WOMEN ON THEIR OWN RUN in Alice’s family. This dawns on her with the unkindness of a heart attack and she sits up in bed to get a closer look at her thoughts, which have collected above her in the dark.
Barbara Kingsolver
Related Josey?” She heard her mother’s voice in the hall, then the thud of her cane as she came closer. ... SARAH ADDISON ALLEN She bought a poster of the Beatles and tacked it on the wall above her bed. On days when she was fee... KEVIN BROCKMEIER I smiled and looked at her- there she was with such a genuine grin and twinkle in her eyes. I kissed... JORI NUNES The spider's web: She finds an innocuous corner in which to spin her web. The longer the web takes, ... DONNA LYNN HOPE She is always pretending she loves me, but look at her now. Am I in her thoughts? Is there a tender ... SHERWOOD ANDERSON Observe her when she has some knitting, or some other woman's work in hand, and sits the image of pe... CHARLOTTE BRONTë Every year on her birthday, she would pick out a song which she would force me to sing at the top of... VICTORIA PRINCIPAL She held her sword like she was ready to use it on anyone who got close. Darquesse could see her own... DEREK LANDY My colleague told a family that their mother was very sick, and the son had a heart attack in her of... DAVID MULLER She spent a lot of her own time working individually on her skills, her footwork, getting to the bas... AMY LEONARD Besides her family, the only other permanent part of her life was with her friends online. She could... STEVAN V. NIKOLIC She talked to her, listened to her, read to her; and the tranquillity of such evenings, her perfect ... JANE AUSTEN My sister lives with my family because she has separated from her husband and my older brother had d... MAHEN SHARMA This ranks as one of her better games, because she not only did a lot on her own, but she made a lot... KAREN MCCABE She sits on the chair and picks up the pie crumbs. She strokes, her hair and, her motormouth says. D... ROSE MESQUITA She bears a duke's revenues on her back,
And in her heart she scorns our poverty. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE And yonder sits a maiden,
The fairest of the fair,
With gold in her garment glittering,
... HEINRICH HEINE She was dressed in white, and her tunic had amazing flared sleeves which trailed on the ground behin... KEN FOLLETT Tibby sat on the outside of a group of kids in the film program. There was a lot of dark clothing an... ANN BRASHARES Whenever an occasion arose in which she needed an opinion on something in the wider world, she borro... HARUKI MURAKAMI There’s no way in hell I’m getting out of this bed and going for a run,” he murmured onto her ... SARAH J. MAAS A moving story of shattered dreams in which Barbara March achieved international stardom adored for ... MARGARET L. LAUDER And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her prof... PHILIP K. DICK My mother wasn't controlling at all. She was a stabilizing force who grew up on a farm in Pennsy... CHRISTINE EBERSOLE On the big bed, Mamima and Sandeep’s mother began to dream, sprawled in vivid crab-like postures. ... AMIT CHAUDHURI Her beauty effortlessly managed to arrest the pulse of each heart at the office and keep it in a dre... PAWAN MISHRA He destroyed in her the knowing, doubting, sophisticated Ella, and again and again he put her intell... DORIS LESSING She's a star in her own right -- launched by the show -- but has proven herself on her own. She prov... BARRY JECKELL I look at her and talk to her as an assistant coach at times. She doesn't say a lot to the other pla... AL SORRENTINO In the beginning of the season I started putting her up last in the lineup with the hopes of her dea... BYRON KNOX Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a v... LOUISA MAY ALCOTT She tossed her towel on her dresser and turned to the bed where shed left her PJs. Only it wasn't ju... C.C. HUNTER To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth—I count that something of a... HENRY MILLER Today in Saudi, women are either at the mercy of their husbands or at the mercy of judges who tend t... BASMAH BINT SAUD This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the daytime and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the ... CARSON MCCULLERS She hated that will had this effect on her. Hated it. She knew better. She knew what he thought of h... CASSANDRA CLARE Men who are successful with women have something at the centre of their being which isn't dependent ... NICK KINSELLA But to the slave mother New Year's day comes laden with peculiar sorrows. She sits on her cold c... HARRIET ANN JACOBS Thomas got her settled and jumping super. That's as firm a ground as she will run on, and it depends... BILL DORAN We began to have second thoughts of the image that [Coulter] portrays in some of her presentations, ... DAVID CROUCH Look,’ she said, sidling a little closer to him in the lift. ‘I understand this wasn’t what yo... AMY ANDREWS What she saw, she felt. Her eyes went straight to her heart. The old man on the bench, for example, ... JERRY SPINELLI In fact her maturity and blood kinship converted her passion to fever, so it was more affliction tha... TONI MORRISON She was basically resting. She would come in and out of her rest, open her eyes, look around and go ... BERNICE KING She stays lost in the middle of her own world somewhere. We can’t get in and she doesn’t come ou... MALORIE BLACKMAN But soon I loved her completely and wished to possess her, own her, absorb her, eat her. I wanted he... IAN MCEWAN Interesting" people were her favorite hobby. She collected them: the type who did gay things late at... ANNA GODBERSEN She had to get a hold of herself. She had to run. Did she have a chance of making it out alive? Some... MIMI JEAN PAMFILOFF She infested his mind, thoughts of worshipping her in dark ways, her laugh would be his reward, her ... V. THEIA He never should have left the island. He’d been there with Diana and Penny. He could have tossed P... MICHAEL GRANT She had words in her heart which she released thru her fingertips. EVELI ACOSTA Sharp knives seemed to cut her delicate feet, yet she hardly felt them, so deep was the pain in her ... HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN Suddenly she felt strong and happy. She was not afraid of the darkness or the fog and she knew with ... MARGARET MITCHELL If she were