Quotes from Ellen Foster

Kaye Gibbons ·  126 pages

Rating: (25.4K votes)


“I might be confused sometimes in my head but it is not something you need to talk about. Before you can talk you have to line it all up in order and I had rather just let it swirl around until I am too tired to think. You just let the motion in your head wear you out. Never think about it. You just make a bigger mess that way.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“Have you ever felt like you could cry because you know you just heard the most important thing anybody in the world could have spoke at that second?”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“I could lay here and read all night. I am not able to fall asleep without reading. You have the time when your brain has nothing to do so it rambles. I fool my brain out of that by making it read until it shuts off. I just think it is best to do something right up until you fall asleep.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“I could wake her up and ask have you ever been to the ocean? but I already know that answer. She has not. You can tell. It would humble you I whisper to her sleeping if you for one time stood by something stronger than yourself.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“But they get some comfort out of the made up stories. And if that helps them get along maybe I should not poke fun.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster



“You can rest with me until somebody comes to get you. We will not say anything. We can rest.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“You see if you tell yourself the same tale over and over again enough times then the tellings become separate stories and you will generally fool yourself into forgetting you started with one solitary season out of your life.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“Folks do not want to see a body disappear before their very eyes. Not me at least.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy.

The way I liked best was letting go a poisonous spider in his bed. It would bite him and he'd be dead and swollen up and I would shudder to find him so. Of course I would call the rescue squad and tell them to come quick something's the matter with my daddy. When they come in the house I'm all in a state of shock and just don't know how to act what with two colored boys heaving my dead daddy onto a roller cot. I just stand in the door and look like I'm shaking all over.

But I did not kill my daddy. He drank his own self to death the year after the County moved me out. I heard how they found him shut up in the house dead and everything. Next thing I know he's in the ground and the house is rented out to a family of four.

All I did was wish him dead real hard every now and then. All I can say for a fact that I am better off now than when he was alive.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster


“Someone once told me that writing is an act of faith. Another person told me that forgiving is also an act of faith. That’s true. I think both heal, both are arts. What a fine thing it is to do both at once.”
― Kaye Gibbons, quote from Ellen Foster



About the author

Kaye Gibbons
Born place: in North Carolina, The United States
Born date January 1, 1960
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Cheat? Good heavens, this is an amateur cricket match amongst leading prep schools, I'm an Englishman and a schoolmaster supposedly setting an example to his young charges. We are playing the most artistic and beautiful game ever devised. Of course I'll cunting well cheat. Now, give me my robe and put on my crown. I have immortal longings in me.”
― Stephen Fry, quote from The Liar


“Do the laws against sexual assault not apply to strippers? To girlfriends?”
― Patty Blount, quote from Some Boys


“Was life too short? Of course- there was never enough time to do all the things you wanted to do. And of course not- if it were any longer, you'd appreciate it even less than you already did.

Was it better to live primarily for the good of yourself, or for the good of others? For the good of yourself, of course- it was madness to take responsibility for other people's happiness. And for others, of course- selfishness was just another way to isolate yourself, when everyone knew that true happiness was all about friendship and love.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up


“If you have to say something, you have to say it now. And now more importantly, you have to do it yourself. It's your life, you're the one who dies, you're the one who loses it.”
― Cecelia Ahern, quote from The Year I Met You


“I've been going insane reading my students' papers. Apparently several of them think the Hubble Space Telescope is used to search the universe for hubbles."
~ Ithana Aaronson”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street


Interesting books

Hold Tight
(35.3K)
Hold Tight
by Harlan Coben
Scott Pilgrim, Volume 2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
(51.9K)
Scott Pilgrim, Volum...
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
I Am One of You Forever
(1.1K)
I Am One of You Fore...
by Fred Chappell
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
(16.6K)
The Code Book: The S...
by Simon Singh
Yours Until Dawn
(8.6K)
Yours Until Dawn
by Teresa Medeiros
Birth of a Killer
(5.5K)
Birth of a Killer
by Darren Shan

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.