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.”
“My daddy always said being brave wasn’t not being scared. Being brave was keeping going when you were.”
“God's job ain't to make our lives easier, it's to make us better souls by the lessons He gives us.”
“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.”
“I had to hold on to the mad so the sad didn't drown me.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“She slammed down the phone. The sharp bang shattered my heart like a bottle hitting the sidewalk”
“Sometimes laughin' is all a body can do, child. It's laugh or lose your mind.”
“I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I didn't know what words could have that much magic.”
“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.”
“I wondered, what other gifts I got bottled up inside me? That question had started to gnaw on me some.”
“Why ain't you mad?" I asked.
"Might as well get mad at the wind for blowin'. Some things just be what they be.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I knew how she felt, all jittered up inside and no place to put the aggravation.”
“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.”
“Sometimes laughin’ is all a body can do, child. It’s laugh or lose your mind.”
“all bullies got worse when you let them know they were hurting you.”
“Never let a bully see you scared.”
“God’s job ain’t to make our lives easier, it’s to make us better souls by the lessons he give us.”
“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.”
“We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but we aren't like that really, I mean...one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold...d'you see what I mean?”
“I wouldn't have been sent back to help you," Tristan continued. "I wouldn't have been made an angel if it weren't important that you live, Ivy. I want you to be mine" -Ivy could hear the pain in his voice- "but you're not."
"I am!" she cried out loud.
"We're on different sides of a river," he said, "and it's a river that neither of us can cross. You were meant for somebody else.”
“This was part of the divine comedy-God's sense of humor undergirding the inner workings of the universe. Sinners participated in the redemption of other sinners; faith, hope and charity triumphed over disbelief, despair, and hatred, while the One who called all creatures to Himself watched and smiled.”
“You have to stop loving me.
Because I stopped loving you.”
“How will I survive this missing? How do others do it? People die all the time. Every day. Every hour. There are families all over the world staring at beds that are no longer slept in, shoes that are no longer worn. Families that no longer have to buy a particular cereal, a kind of shampoo. There are people everywhere standing in line at the movies, buying curtains, walking dogs, while inside, their hearts are ripping to shreds. For years. For their whole lives. I don't believe time heals. I don't want it to. If I heal, doesn't that mean I've accepted the world without her?”
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.