here I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off her. I would hold her so close she'd beg me... JULIET MARILLIER A spiritual person is also in touch with his or her own reality, feelings and thoughts, and the real... KEITH MILLER From then on, Matilda would visit the library only once a week in order to take out new books and re... ROALD DAHL Leah looked at her parents, lost in their own fantasies, and decided that the three of them were a p... J.M. REEP That kid has so much heart and character. On senior day, that's going to be a sad day for me. She wa... GAY MCNUTT This did not in any way alter her intention of accomplishing her mission; on the contrary; it seemed... JANE BOWLES Women are walking around on the streets. From her calf and the hem of her skirt to her hip, from her... HWANG SOK-YONG she looked up at the stars and gave Tibby thanks. She didn't have to throw her thoughts far to know ... ANN BRASHARES What we would like women to do is go to their closet, look at the suit that they have, find a suit t... DANA HARRISON She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meetin... LAINI TAYLOR Their eyes met at the same instant moment, Therese glancing up from a box she was opening, and the w... PATRICIA HIGHSMITH She was born to be free, let her run wild in her own way and you will never lose her. NIKKI ROWE You knew what was on her mind and in her heart. She let you know. In the world we live in, where eve... BETTY ROLLIN She watched as he settled down on the bed with Naya skin to skin on his chest. His hand all but cove... NALINI SINGH I’m pretty sure there are some things in the dark that we’re not meant to see. KARINA HALLE Barbara has served Ford well in her role in Investor Relations. She always put the Company's interes... DON LECLAIR "She Never wore her Heart on her sleeves . "She didn't want the world to know about him . Little did... NADIRA AHMED And when you lay in bed with your wife, are you mentally there or with the women on TV? O... AMBY C. EZEM Woman -- for example, look at her case! She turns tantalizing inviting glances on you. You seize her... LUIGI PIRANDELLO When you're and only child in a family with an only parent, you look at other, bigger families with ... MARGARET MCMULLAN I turn over and lie flat on my back,staring at the ceiling. When she slept beside me, I slept well. ... E.L. JAMES She has the best work ethic. She puts in a lot of extra effort and stays late after work to get thin... ANDRE WALKER She has the best work ethic. She puts in a lot of extra effort and stays late after work to get thin... ANDRE WALKER Leslie has three children, and she takes a lot of pride in that she built her business around her fa... JENNIFER ANTKOWIAK She tries to pick up her arm and bring her arm closer to her. BILLY WOODIE And, despite the care which she took to look behind her at every moment, she failed to see a shadow ... GASTON LEROUX My son, to find a good wife, look at the way she treats her family. Remember that you too will becom... EDMAN VAN SCHALKWYK Mackenzie Allen comes in and tries to follow her heart in the job. She doesn't have to give up her f... MIMI MELGAARD She doesn't just rely on her athleticism now. That is the thing with very athletic players; they end... MICK STATHAM As she sits in isolation, pondering her very existence, distant yet deliberate feelings of alienatio... JEANNE YOUNG She stays calm and collected on the course. She has really improved her short game. Her length off t... JENNIFER FROESCHLE Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, s... LAINI TAYLOR and the girl and I get into her car and drive off into the hills and we go to her room and I take of... BRET EASTON ELLIS [The prosecution hoped to establish a pattern of abuse and obsessive behavior. Nicole Brown Simpson'... DENISE BROWN Paris has said she is mad about poker and that she always wins in Vegas. We're offering her the chan... WARREN LUSH She really stepped up tonight. In her four years on the varsity, she has really improved her outside... JULIE LOEHRKE When Aziza first spotted Mariam in the morning, her eyes always sprang open, and she began mewling a... KHALED HOSSEINI She's just a cut above the rest athletically. She just dominates in her event, and she can beat peop... JENNIFER LEATHERMAN She sat up, cheeks flushed and golden hair tousled. She was so beautiful that it made my soul ache. ... RICHELLE MEAD Do you feel that you are in a complicated situation today when nothing seems to be going right for y... LATIKA TEOTIA My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see her... ELIZABETH GILBERT In the pause that followed, Shane understood why people said their hearts broke. She always thought ... THOMM QUACKENBUSH I was unable to visit her in the hospital because I had things keeping me busy here. The first day s... JOSHUA BOBB That's because a woman's hormones have a profound effect on everything that impacts her wedding - he... GABRIELLE LICHTERMAN Standing on the edge of that darkness, she felt the stirrings of reckless want. A wild sort of brave... EMILY LLOYD-JONES The one person whom I would like to be is Meryl Streep. Even at her age, she sits alongside the youn... RANI MUKERJI Her honey-coloured hair fell in heavy wavesbelow her shoulders and as she stared up at him her eyes,... KATHLEEN WINSOR
More Barbara Kingsolver
Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that g... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaki... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your bra... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The first sentence of a book is a promise. BARBARA KINGSOLVER For me, writing time has always been precious, something I wait for and am eager for and make the be... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Terms like that, 'Humane Society,' are devised with people like me in mind, who don't ca... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brav... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What you lose in blindness is the space around you, the place where you are, and without that you mi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on be... BARBARA KINGSOLVER To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another that is surely the basic instinct - crying o... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the l... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of a... