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Barbara Kingsolver Quotes - Page 15

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In the day-to-day, farm work is stress relief for me. At the end of the day, I love having this other career - my anti-job - that keeps me in shape and gives me control over a vegetal domain.

In the day-to-day, farm work is stress relief for me. At the end of the day, I love having this other career - my anti-job - that keeps me in shape and gives me control over a vegetal domain.

Barbara Kingsolver
Jobs, Stress, Careers

I've always seen the world through the eyes of a scientist. I love the predictable outcomes that science gives us, the control over the world that that can render.

Barbara Kingsolver
Eye, Giving, World

I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort of chipping flint of cultures rubbing against each other.

Barbara Kingsolver
Thinking, Interesting, Culture

I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying.

Barbara Kingsolver
Cute, Children, Character
"Barbara Kingsolver: 'Motherhood is so sentimentalised in our culture'". Interview with Gemma Kappala-Ramsamy, www.theguardian.com. May 11, 2013.

I live in southern Appalachia, so I'm surrounded by people who work very hard for barely a living wage. It's particularly painful that people are working the farms their parents and grandparents worked but aren't living nearly as well.

Barbara Kingsolver
People, Grandparent, Southern

The first steps toward stewardship are awareness, appreciation, and the selfish desire to have the things around for our kids to see. Presumably the unselfish motives will follow as we wise up.

Barbara Kingsolver
Wise, Appreciation, Selfish
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.82, Faber & Faber

I don't look like who I am.

Barbara Kingsolver
Who I Am, Looks
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “Animal Dreams: A Novel”, p.8, Harper Collins

We tap our toes to chaste love songs about the silvery moon without recognizing them as hymns to copulation.

Barbara Kingsolver
Song, Moon, Hymns
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “High Tide in Tucson”, p.12, Faber & Faber

There must be limits, somewhere, to the human footprint on this earth. When the whole of the world is reduced to nothing but human product, we will have lost the map that can show us how we got here, and can offer our spirits an answer when we ask why. Surely we are capable of declaring sacred some quarters that we dare not enter or possess.

Barbara Kingsolver
Environmental, Earth, Sacred
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.87, Faber & Faber

People love to read about sins and errors, but not their own.

Barbara Kingsolver
Errors, People, Sin
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.447, Faber & Faber

Hallie and I... were all there was. The image in the mirror that proves you are still here. We had exactly one sister apiece. We grew up knowing the simple arithmetic of scarcity: A sister is more precious than an eye.

Barbara Kingsolver
Eye, Simple, Mirrors

you can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece

Barbara Kingsolver
Missing, Pieces, Persons

This Forest eats itself and lives forever.

Barbara Kingsolver
Forever, Forests, Stumps
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.10, Faber & Faber

Watching Italians eat (especially men, I have to say) is a form of tourism the books don't tell you about. They close their eyes, raise their eyebrows into accent marks, and make sounds of acute appreciation. It's fairly sexy. Of course I don't know how these men behave at home, if they help with the cooking or are vain and boorish and mistreat their wives. I realized Mediterranean cultures have their issues. Fine, don't burst my bubble. I didn’t want to marry these guys, I just wanted to watch. (p. 247)

Barbara Kingsolver
Sexy, Appreciation, Book
Barbara Kingsolver (2010). “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating”, p.247, Faber & Faber

Culture is a slingshot moved by the force of its past

Barbara Kingsolver
Past, Culture, Slingshots
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.436, Faber & Faber

No matter what kind of night you're having, morning always wins.

Barbara Kingsolver
Morning, Winning, Night
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Pigs in Heaven”, p.10, Faber & Faber

Do you think its possible to live without wanting to put your name on your paintings? To belong to a group so securely you don't need to rise above it?

Barbara Kingsolver
Thinking, Names, Groups
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Pigs in Heaven”, p.139, Faber & Faber

God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much.

Barbara Kingsolver
Children, Men, Doe
Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “Animal Dreams: A Novel”, p.21, Harper Collins

Be careful what you give children, for sooner or later you are sure to get it back.

Barbara Kingsolver
Children, Giving, Be Careful
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “High Tide in Tucson”, p.69, Faber & Faber

You can curse the dead or pray for them, but don't expect them to do a thing for you. They're far too interested in watching us, to see what in heaven's name we will do next.

Barbara Kingsolver
Names, Heaven, Next

He was getting that look he gets, oh boy, like Here comes Moses tromping down off of Mount Syanide with ten fresh ways to wreck your life.

Barbara Kingsolver
Boys, Looks, Wrecks
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.27, Faber & Faber

Last time I talked to her she didn't sound like herself. She's depressed. It's awful what happens when people run out of money. They start thinking they're no good.

Barbara Kingsolver
Running, Thinking, People

Oh, that river of wishes, the slippery crocodile dream of it, how it might have carried my body down through all the glittering sand bars to the sea.

Barbara Kingsolver
Dream, Sea, Rivers
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.81, Faber & Faber

A human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? You just can't. That's all there is to it.

Barbara Kingsolver
Illegal, Be Good, Humans

Sometimes I prayed for Baby Jesus to make me good, but Baby Jesus didn't.

Barbara Kingsolver
Baby, Jesus, Sometimes
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.132, Faber & Faber

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