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Barbara Kingsolver Quotes - Page 18

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The gods you do not pay are the ones that can curse you best.

The gods you do not pay are the ones that can curse you best.

Barbara Kingsolver
Pay, Curse
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.175, Faber & Faber

Poor Congo, barefoot bride of men who took her jewels and promised the Kingdom.

Barbara Kingsolver
Men, Jewels, Kingdoms
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.170, Faber & Faber

Shoes would interfere with her conversation, for she constantly addresses the ground under her feet. Asking forgiveness. Owning, disowning, recanting, recharting a hateful course of events to make sense of her complicity. We all are, I suppose. Trying to invent our version of the story. All human odes are essentially one, "My life; what I stole from history, and how I live with it.

Barbara Kingsolver
Shoes, Feet, Trying

How is it right to slip free of an old skin and walk away from the scene of the crime? We came, we saw, we took away and we left behind, we must be allowed our anguish and our regrets.

Barbara Kingsolver
Regret, Skins, Saws
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.412, Faber & Faber

I stir in bed and the memories rise out of me like a buzz of flies from a carcass. I crave to be rid of them.

Barbara Kingsolver
Memories, Bed, Buzz
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.13, Faber & Faber

At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I lived in. But at another point, much earlier I think, I'd quietly begun to hope for nothing at all in the way of love, so as not to be disappointed. It works. It gets to be a habit.

Barbara Kingsolver
Thinking, Castles, Way
"Animal Dreams". Book by Barbara Kingsolver, 1990.

Morality is not a large, constructed *thing* you have or have not, but simply a capacity. Something you carry with you in your brain and in your hands.

Barbara Kingsolver
Hands, Brain, Morality

Perhaps growing up meant we put our knives away and feigned ignorance of the damage.

Barbara Kingsolver
Growing Up, Ignorance, Knives

Most of the girls my age, or even younger, have babies. They appear way too young to be married, till you look in their eyes. Then you'll see it. Their eyes look happy and sad at the same time, but unexcited by anything, shifting easily off to the side as if they've already seen most of what there is. Married eyes.

Barbara Kingsolver
Girl, Baby, Eye
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.94, Faber & Faber

There is a strange moment in time, after something horrible happens, when you know it's true, but you haven't told anyone yet.

Barbara Kingsolver
Fear, Strange, Moments
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.310, Faber & Faber

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.

Barbara Kingsolver
Friendship, Best Friend, Birthday
Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “High Tide in Tucson”, p.88, Faber & Faber

But Anatole said suddenly, 'Don't expect God's protection in places beyond God's dominion. It will only make you feel punished. I'm warning you. When things go bad, you will blame yourself.' 'What are you telling me?' 'I am telling you what I'm telling you. Don't try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.

Barbara Kingsolver
Trying, Lucky, Warning

You see mother, you had no life of your own. They have no idea. One has only a life of one's own.

Barbara Kingsolver
Mother, Ideas, No Idea
Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.12, Faber & Faber

Something in me was always watching life from the outside, permanently obsessed with the notion of belonging vs. not-belonging [to a group]. It did not make for a happy childhood, but it was excellent training for a writer.

Barbara Kingsolver
Childhood, Training, Groups
Interview with Crystal Wilkinson, appalachianheritage.net. November 20, 2014.

When you pick up a novel from the bed side table, you put down your own life at the same time and you become another person for the duration.

Barbara Kingsolver
Sides, Bed, Tables
Interview with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org. May 24, 2002.

It's very important to distinguish between innocence and naivete. The innocent do not deserve to be the victims of violence. But only the naive refuse to think about the origins of violence and to pursue the possibility that the genesis of that hatred could be addressed.

Barbara Kingsolver
Thinking, Hatred, Important
Interview with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org. May 24, 2002.

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're talking about it or thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Writing is ninety-eight percent work and two percent magic.

Barbara Kingsolver
Writing, Thinking, Eight
The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

Plot comes first. The plot is the archictecture of your novel. You wouldn't build a house without a plan. If I wrote without a plot, it would just be a pile of bricks. Characters are your servants. They must serve your plot.

Barbara Kingsolver
Character, House, Firsts
The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don't believe in talent. I believe in passion.

Barbara Kingsolver
Believe, Book, Passion
The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

Before that I was a scientist. I did research in population biology. And that's what I always go back to, it helps me to remember that people are not the end of the world, although we may be when it comes to it. We're just one species among millions in this world.

Barbara Kingsolver
People, Population, Research
Interview with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org. May 24, 2002.

There is something in us that loves certain disasters and the fever of this moment and surrendering to that.

Barbara Kingsolver
Fever, Moments, Disaster
"Barbara Kingsolver Sets a Fire". Interview with Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 7, 2012.

In fact, one of the things that I really love about literary fiction is that it's one of the few kinds of writing that doesn't tell us what to think or what to buy or what to wear. We're surrounded by advertising.

Barbara Kingsolver
Writing, Thinking, Facts

The longer you live, the more likely you are to have something to say.

Barbara Kingsolver
"Therapy in Reverse: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver". Interview with Mia Lipman, www.omnivoracious.com. December 27, 2012.

I believe with all my heart in delivering on my contract with my readers. They've got plenty of other things to do, so I had better give them a reason to turn every one of these 550 pages. This is my promise: I solemnly swear I'll make you laugh out loud at least once, cry a little in private, and burn whatever you left on the stove.

Barbara Kingsolver
Believe, Heart, Giving
"Author interview: Barbara Kingsolver". www.librarything.com. October 1, 2008.

I know I have to write about the things that keep me awake at night.

Barbara Kingsolver
Writing, Night, Awake
The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

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