Quotes from Jesus Land: A Memoir

Julia Scheeres ·  384 pages

Rating: (14.9K votes)


“It took him a while to figure out that gaining an audience was not the same thing as gaining friends.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“Mother's got romantic notions about toiling the land - or mostly, about her children toiling the land. And with fifteen acres, there's always something that needs toiling with.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“Seems we can never just be brother and sister like in other families. Our whole lives, people have felt an urge to make up special names for what we are. at Lafayette Christian, we were the 'Oreo twins' or 'Kimberly and Arnold' after the characters on Diff'rent Strokes. And while those nicknames bugged us, they were certainly preferable to what they call us at Harrison”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“Life may not be fair, but when you have someone to believe in, life can be managed, and sometimes, even miraculous.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“So we are drawn to graveyards, where we can be close to the dead and ponder their fate as well as our own.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir



“The first time it happened, I laid there marveling at the beauty of it, wondering why God would forbid such bliss when He makes us endure so much misery.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“It's just after three o'clock when we hit County Road 50. The temperature has swelled past ninety and the sun scorches our backs as we swerve our bikes around pools of bubbling tar.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“So much for the famous 'Hoosier hospitality.' When we moved to our new house, no one stopped by with strawberry rhubarb pie or warm wishes. Our neighbors must have taken one look at David and Jerome and locked their doors - and minds - against us”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“Neither of us uttered a word about what happened. We never do. But I can't smudge it from my mind. The farm boys' sneering red faces. The runt shaking the fence. The brown lump of spit tobacco. The anguish in David's eyes. They don't know the first thing about us; they just hate us because we're black”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


“As we paint each other's nails Cinnamon Vixen, I consider telling her how bad things are at home. After she and Dan and Laura left for college, everything got worse. Mother's mood swings, Dad's violence, the name-calling at school.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir



“Many readers say they also feel like outcasts in their hometowns, oppressed by religionists, racists, homophobes, or other pea-brained busybodies. The advice I give them is this: If you feel like a misfit in the place where you were born, move somewhere else. I did. I now reside in the most progressive town in the country—Berkeley, California.”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir


About the author

Julia Scheeres
Born place: Lafayette, Indiana, The United States
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