Quotes from One Crazy Summer

“We all have our la-la-la song. The thing we do when the world isn't singing a nice tune to us. We sing our own nice tune to drown out ugly.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“It was a strange, wonderful feeling. To discover eyes upon you when you expected no one to notice you at all.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“A name is important. It isn't something you drop in the litter basket or on the ground. Your name is now people know you. The very mention of your name makes a picture spring to mind, whether it's a picture of clashing fists or a mighty mountain that can't be knocked down. Your name is who you are and how you're known even when you do something great or something dumb.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“Saying "please" without saying it to someone you don't want to say "please" to in the first place tops the list of hard.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“I just took the box and nodded, because that's how you treat crazy people. You nod and count down twenty-seven days for crazy to come to an end.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“Cecile made it sound like it was no big deal. "I've been fighting for freedom all my life." But she wasn't talking about protest signs, standing up to the Man, and knowing your rights. She was talking about her life. Just her. Not the people.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“If you knew what I knew, seen what I've seen, you wouldn't be so quick to pull the plow.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“That was how I knew Sister Mukumbo was a real teacher, aside from her welcoming smile and her blackboard penmanship. She asked a teacher's type of question. The kind that says: Join in.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“I had a lot of those memories clicking before me like projector slides in the dark. Lots of pictures, smells and sounds flashing in and out.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“The last thing Pa and Big Ma wanted to hear was how we made a grand Negro spectacle of ourselves thirty thousand feet up in the air around all these white people.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“Cecile carried on a full conversation, on and on”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“We're trying to break yokes. You're trying to make one for yourself.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“There was also one Anthony, whose mama could spell, and one Antnee, whose mama couldn’t. It”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“Although I didn’t hear the door swing”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

“I didn’t want to say Big Ma was right. Cecile was no kind of mother. Cecile didn’t want us. Cecile was crazy. I didn’t have to.”
― Rita Williams-Garcia, quote from One Crazy Summer

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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.