“The idea seemed to be that if you prayed extremely hard--especially if a lot of people prayed at once--maybe God would change things. The trouble was, what if your enemy was praying, too? Which prayer would God listen to?”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“It’s for my God, the god of dogs, and snakes and dust mites and albino bears and Siamese twins, the god of stars and starships and other dimensions, the god who loves everyone and makes everything marvelous.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Kept talking about how she's studying every holy book she can get her hands on, aiming to understand God's word. I quoted St. Augustine to her. 'If you understand it, it isn't God.' Gave her a cup of chamomile tea.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“She started back down the trail. If no dogs find the food, she thought, maybe squirrels will. Or that white bear. Or if no one finds it, then it can all be for God. Only not for the Prophet's God, her mean, picky God who dislikes so many things. It's for my God, the god of dogs and snakes and dust mites and albino bears and Siamese twins, the god of stars and starships and other dimensions, the god who loves everyone and who makes everything marvelous.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“How can you stand to do it? The poor little mouse!"
Grover shrugged. "It's nature," he said. "Nature likes the snake just as much as the mouse.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“All these words, written so long ago, seemed to say to her, Remember us. We were here. We were real.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Nickie didn’t like listening to him because his voice always sounded too smooth.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“...clearly not all these people who said that God spoke to them heard the same thing. All the fighting nations said God was on their side. How could God be on everyone's side?”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“pressed up against the rear wall, half hidden by shirts and dresses dangling from hangers, was a tall, thin girl with wide, terrified eyes. Her hands were wrapped around the muzzle of a small, wildly squirming dog.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Nickie was so tired of the Crisis. It had been going on now for months. On TV and the radio, it was all you ever heard about: how Our Side and Their Side had come almost, but not quite, to the point of declaring all-out war. In the last week or so, the radio had started broadcasting frightening instructions every hour: “In the event of a declaration of war or a large-scale terrorist attack, cities will be evacuated in an orderly fashion…. Residents will be directed to safe locations…. Citizens should remain calm….”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“down the stone steps to the windswept beach, her raven tresses flowing out behind her. She scanned the empty sands, and when she saw no sign of Blaine, a great cry of anguish escaped her lips. She could not live without him! She would sooner die!”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“She decided to keep this letter because of the strange way it was written.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“The rhythm of his steps said, Happy to be here, happy to be here. Rays of sunlight shot between the clouds, making spots of light like polka dots on the ground.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Officer Gurney ran a strip of yellow tape around the back area of the café, roping it off so no one could disturb the site. Then he scanned the crowd. His eyes lit on a comfortably plump woman wearing a red down jacket that made her look even plumper. She had a short brownish-blond ponytail that stuck out through a hole in her red baseball hat. “Brenda,” said Officer Gurney. “What do you think?” Grover was in danger of being late for school by this time. He’d already been late twice this month. If he was late again, he might get a note sent home to his parents. But he had to risk it. This was too interesting to miss. The woman stepped forward. Grover knew her, of course; everyone did. Mrs. Brenda Beeson was the one who had figured out the Prophet’s mumbled words and explained what they meant. She and her committee—the Reverend Loomis, Mayor Orville Milton, Police Chief Ralph Gurney, and a few others—were the most important people in the town. Officer Gurney raised the yellow tape so Mrs. Beeson could duck under it. She stood before the window a long time, her back to the crowd, while everyone waited to see what she would say. Clouds sailed slowly across the sun, turning everything dark and light and dark again. To Grover, it seemed like ages they all stood there, holding their breath. He resigned himself to being late for school and started thinking up creative excuses. The front door of his house had stuck and he couldn’t get it open? His father needed him to help fish drowned rats out of flooded basements? His knee had popped out of joint and stayed out for half an hour? Finally Mrs. Beeson turned to face them. “Well, it just goes to show,” she said. “We never used to have people breaking windows and stealing things. For all our hard work, we’ve still got bad eggs among us.” She gave an exasperated sigh, and her breath made a puff of fog in the chilly air. “If this is someone’s idea of fun, that person should be very, very ashamed of himself. This is no time for wild, stupid behavior.” “It’s probably kids,” said a man standing near Grover. Why did people always blame kids for things like this? As far as Grover could tell, grown-ups caused a lot more trouble in the world than kids. “On the other hand,” said Mrs. Beeson, “it could be a threat, or a warning. We’ve heard the reports about someone wandering around in the hills.” She glanced back at the bloody rag hanging in the window. “It might even be a message of some sort. It looks to me like that stain could be a letter, maybe an S, or an R.” Grover squinted at the stain on the cloth. To him it looked more like an A, or maybe even just a random blotch. “It might be a B,” said someone standing near him. “Or an H,” said someone else. Mrs. Beeson nodded. “Could be,” she said. “The S could stand for sin. Or if it’s an R it could stand for ruin. If you’ll let me have that piece of cloth, Ralph, I’ll show it to Althea and see if she has anything to say about it.” Just then Wayne Hollister happened to pass by, saw the crowd, and chimed in about what he’d seen in the night. His story frightened people even more than the blood and the broken glass. All around him, Grover heard them murmuring: Someone’s out there. He’s given us a warning. What does he mean to do? He’s trying to scare us. One woman began to cry. Hoyt McCoy, as usual, said that Brenda Beeson should not pronounce upon things until she was in full possession of the facts, which she was not, and that to him the”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Signs of craziness, like Hoyt McCoy dancing around naked? Disgusting filthiness, like a smelly outhouse or rat-swarmed garbage?”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“blotches of blood looked more like a soupspoon than an R. Several people told him angrily to be quiet.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“A bird feeder hung from the porch roof, but there were no seeds in it. The curtains in all the windows were closed.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“like a pack of wolves across the planet, and people were afraid for the survival of the human race.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“It was more of a castle than a house. It loomed over them, immense and massive, three stories high.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Why did people always blame kids for things like this? As far as Grover could tell, grown-ups caused a lot more trouble in the world than kids.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
“Beeson, wearing a rain jacket with the hood up over her”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The Prophet of Yonwood
Jeanne DuPrau
Born place: in San Francisco, California, The United States
Born date June 9, 1944
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“You're not very good at being contemplative," Milo said. "You always sound like some bad caricature of a philosopher, like those fortune cookies with 'Confucius say' or the Nietzsche guy from Mystery Men that's always saying 'when you walk on the ground, the ground walks on you.”
― Amanda Hocking, quote from Fate
“Now we’ll get back home,’ he said. ‘I’m a bit tired of this land. Come on, Bears, help me to get the cottage back safely!’ He didn’t do the same magic as before. He drew a circle on the floor in blue chalk and the Three Bears stood inside, holding paws. Moon-Face”
― Enid Blyton, quote from The Faraway Tree Stories
“The universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly,” in the words of J. H. Holmes. “It is simply indifferent.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, quote from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
“All it takes is one bad apple to disgrace the whole tree.”
― Chris Colfer, quote from A Grimm Warning
“We make choices. No one else can live our lives for us. And we must confront and accept the consequences of our actions.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Kindly Ones
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