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Barbara Kingsolver Quotes - Page 11

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My way of finding a place in this world is to write one.

My way of finding a place in this world is to write one.

Barbara Kingsolver
Writing, World, Way
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.281, Faber & Faber

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. That's not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast.

Barbara Kingsolver
Country, Small Changes, Oil
Barbara Kingsolver (2010). “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating”, p.5, Faber & Faber

Corn syrup and added fats have been outed as major ingredients in fast food, but they hide out in packaged foods too, even presumed-innocent ones like crackers.

Barbara Kingsolver
Animal, Vegetables, Corn Syrup
Barbara Kingsolver (2010). “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating”, p.130, Faber & Faber

Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.

Barbara Kingsolver
Choices, Solitude, World
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “Prodigal Summer”, p.353, Faber & Faber

If the Lord hasn't got a boyfriend lined up for me to marry, that's his business.

Barbara Kingsolver
Lord, Ifs
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.129, Faber & Faber

Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular.

Barbara Kingsolver
Lying, Numbers, Infinite
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.325, Faber & Faber

No reporter worth his buttons will let the facts intrude on a good story.

Barbara Kingsolver
Buttons, Stories, Facts
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.376, Faber & Faber

You know reviewers, they are the wind in their own sails.

Barbara Kingsolver
Wind, Sail, Reviewers
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.471, Faber & Faber

What we end up calling history is a kind of knife, slicing down through time. A few people are hard enough to bend its edge. But most won't even stand close to the blade. I'm one of those. We don't bend anything.

Barbara Kingsolver
Knives, People, Calling
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.478, Faber & Faber

Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.

Barbara Kingsolver
Civilization, Feet, Pavement
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.396, Faber & Faber

Mother could go for one year without food, but not one day without her lip sticks.

Barbara Kingsolver
Mother, Years, One Day
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.73, Faber & Faber

Silence has many advantages. When you do not speak, other people presume you to be deaf or feeble-minded and promptly make a show of their own limitations.

Barbara Kingsolver
People, Silence, Speak
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel”, p.34, Harper Collins

How strange to read of a place in a book, and then stand on it, listen to the birds sing, and spit on the cobbles if you want.

Barbara Kingsolver
Book, Bird, Want
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.76, Faber & Faber

The past is all we know of the future.

Barbara Kingsolver
Past, Knows
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.316, Faber & Faber

Does a man become a revolutionary out of the belief he's entitled to joy rather than submission?

Barbara Kingsolver
Men, Joy, Doe
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.196, Faber & Faber

He needs to go rub his soul against life.

Barbara Kingsolver
Soul, Needs
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.262, Faber & Faber

Terms like that, 'Humane Society,' are devised with people like me in mind, who don't care to dwell on what happens to the innocent.

Barbara Kingsolver
Animal, People, House

The older I get, the more I appreciate my rural childhood. I spent a lot of time outdoors, unsupervised, which is a blessing.

Barbara Kingsolver
Blessing, Appreciate, Childhood
"A life in writing: Barbara Kingsolver". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. June 11, 2010.

I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence. I can understand a wrathful God who'd just as soon dangle us all from a hook. And I can understand a tender, unprejudiced Jesus. But I could never quite feature the two of them living in the same house. You wind up walking on eggshells, never knowing which... is at home at the moment.

Barbara Kingsolver
Jesus, Home, Views
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.85, Faber & Faber

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.

Barbara Kingsolver
Girl, Daughter, Father
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.162, Faber & Faber

On the day I swore to uphold the Hippocratic oath, the small hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I waited for lightning to strike. Who was I, vowing calmly among all these necktied young men to steal life out of nature's jaws, every old time we got half a chance and a paycheck?... I could not accept the contract: that every child born human upon this earth comes with a guarantee of perfect health and old age clutched in its small fist.

Barbara Kingsolver
Children, Men, Hair
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.436, Faber & Faber

A breeze shook rain out of new leaves onto their hair, but in their pursuit of eternity they never noticed the chill.

Barbara Kingsolver
Rain, Hair, Chill
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “Prodigal Summer”, p.26, Faber & Faber

In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.

Barbara Kingsolver
Sorry, Feet, People
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.163, Faber & Faber

My life is a pitiful, mechanical thing without a past, like a little wind-up car, ready to run in any direction someone points me.

Barbara Kingsolver
Running, Past, Wind

Independence is a complex word in a foreign tongue. To resist occupation, whether you're a nation or merely a woman, you must understand the language of your enemy. Conquest and liberation and democrac and divorce are words that mean squat, basically, when you have hungry children and clothes to get out on the line and it looks like rain.

Barbara Kingsolver
Children, Rain, Mean
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.289, Faber & Faber

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