Carson McCullers Quotes about Heart

The Heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of anothers fire...driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there's no sign

The Heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of anothers fire...driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there's no sign of love in sight!

Carson McCullers

Lonely, Heart, Fire

But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.

Carson McCullers

Children, Heart, Twists

Carson McCullers (2005). “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe”, p.28, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It is music that causes the heart to broaden and the listener to grow cold with ecstasy and fright.

Carson McCullers

Heart, Causes, Cold

Carson McCullers (1998). “Collected Stories of Carson McCullers”, p.271, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

What are the sources of an illumination? To me, they come after hours of searching and keeping my soul ready. Yet they come in a flash, as a religious phenomenon. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter had such an illumination, beginning my long search for the truth of the story and flashing light into the long two years ahead.

Carson McCullers

Lonely, Religious, Heart

Carson McCullers, Carlos L. Dews (2001). “Illumination and night glare: the unfinished autobiography of Carson McCullers”, Univ of Wisconsin Pr

But you haven't never loved God nor even nair person. You hard and tough as cowhide. But just the same I knows you. This afternoon you going to roam all over the place without never being satisfied. You going to traipse all around like you haves to find something lost. You going to work yourself up with excitement. Your heart going to beat hard enough to kill you because you don't love and don't have peace. And then some day you going to bust loose and be ruined.

Carson McCullers

Atheist, Heart, Afternoon

Carson McCullers (2010). “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”, p.51, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

We wander, question. But the answer waits in each separate heart - the answer of our own identity and the way by which we can master loneliness and feel that at last we belong.

Carson McCullers

Loneliness, Heart, Waiting

Carson McCullers (2005). “The Mortgaged Heart: Selected Writings”, p.261, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the daytime and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the dark with all the plans and feelings. This music was her—the real plain her...This music did not take a long time or a short time. It did not have anything to do with time going by at all. She sat with her arms around her legs, biting her salty knee very hard. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen... Now that it was over there was only her heart beating like a rabbit and this terrible hurt.

Carson McCullers

Hurt, Real, Heart

But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.

Carson McCullers

Hurt, Children, Heart

Carson McCullers (2005). “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe”, p.28, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The human heart is a lonely hunter-but the search for us southerners is more anguished.

Carson McCullers

Lonely, Heart, Hunters

The music left only this bad hurt in her, and a blankness. She could not remember any of the symphony, not even the last few notes. She tried to remember, but no sound at all came to her. Now that it was over there was only her heart like a rabbit and this terrible hurt.

Carson McCullers

Hurt, Heart, Numbness

Carson McCullers (2010). “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”, p.119, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt