Quotes from Jeannette Walls

I became known as Lily Casey, the mustang-breaking, poker-playing, horse-race-winning schoolmarm of Coconino County, and it wasn't half bad to be in place where no one had a problem with a woman having a moniker like that.

A lady's hair is her crowning glory

History gets written by the winners, he said, and when the crooks win, you get crooked history.

As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.

we both stood a better chance if we took on the world together.

In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.

Mom and Dad liked to make a big point about never surrendering to fear or to prejudice or to the narrow-minded conformist sticks-in-the-mud who tried to tell everyone else what was proper.

Then he pointed to the top of the fire, where the snapping yellow flames dissolved into an invisible shimmery heat that made the desert beyond seem to waver, like a mirage. Dad told us that zone was known in physics as the boundary between turbulence and order. "It's a place where no rules apply, or at least they haven't figured 'em out yet," he said. "You-all got a little too close to it today.

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

What Dad didn't understand was that no matter how much he hated or feared the future, it was coming, and there was only one way to deal with it: by climbing aboard.

You'll never make a fortune working for the boss man

even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you go it.

I'd rather have a yard filled with genuine garbage than with trashy lawn ornaments.

I told Mom that maybe I had made a terrible mistake, but mom said sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

There was nothing to compare with standing on a piece of land you owned free and clear. No one could push you off it, no one could take it from you, no one could tell you what to do with it.

Fussing over children who cry only encourages them. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

The baby went without a name for weeks. Mom said she wanted to study it first, the way she would the subject of a painting. We had a lot of arguments over what the name should be. I wanted to call her Rosita, after the prettiest girl in my class, but Mom said the name was too Mexican. I thought we weren't supposed to be prejudiced, I said. It's not being prejudiced, Mom said. It's a matter of accuracy in labeling.

Poor old Venus didn't even make her own light, Dad said. She shone only from reflected light.

The world seemed divided into girls with boyfriends and girls without them. It was the distinction that mattered the most, practically the only one that did matter. But I knew that boys were dangerous. They'd say they loved you, but they were always after something.

If you get down, all you need to do is act like you're feeling good, and next thing you know, you are.

You're not supposed to laugh at your own father. Ever.

You were free to choose enslavement, but the choice was a free one only if you knew what your alternatives were.

You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them," [Jeannette's mom] said. "You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that." "Oh yeah?" I said. "How about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality?" "Hitler loved dogs," Mom said without hesitation.

What struck me most was his crooked grin, like he saw the world in his own special way and got a kick out of it.