Quotes from Barbara Kingsolver

How could anyone get a sensible bearing on life from the stage of an auditorium, or make any useful statements from that position?

It was the zero bullshit. If you ever met a middle school girl, you know what they are: volcano eruptions of bullshit. Every minute a new emergency, the best friend turned enemy. Some

Weeks, even. When I could not bear to leave the safety of my own trees, my choir of Carolina wrens.

Even a joke has some weight and takes up space, and when introduced into a vacuum, acquires its own gravity.

If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.

My stenographer would say, 'Fairly warned is fair afeared.

After that I had a new brain-Lysol to calm myself down: walking in the woods with Emmy. I'd picture us holding hands, maybe with our own dog. Being grown-ups. It would be so much safer than being a kid.

apron back on, and I washed all the dishes while she sat on her wooden stool and watched. I told her just sit, I've got this. Miss Betsy acted like she'd never seen a man clean up a kitchen before, which maybe she hadn't. I wanted to keep her talking about Angus, so I asked

What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, "What life can I live that will let me breathe in & out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?

it's the thing you fear most that walks beside you all the time.

She whirled around and threw the spatula, not missing my head by all that wide of a margin. I was shocked, not so much by her language but by the strength of that pitch. Usually Rachel threw underhanded and was no threat at all.

Nothing was more wonderful than waiting for a happiness you could be sure of.

The day comes, they hand you a new rule book.

It wasn't a matter of courage or dreams, but something a whole lot simpler. A pilot would call it ground orientation. I'd spent a long time circling above the clouds, looking for life, while Hallie was living it.

Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story

What is the conquerer's wife, fi not a conquest herself?

The daily work—that goes on, it adds up. It goes into the ground, into crops, into children's bellies and their bright eyes. Good things don't get lost.

It's surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.

By pure mistake, his implementation is sometimes more pure than his intentions. But mostly it is the other way around. Mostly he shouts, "Praise be!" while the back of his hand knocks you flat.

But Mama has this certain voice sometimes. Not exactly sassing back, but just about nearly.

I was getting a dim comprehension of the difference between Hallie and me. It wasn't a matter of courage or dreams, but something a whole lot simpler. A pilot would call it ground orientation. I'd spent a long time circling above the clouds, looking for life, while Hallie was living it. The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.

the tall weed gets cut.

A quick way to improve food-related fuel economy would be to buy a quart of motor oil and drink it.

One thing I learned from Mr. Armstrong while striving heartily to remain uneducated: a good story doesn't just copy life, it pushes back on it. It's why guys like Chartrain wear their clothes too big and their teeth edged with gold, why Mr. Dick puts words on kites and sends them to the sun.