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin. BARBARA KINGSOLVER What a writer can do, what a fiction writer or a poet or an essay writer can do is re-engage people ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the mor... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, 'There no... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is l... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It is surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Until that moment I'd thought I could have it both ways; to be one of them, and also my husband's wi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style. She knew. BARBARA KINGSOLVER People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The older I get, the more I appreciate my rural childhood. I spent a lot of time outdoors, unsupervi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The truth needs so little rehearsal. BARBARA KINGSOLVER As a biologist, I can't think of myself as anything but an animal among animals and plant. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I can count all the ways in which being a mother has enriched my understanding of the world, of char... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Southern Appalachians have been ridiculed since the country began. In fiction, they're usually d... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Like kids who only ever get socks for Christmas, but still believe with all their hearts in Santa. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I used to think religion was just more of the same thing. Dump responsibility on the big guy. Now I ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Hallie and I... were all there was. The image in the mirror that proves you are still here. We had e... BARBARA KINGSOLVER That would be Axelroot all over, to turn up with an extra wife or two claiming that's how they do it... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The last generations's worst fears become the next one's B-grade entertainment. BARBARA KINGSOLVER My morning begins with trying not to get up before the sun rises. But when I do, it's because my... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory BARBARA KINGSOLVER Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization. BARBARA KINGSOLVER When something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name an... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction -... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who sta... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But newspapers have a duty to truth,' Van said. Lev clucked his tongue. 'They tell the truth on... BARBARA KINGSOLVER In a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is make things as right as we can. BARBARA KINGSOLVER You always need that spark of imagination. Sometimes I'm midway through a book before it happens... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white cros... BARBARA KINGSOLVER So you make this deal with the gods. You do these dances and they'll send rain and good crops and th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combina... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Shoes would interfere with her conversation, for she constantly addresses the ground under her feet.... BARBARA KINGSOLVER To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals r... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known. BARBARA KINGSOLVER No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and forei... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I live in southern Appalachia, so I'm surrounded by people who work very hard for barely a livin... BARBARA KINGSOLVER We're animals. We're born like every other mammal and we live our whole lives around disguis... BARBARA KINGSOLVER God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Everything you're sure is right can be wrong in another place. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brains and ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Close the door. Write with _no one_ looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other p... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Terms like that, "Humane Society," are devised with people like me in mind, who don't care to dwell ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A first child is your own best foot forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike o... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf... BARBARA KINGSOLVER People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits wil... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentenc... BARBARA KINGSOLVER He spoke for an hour on the nonviolent road to independence. The crowd loved it so much they rioted ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Patriotism threatens free speech with death. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidati... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Come to think of it, just about every tool was shaped like either a weenie or a pistol, depending on... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’ve seen how you can’t learn anything when you’re trying to look like the smartest person in ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sympathizing over the behavior of men is the baking soda of women's friendships, it seems,the thing ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Do you think its possible to live without wanting to put your name on your paintings? To belong to a... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If men only knew, modesty makes women fall in love faster than all the cock-a-doodling in the world. BARBARA KINGSOLVER It occurs to her that there is one thing about people you can never understand well enough: how enti... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Anybody can get worked up, if they have the intention. It's peacefulness that is hard to come by on ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The thing is, it's my own fault. I just can't put up with a person that won't go out of his way for ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER No matter what kind of night you're having, morning always wins. