xiii, 263, 147-48, 260-61, 154-55, 262-63, 317. Although a shy man who refused to speak in public, he became something of a "one-man welfare and relief agency for the poor and needy of Fountain Inn."Moore, xvii, xxi. In 1984, a friend, Lois Woods, told a reporter that if "a child found an empty stocking on Christmas morning, it was because Quillen and his wife Marcelle didn't know about it." [Greenville] County Fare (October 17, 1984), 3.
