Quotes from Milkweed

Jerry Spinelli ·  208 pages

Rating: (21.8K votes)


“When you own nothing, it's easy to let things go.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“Who are you?'
I didn't understand the question.
I'm Uri', he said. 'What's your name?'
I gave him my name. 'Stopthief.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“He tapped my chest. 'Happy is here.' He tapped his own chest. 'Here.'
I looked down past my chin. 'Inside?'
'Inside.'
It was getting crowded in there. First angel. Now happy. It seemed there was more to me than cabbage and turnips.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“Some nights, we were a city of two.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“So," he said, "we ourselves will be the candle flames." He put his hands on his chest. "Feel your hearts, how warm they are.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed



“Happy". I had not heard that word since Mr. Milgrom spoke it at the last Hanukkah. I asked him the question that had been on my mind since then. "Tata, what is happy?"
He looked at me and at the ceiling and back to me.
"Did you ever taste an orange?" he said. ”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“They don't live here. They live in Heaven.'
Where's that?'
I don't know,' I said. 'Enos says it's right here, on this side of the wall, but I never saw an angel over here. Kuba says it's in Russia. Olek says Washington America.'
What's Washington America?'
Enos says it's a place with no wall and no lice and lots of potatoes.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“You are what you are"
"Which is what? I wondered”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“I thought of the stone angel. I pictured the snow falling over it, two classes of snow rising on the top of its wings. So silent, the both of them, the angel and the snow. I pretended I was the stone angel. I close my eyes and pretended as hard as I could, and after a while I was convinced I could feel wings sprouting from my shoulders. I wanted to look, to see my wings, but I was an angel stone, so I could not move.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“I loved his goatee even more than his mustache. It was so soft and white. I wanted to rub my face in it. I wanted to climb inside it and live there and peek out.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed



“The louder the babies screamed, the brighter the lights.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


“You" - he pointed at me - "are the black pearl.”
― Jerry Spinelli, quote from Milkweed


About the author

Jerry Spinelli
Born place: in Norristown, PA, The United States
Born date February 1, 1941
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The pain flooded in again. It was always there, of course. Through the shaking hands and slapping of the backs, the grief stayed by his side, tapping Griffin on the shoulder, whispering in his ear, reminding him that they were partners for life.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Tell No One


“I don't know if you realize it or not, but your sudden devotion to her is creepy.”
― Melissa Marr, quote from Fragile Eternity


“Highland werewolves had a reputation for doing atrocious and highly unwarranted *things*, like wearing smoking jackets to the dinner table.”
― Gail Carriger, quote from Soulless


“...[F]inding the end of the path [is] not quite as important as the journey to getting there.”
― Carrie Ryan, quote from The Forest of Hands and Teeth


“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
― Napoleon Hill, quote from Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century


Interesting books

Cry, the Beloved Country
(56.5K)
Cry, the Beloved Cou...
by Alan Paton
The 5th Wave
(318.5K)
The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey
Snow Crash
(198K)
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
The Summoning
(141.6K)
The Summoning
by Kelley Armstrong
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
(360.2K)
World War Z: An Oral...
by Max Brooks
Crown of Midnight
(214.6K)
Crown of Midnight
by Sarah J. Maas

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.