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Last time I talked to her she didn't sound like herself. She's depressed. It's awful what happens wh... BARBARA KINGSOLVER God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Soon the maroon-throated howls would echo back from the other trees, father down the beach, until th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When people are frightened about going hungry and paying their mortgages, a scarcity model begins to... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Then again, do you have to be told every single thing about the world before you know it? BARBARA KINGSOLVER The backs of his hands remind him of paper burning in the fireplace, the moment the taut membrane go... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Cash misses his wife with a blank pain in his chest, and he misses his sisters and cousins, who have... BARBARA KINGSOLVER She told him television was a bad influence. Probably she was right. Like those white birds he's bee... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Let's go take a walk down to the blue hole. You need to look at some water. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She climbs down and pours half an inch of Jim Beam into a Bengals mug that came free with a tank of ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER They rock against each other, holding on, and the birds in the forest raise their voices to drown ou... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've just fallen on some bad luck and landed jelly side down. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The clock gulps softly, eating second whole while she waits... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You talk about her as if she is the Notre Dame Cathedral!" "She is. And the Statue of Liberty and Ab... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I was so depressed I stopped using hair spray for three weeks. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She married him two years ago for love, or so she thought, and he's a good enough man but a devotee ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’m always looking at the dialectic between the truth we believe exists outside ourselves and the ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Alice hands Annawake a handkerchief. Young people never carry them, she's noticed. They haven't yet ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER She understands all at once, with a small shock, exactly what it is she always needed to tell Harlan... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The obstinate practicality of old women pierces and fortifies these families like the steel rods bur... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A woman knows she can walk away from a pot to tend something else and the pot will go on boiling; if... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's monstrous, what one person will do to another. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She has changed in this way that motherhood changes you, so that you forget you ever had time for sm... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You could love your crazy people, even admire them, instead of resenting that they're not self-suffi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Be sweet and carry a sharp knife, was her motto. BARBARA KINGSOLVER He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I know what it is: it's a green mamba snake away up in the tree. You don't have to be afraid of them... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from ach... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What there is in this world, I think, is a tendency for human errors to level themselves like water ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Finally Cub said, "They don't call it global weirding." "I know. But I think that's actually th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER restraint equals indulgence BARBARA KINGSOLVER It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their wri... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time BARBARA KINGSOLVER Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when they t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Why does a person even get up in the morning? You have breakfast, you floss your teeth so you'll hav... BARBARA KINGSOLVER In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I was trained in classical piano, but it kind of dawned on me that classical pianists compete for si... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Mistakes wreck your life. But they make what you have. It's kind of all one. You know what Hester to... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There can be no greater spiritual accomplishment than to come through brutal trials and then look ba... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If you can't live by the laws the LORD God made for the world, they'll go into effect regardless. BARBARA KINGSOLVER always tried to be positive with her, although I’d learned BARBARA KINGSOLVER A disappointed-looking Jesus eyed her from the wall...Look, look, her steps called out, here is a re... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If people really gave it full consideration, I mean, like if you could return a baby after thirty da... BARBARA KINGSOLVER She made it plain that her fondest wish was to have a grandbaby. Whenever fat Irene would pick up th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Do you know, I spent the first half of my life avoiding motherhood and tires, and now I’m counting... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There is no point in treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, There ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I was Turtle’s age I had never had anyone or anything important taken from me. I still hadn�... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I never could figure out why men thought they could impress a woman by making the world out to be su... BARBARA KINGSOLVER We do have some strong traditions of community in the United States, but it’s interesting to me th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER That means you're my kid," I explained, "and I'm your mother, and nobody can say it isn't so. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt H... BARBARA KINGSOLVER So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flap... