Quotes from Nancy E. Turner

I have a deep-down belief that there are folks in the world who are good through and through and others who came in mean and will go out mean.

Goats are naught but bones and bleating, and their hair was not warm nor their bodies soft. Of course, there was the smell, too, bitter as overripe vinegar, intrusive as bile.

Did you know some of the stars have names? He looked at me and smiled with that warm look he gets now and then. Yes, he said, but I don't know their names, do you? No, I said, but lets name them ourselves. We'll name them after everyone we love that is already in heaven, and every night when we see their star, we'll have a good memory of them instead of a sad one. See how beautiful it is up there?

to my room.   Sheriff John Moultrie blew through his teeth and pursed lips, making a sound more akin to a steaming teapot than a whistle. The tune was "On the Road to Alabam'," a melody he'd picked up from watching gangs of gandy dancers as a child; he'd forgotten the words, but the ditty remained part of his grain.

Sometimes I feel like a tree on a hill, at the place where all the wind blows and the hail hits the hardest. All the people I love are down the side aways, sheltered under a great rock, and I am out of the fold, standing alone in the sun and the snow. I feel like I am not part of the rest somehow, although they welcome me and are kind. I see my family as they sit together and it is like they have a certain way between them that is beyond me. I wonder if other folks ever feel included yet alone.

Well, I just think that is the problem, you put up with it instead of speaking your mind.

is a funny thing how much more proud people can be of themselves if they never step back and take a good look in a glass.

I was going through the botanical theory book, and while I was reading I remembered something Blue Horse said to me back before Gilbert was born. He said wisdom is not a path, it is a tree.

pictured that one Indian man I stood so close to I could hear his breathing, and those filthy, awful men I killed, and I know Indians aren't no dirtier than any white folks and cleaner than some. Not stupid, either. But I saved my breath. The likes of her isn't going to listen nor be changed in the mind just from hearing sense. Some people sense is wasted on and that's purely a fact.

We move on like stone statues. I feel like my legs are made of wooden branches and my heart is a hard rock inside. For days I do not even tie up my hair and it flows around me like an Indian's. I can't find my bonnet and my traveling clothes are ragged and so is my soul.

I make believe all my dear ones are not gone, just out of my line of sight beyond some curtain or cluster of people, or tree

Oh, here's a gift for The Third Tuesday in October, didn't you know that's a holiday? Well, I bought you a book.

Trouble was, the string tethering it to the ground was what kept the kite flying. Without its connection it would never stay aloft.

I'm about fed up with men right now. It's just trouble, always trying to figure what one's got caught in his craw that he isn't telling.

A move is a way of lightening your load and starting things new.

Being the one doing something is always so much easier than being the one waiting.

live only to do your bidding.

lightning! Mephistopheles and Beelzebub!

The best thing a girl can be is a good wife and mother. It is a girl's highest calling. I hope I am ready.

Children are a burden to a mother, but not the way a heavy box is to a mule. Our children weight hard on my heart, and thinking about them growing up honest and healthy, or just living to grow up at all, makes a load in my chest that is bigger than the safe at the bank,and more valuable to me than all the gold inside it.

We are a noisy and blessed little family

I have a deep-down belief that there are folks in the world who are good through and through, and others who came in mean and will go out mean. It's like coffee. Once it's roasted, it all looks brown. Until you pour hot water on it and see what comes out. Folks get into hot water, you see what comes out.

A nice girl should never go anywhere without a loaded gun and a big knife." ~ Sarah Agnes Prine

Mama told me to make a special point to remember the best times of my life. There are so many hard things to live through, and latching on to the good things will give you strength to endure, she says. So I must remember this day. It is beautiful and this seems like the best time to live and the best place