Susan Crandall · 307 pages
Rating: (24K votes)
“My daddy says that when you do somethin' to distract you from your worstest fears, it's like whistlin' past the graveyard. You know, making a racket to keep the scaredness and the ghosts away. He says that's how we get by sometimes. But it's not weak, like hidin'...it's strong. It means you're able to go on.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“My daddy always said being brave wasn’t not being scared. Being brave was keeping going when you were.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“God's job ain't to make our lives easier, it's to make us better souls by the lessons He gives us.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I wasn't never gonna run off again, no matter how bad things got. But I wasn't gonna be too scared to love the folks that took the time to love me back, and I sure wasn't gonna chase them that don't. And I was gonna spend the rest of my life asking questions and looking behind everything that happened, so I could find the gifts I got tucked inside me.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I had to hold on to the mad so the sad didn't drown me.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I locked the door and turned on the water to fill the tub. I made it so hot that I had to get in real slow. I wanted it to hurt; wanted my outside to feel as bad as my inside. I sat there a long time watching my skin turn redder and redder... Finally my insides was as fiery as my skin. I liked the burn and hoped it took everything I'd been wishing for and turned it to ashes.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“She grabbed me in a hug so ferocious, the love reached clean to my bones. She kissed the top of my head. "Truth is, you save me, child. You save me as sure as the sun rises.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“A body can't run from what they done. They carry it with them inside. It fester and spread like poison if it's buried. It gotta be out in the air where it can heal.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“She leaned down so she was looking right in my eyes. "You hear me, child. you can't use other folks' bad behavior to excuse your own. When we got a choice, we keep Jesus in our hearts and don't do nothing that would make him ashamed.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Some of the best things in life come when you’re not planning on them. It’s important to see them for the gift they are.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“But I wasn’t gonna be too scared to love the folks that took the time to love me back, and I sure wasn’t gonna chase them that don’t.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“She slammed down the phone. The sharp bang shattered my heart like a bottle hitting the sidewalk”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Sometimes laughin' is all a body can do, child. It's laugh or lose your mind.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I didn't know what words could have that much magic.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I know you didn’t see the violence and need for control in him in the beginning, but I’m sure it was there. Nothing you did turned him into such an abusive man. And you … well, you just didn’t see your own value before that. It’s an easy thing for a woman to overlook. We’re taught from the cradle that men rule.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I wondered, what other gifts I got bottled up inside me? That question had started to gnaw on me some.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Why ain't you mad?" I asked.
"Might as well get mad at the wind for blowin'. Some things just be what they be.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“One day that song stopped being on the outside of me and went deep inside. It was there all the time, especially when I was feeling particularly lonely.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I spent my whole life wantin' to take care of children. You a blessing, not a burden." She looked at me hard. "Don't you go forgettin' that." She patted my shoulder and left me alone. As I fell asleep, it come to me that that was the first time anybody had ever told me I was a blessing.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I knew how she felt, all jittered up inside and no place to put the aggravation.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Outside was the calm that sat in front of a July storm, the kind of cloudy stillness that said you’d better get you and your bicycle on home before a gully washer let loose.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Sometimes laughin’ is all a body can do, child. It’s laugh or lose your mind.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“all bullies got worse when you let them know they were hurting you.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Never let a bully see you scared.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“God’s job ain’t to make our lives easier, it’s to make us better souls by the lessons he give us.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“Patti Lynn had a real family with a sister and three brothers and lived in a big house on Magnolia Street. She even had a dog.”
― Susan Crandall, quote from Whistling Past the Graveyard
“I went into the desert to forget about you. But the sand was the color of your hair. The desert sky was the color of your eyes. There was nowhere I could go that wouldn't be you.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, quote from Middlesex
“Where is Wood?" said Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there.
"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself.”
― J.K. Rowling, quote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
“Who knows, he may grow up to be President someday, unless they hang him first!"
Aunt Polly about Tom Sawyer”
― Mark Twain, quote from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
“Nothing, nothing mattered, and I knew why. So did he. Throughout the whole absurd life I'd lived, a dark wind had been rising toward me from somewhere deep in my future, across years that were still to come, and as it passed, this wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time, in years no more real than the ones I was living. What did other people's deaths or a mother's love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we're all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers? Couldn't he see, couldn't he see that? Everybody was privileged. There were only privileged people. The others would all be condemned one day. And he would be condemned, too.”
― Albert Camus, quote from The Stranger
“The others went upstairs, a slow unwilling procession. If this had been an old house, with creaking wood, and dark shadows, and heavily panelled walls, there might have been an eerie feeling. But this house was the essence of modernity. There were no dark corners - no possible sliding panels - it was flooded with electric light - everything was new and bright and shining. There was nothing hidden in this house, nothing concealed. It had no atmosphere about it. Somehow, that was the most frightening thing of all. They exchanged good-nights on the upper landing. Each of them went into his or her own room, and each of them automatically, almost without conscious thought, locked the door....”
― Agatha Christie, quote from And Then There Were None
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.