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It was hard to feel the remotest sympathy for any of the different fools she'd been. As opposed to t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Whatever you want the most, it’s going to be the worst thing for you. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Mi'ija, in a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is to make things as right as we can. BARBARA KINGSOLVER You think you're the foreigner here, and I'm the American, and I just look the other way while the P... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’ve been thinking about that. About how your kids aren’t really yours, they’re just these peo... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is li... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You're asking yourself, Can I give this child the best possible upbringing and keep her out of harm'... BARBARA KINGSOLVER That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we s... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Tortolita, let me tell you a story,” Estevan said. “This is a South American, wild Indian story ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's terrible to lose somebody, but it's also true that some people never have anybody to lose, and ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I had decided early on that if I couldn’t dress elegant, I’d dress memorable. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer. BARBARA KINGSOLVER A human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me. And the other is th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The flowers were beaten down, their bent-over heads bejeweled with diamond droplets like earring on ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The longer I think about a food industry organized around an animal that cannot reproduce itself wit... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If it crosses your mind that water running through hundreds of miles of open ditch in a desert will ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most of us are creatures so comforted by habit, it can take something on the order of religion to in... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Every time I write a new novel about something sombre and sobering and terrible I think, 'oh Lor... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tra... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Why is it that only girls stand on the sides of their feet? As if they're afraid to plant themselves... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You think you're no good, so you can't do good things. Jesus, Codi, how long are you going to keep l... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Awareness is everything. Hallie once pointed out to me that people worry a lot more about the eterni... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Memory runs along deep, fixed channels in the brain, like electricity along its conduits; only a cat... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't just some fine destination but the road you're on and the fact you know h... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Perhaps growing up meant we put our knives away and feigned ignorance of the damage. BARBARA KINGSOLVER There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhe... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Insomnia’s different,” I said. It was hard to explain this to people. “You know the light that... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sometimes I still have American dreams. I mean literally. I see microwave ovens and exercise machine... BARBARA KINGSOLVER To people who think of themselves as God's houseguests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyon... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't expect to see perfection before I die. Lord, if I did I would have stuck my head in the oven... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But children robbed of love will dwell on magic. BARBARA KINGSOLVER You're thinking of revolution as a great all-or-nothing. I think of it as one more morning in a mugg... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I thought: this is how life is, ridiculous beyond comprehension. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've about decided that's the main thing that separates happy people from the other people: the feel... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i... BARBARA KINGSOLVER At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I live... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, it's not separate from your life. It grows right up out... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Emelina and I took each other in. All morning I'd felt the strange disjuncture that comes from recon... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on. BARBARA KINGSOLVER He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER ....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But I'll tell you a secret. When I want to take God at his word exactly I take a peep out the window... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When you're given a brilliant child you polish her and let her shine. Pigs in Heaven BARBARA KINGSOLVER As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer's long hair in water. I kne... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to inv... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I sit down to write, I consider myself an artist. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I know I'm a rare person, a trained scientist who writes fiction, because so few contemporary no... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort! BARBARA KINGSOLVER After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were mis... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to unde... BARBARA KINGSOLVER At home, growing up, we weren't really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn't hav... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I suppose that is my central obsession. What we owe to society, what we owe to ourselves. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Being a novelist and being a mother have exactly coincided in my life: the call from my agent saying... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm not pretending to be ingenuous; I know what I'm doing. BARBARA KINGSOLVER