Quotes from Under a Painted Sky

Stacey Lee ·  384 pages

Rating: (5.6K votes)


“Princesa came to rancho one day after her owner no want her. Says too much horse for him, too wild. But he's wrong. She's not wild, she's spirited. 'Wild' means 'I no care about what I do.' But 'spirited' means, 'I love what I do.' Big difference.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“Maybe what matters is not so much the path as who walks beside you.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“West looks up. 'This is the best time to hunt, when the animals are out looking for their suppers. 'Course, with a painted sky, light's not always good.' I never heard someone call the sky painted before, but it's the perfect word. Clouds outlined in gold streak across the firmament, casting uneven shadows over the landscape.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“no one ever injured an eye by looking at the bright side.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“Maybe life just tastes sweeter after you’ve licked death.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky



“I pat my mule's neck and find comfort in the silky tufts of her mane. Father told me not to brood when people judged me for my wrapper, not my filling, or I would spend my whole life in the steamer.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“You miss being a girl? I ask her.
Not as much as I thought I would. Just feels like when I'm being a boy, I can cut a wider path.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“Fly you crows. My father was not a spectacle. He was the greatest man I ever knew. He was my everything.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“Your head’s like a room and when you’s forced to stay in it, you gotta deal with all the trash that’s left in there.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“Just like life.” “What?” “The clouds. They never hold still. Sometimes you think you’re seeing one thing, and a second later, the whole picture changes.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky



“I don’t understand the constant need to prove one’s manhood, as if it is always on the verge of slipping away. We never need to prove our womanhood.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“I kiss him good-bye in my head, bidding farewell to the one I have loved in silence.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“I bet those boys bit their way out of the womb,” Andy whispers.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“My showmanship only comes out when I hold the violin—with Lady Tin-Yin in my arms, I don’t care who watches. A peace comes over me, something I call my violin calm.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“There's a Chinese principle called yuanfen, which means your fate with someone else [...] Two people with strong yuanfen have a greater chance of meeting in their lifetimes, and can become as close as family.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky



“We carry around the light of our loved ones who have passed. It is they who light the path for us.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“You ever think about the noose?'

'I been thinking about the noose since I was born.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“What good's a black face if it means I'm just someone else's property? Why give me these arms and legs just to carry someone else's load, not my own?”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“We carry around the light of our loved ones who have passed. It is they who light the path for us.” “Passed?”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“I mean, sometimes I wonder why God would grant a favor if trouble's just waiting around the corner? It feels disingenuous. If it's fate, then it's written in the stars, and we can't do much to avoid it.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky



“You want my take, there’s nothing wrong with matching people up according to the stars, because at least someone gave a thought to it. Lots of deuces leap the altar ’cause they like getting sacked, and lots of girls agree ’cause they think they got no choice. Ain’t fair to the human race, and that’s the short of it.”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


“I don’t understand the constant need to prove one’s manhood, as if it is always on the verge of slipping away. We never need to prove our womanhood. “You”
― Stacey Lee, quote from Under a Painted Sky


About the author

Stacey Lee
Born place: The United States
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Popular quotes

“In every age, man’s questioning has focused not only on his ultimate origin; almost more than the obscurity of his beginnings, what preoccupies him is the hiddenness of the future that awaits him. Man wants to tear aside the curtain; he wants to know what is going to happen, so that he can avoid perdition and set out toward salvation.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, quote from Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration


“She said, “What did Joe want?” “The daughter of a friend of his is missing. He wants me to help check it out.” Lucy looked up at me, her face now serious. “A child?” “He didn’t say. You mind if I go?” She glanced at the couch again. “You’ll do anything to avoid this couch, won’t you?” “Yeah. I hate that damned couch.” Lucy laughed, then looked into my eyes again. “I’d mind if you didn’t go. Take a shower and go save the world.”
― Robert Crais, quote from L.A. Requiem


“In our creation, God asked a question and in our truly living; God answers the question.”
― Thomas Merton, quote from New Seeds of Contemplation


“An industrial policy worked in Taiwan only because the state was able to shield its planning technocrats from political pressures so that they could reinforce the market and make decisions according to criteria of efficiency—in other words, worked because Taiwan was not governed democratically. An American industrial policy is much less likely to improve its economic competitiveness, precisely because America is more democratic than Taiwan or the Asian NIEs. The planning process would quickly fall prey to pressures from Congress either to protect inefficient industries or to promote ones
favored by special interests.”
― Francis Fukuyama, quote from The End of History and the Last Man


“Television, I'm afraid, has isolated us more than race, class, or ethnicity.”
― Paul Fleischman, quote from Seedfolks


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