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Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver Quotes

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Famous Barbara Kingsolver Quotes

“Sometimes I still have American dreams. I mean literally. I see microwave ovens and exercise machines and grocery store shelves with 30 brands of shampoo, and I look at these things oddly, in my dream. I stand and think, "What is all this for? What is the hunger that drives this need?" I think it's fear. Codi, I hope you won't be hurt by this, but I don't think I'll ever be going back. I don't think I can.”

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Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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“He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes,' he still loves to say, as often as possible. 'It's hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in and wreck the shoes.”

StillsHardRunningMotherGirlWaterToo MuchSeeingCollegeWasteShoesGods WillExpectingWrecksPouringExpecting Too Much
Book:The Poisonwood Bible
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“But still, I’d be darned if I was going to be one of those Americans who stomp around Italy barking commands in ever-louder English. I was going to be one of those Americans who traversed Italy with my forehead knit in concentration, divining wordsw from their Latin roots and answering by wedging French cognates into Italian pronunciations spliced onto a standard Spanish verb conjugation.”

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Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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“For time and eternity there have been fathers like Nathan who simply can see no way to have a daughter but to own her like a plot of land. To work her, plow her under, rain down a dreadful poison upon her. Miraculously, it causes these girls to grow. They elongate on the pale slender stalks of their longing, like sunflowers with heavy heads. You can shield them with your body and soul, trying to absorb that awful rain, but they'll still move toward him. Without cease they'll bend to his light.”

WayTryingHas BeensStillsSoulBodyLightMovingGirlFatherGrowsCausesLandDaughterRainEternityLongingHeavyYour BodyCeaseAwfulPoisonPlotPaleShieldsStalkingSlenderSunflowerYour Body And Soul
Book:The Poisonwood Bible
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“But Anatole said suddenly, 'Don't expect God's protection in places beyond God's dominion. It will only make you feel punished. I'm warning you. When things go bad, you will blame yourself.' 'What are you telling me?' 'I am telling you what I'm telling you. Don't try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.”

IfsFeelsTryingSaidStillsProblemHappensLuckyEqualMathematicsBlameProtectionBad ThingsWarningComing OutDominion
Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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“The moth settled onto the curtain and sat still. It was an astonishing creature, with black and white wings patterned in geometric shapes, scarlet underwings, and a fat white body with black spots running down it like a snowman's coal buttons. No human eye had looked at this moth before; no one would see its friends. So much detail goes unnoticed in the world.”

WorldHumansStillsBodyEyeRunningBlackWhiteShapesCreaturesWingsDetailsFatsSpotsSatBlack And WhiteButtonsCoalCurtainsAstonishingUnnoticedScarletMothsHuman EyesGeometricSnowmanGeometric Shapes
Book:Prodigal Summer
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“Wake up now, look alive, for here is a day off work just to praise Creation: the turkey, the squash, and the corn, these things that ate and drank sunshine, grass, mud, and rain, and then in the shortening days laid down their lives for our welfare and onward resolve. There's the miracle for you, the absolute sacrifice that still holds back seed: a germ of promise to do the whole thing again, another time. . . Thanksgiving is Creation's birthday party. Praise harvest, a pause and sigh on the breath of immortality.”

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Book:Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating
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“But nothing on this earth is guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know ? I've been thinking about that. About how your kids aren't really YOURS, they're just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you'll all grow up someday to like each other and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you get is really just on loan. Does that make sense?" Sure,"I said. "Like library books. Sooner or later they've all got to go back into the nightdrop.”

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Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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