Quotes from Out of the Easy

“I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Sometimes we set off down a road thinkin' we're goin' one place and we end up another. But that's okay. The important thing is to start.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Let me tell you something 'bout these rich Uptown folk," said Cokie. "They got everything that money can buy, their bank accounts are fat, but they ain't happy. They ain't ever gone be happy. You know why? They soul broke. And money can't fix that, no sir.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“What do you do with all this bank, Josie? Be a lot easier if you just lifted your skirt.”

“The only reason I’d lift my skirt is to pull out my pistol and plug you in the head.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Some things just won’t go away, no matter how hard you scrub.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“You like me, Josie Moraine. You just don't know it yet.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Tragedy was a big social event, and everyone wanted in on it.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“We all laced together—a brothel madam, an English professor, a mute cook, a quadroon cabbie, and me, the girl carrying a bucket of lies and throwing them like confetti.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Willie said normal was boring and that I should be grateful that I had a touch of spice. She said no one cared about boring people, and when they died, they were forgotten, like something that slips behind the dresser.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Shelves without books were lonely and just plain wrong.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“There was no ‘Miss Woodley.’ There was Willie. Willie was about life, and she grabbed it by the balls. Y’all know that. She loved a stiff drink, a stiff hundred, and she loved her business. And she didn’t judge nobody. She loved everyone equal—accountants, queers, musicians, she welcomed us all, said we were all idiots just the same.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“If I poured all the lies I had told into the Mississippi, the river would rise and flood the city.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Man, you’re a regular Bonnie Parker.”

“A dame that knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up.”

Jesse found that hysterical. “Did Willie say that?”

“Nope, Mae West. Now, how do I get on this thing in a skirt?”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Charlie Marlowe never wrote horror, but somehow horror was writing Charlie Marlowe.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“I wasn't certain of anything anymore, except that New Orleans was a faithless friend and I wanted to leave her.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“One day when I was fourteen, I told Charlie that I hated Mother. “Don’t hate her, Jo,” he told me. “Feel sorry for her. She’s not near as smart as you. She wasn’t born with your compass, so she wanders around, bumping into all sorts of walls. That’s sad.” I understood what he meant, and it made me see Mother differently. But wasn’t there some sort of rule that said parents had to be smarter than their kids? It didn’t seem fair.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Look at you, locked and loaded, like Mae West of the Motor City.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“It amazed me how some people could touch an instrument and create something so beautiful, and when others tried, like me, it just sounded like mangled noise.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“This town will eat you up if you’re not careful. But I won’t be here forever.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Writers of historical fiction would be lost without libraries and archives.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“They got everything money can buy, their bank accounts are fat, but they ain't happy. They ain't ever gonna be happy. You know why? They soul broke. And money can't fix that, no sir.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“They drink like fish and ask the most probing questions."
"Welcome to the South." Patrick laughed.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Jesse motioned to my hair. “Looks like you’ve been in the bath yourself.” He settled into a chair on the front porch.

“I had just washed my hair, but then I had to go shoot someone. Do you want a cold drink?”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“I wished I had a friend in the Quarter, someone like Charlotte. Someone I could share secrets with, collapse on her bedroom floor, and spill my guts about Patrick to. I saw so many girls walking arm in arm, laughing, an inexplicable closeness and comfort that they had a protector and confidante. They had someone they could count on.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Engrave your pieces, Jo, and they’ll always find their way back to you,” said Willie.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Willie appeared completely calm about the news of Mother. She always said she could make tea in a tornado.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“God, I need that coffee. I feel like a bag of smashed assholes.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“Why you frettin', Jo? You not sure?"

I inhaled my tears in order to speak. "I'm sure I want to go, but I'm not sure it's possible.Why would they accept me? And if they did, how would I pay for it? I don't want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed. I'm always disappointed."

"Now don't let fear keep you in New Orleans. Sometimes we set off down a road thinkin' we're goin' one place and we end up another. But that's okay. The important thing is to start. I know you can do it. Come on, Josie girl, give those ol' wings a try."

"Willie doesn't want me to."

"So what, you gonna stay here just so you can clean her house and run around with all the naked crazies in the Quarter? You got a bigger story than that.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

“You got to get outta here, Josie. New Orleans is fine for some people, real good for a few. But not for you. Too much baggage that’ll pull you down. You got dreams and the potential to make ’em real.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy

About the author

Popular quotes

“My favorite uncle was gay,” she says, “and he doesn’t like to dance, either.” She looks at Chad. “I don’t like that word. Fag. Don’t use it, okay?”
― quote from Between

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
― A.A. Milne, quote from The World of Winnie-the-Pooh

“Christopher . . . are these from you?” she asked at lunch, careful to make her tone light as she placed the two picture-poems on the table. Christopher’s eyes fell to them, and he smiled.
“Yes.”
He didn’t ask if she liked them, and he didn’t seem embarrassed.
Sarah was flustered, and somewhat surprised by Christopher’s easy confidence. Even so, her natural suspicion surfaced. “Why?”
“Because,” he answered seriously, “you make a good subject. Your hair, for one, is like a shimmering waterfall. It’s so fair that it catches the light. It makes you seem like you have a halo about you. And your eyes—they’re such a pure color, not washed out at all, deep as the ocean. And your expression . . . intense and yet somehow detached, as if you see more of the world than the rest of us.”
Flustered, she could think of no way to respond. Did he just say this stuff from the top of his head? Only her strict Vida control kept her from blushing.
Meanwhile Nissa entered the cafeteria. She started to sit, then glanced from the pictures, to Christopher, to Sarah. “Should I go somewhere else?”
Christopher nodded to a chair, answering easily, “Sit down. We aren’t exchanging dark secrets—yet.”
Nissa flashed a teasing look to her brother as she took a seat. “As his sister, I feel the need to inform you, Sarah, that Christopher has been talking about you incessantly.”
Christopher smiled, unembarrassed. “I suppose I might have been.’
“Especially your eyes—he never shuts up about your eyes,” Nissa confided, and this time Christopher shrugged.
“They’re beautiful,” he said casually. “Beauty should be looked at, not ignored. I try to capture it on paper, but that’s really impossible with eyes, because they have a life no still portrait can capture.”
Sarah’s voice was tied up so tightly she thought she might be able to speak again sometime next year. No one had ever talked about her—or to her—with such admiration.”
― Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, quote from Shattered Mirror

“In my daydreams I’m always much prettier (and smarter, funnier, and more popular). I also never fall into drainpipes.”
― Wendy Mass, quote from Finally

“I’m a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly psychotic women behind me and a fleet of state-of-the-art warships crewed by pissed-off pirates, engineers, techs, and former slaves.”
― Pierce Brown, quote from Morning Star

Interesting books

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.