Quotes from Karen Hesse

I turn my back on him as he goes, and settle myself in the parlor, and touch Ma's piano. My fingers leave sighs in the dust.

It almost rained Saturday.The clouds hung low over the farm.The air felt thick.It smelled like rain. In town,the sidewalks got damp, that was all.

Anyway, this time I caught her in the slow stirring of biscuits, her mind on other things, but anyhow, she was distracted enough, I was determined enough,this time I got just what I wanted. Permission to play at the Palace.

Daddy named me Billie Jo. He wanted a boy. Instead, he got a long legged girl with a wide mouth with cheekbones like bicycle handles. He got a redheaded, freckle faced, narrow-hipped girl with a fondness for apples and hunger for playing fierce piano.

By the summer I turned nine Daddy had given up about having a boy. He tried making me do.

Mr. Noble and Mr. Romney have a bet going as to who can kill the most rabbits. It all started at the rabbit drive last Monday over to Sturgis

When I point my fingers at the keys, the music springs straight out of me. Right hand playing notes sharp as tongues, telling stories while the smooth buttery rhythms back me up on the left.

Ivy Huxford kept peeking out and giving reports of who was there, and how she never saw so many seats filled in the Palace, and that she didn't think they could squeeze a rattlesnake into the back even if he paid full price, the place was so packed.

The way I see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. Hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up. And I'm learning, watching Daddy, that you can stay in one place and still grow.

Noble cheated. He brought in rabbits somebody else killed.