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Josephine Humphreys Quotes

Like most good looking women, she was never sure of her beauty, and had to keep checking on it, to make sure it was still there.

Like most good looking women, she was never sure of her beauty, and had to keep checking on it, to make sure it was still there.

Josephine Humphreys
Her Beauty, Looking Good, Stills
Josephine Humphreys (2000). “The Fireman's Fair”, p.70, Penguin

When people say they are happy for you it may mean they are sad for themselves.

Josephine Humphreys
Mean, People, May
Josephine Humphreys (2000). “The Fireman's Fair”, p.22, Penguin

People Should not be protected from the world.. -It cripples them.

Josephine Humphreys
People, World, Should

How I Shed My Skin is, simply put, a brilliant book. While I was reading, I kept thinking two things. One, this is totally shocking. Two, it's not at all shocking, but a familiar part of my life and memory. Grimsley's narrative is straightforward and plain-spoken while at the same time achingly moving and intimately honest, and it does more to explain the South than anything I've read in a long, long time.

Josephine Humphreys
Memories, Moving, Book

But the moods could be contagious. He didn't need one right now.

Josephine Humphreys
Empathy, Needs, Mood
Josephine Humphreys (2000). “The Fireman's Fair”, p.50, Penguin

Bobbie Ann Mason's genius only grows stronger and wiser and funnier with every new book, and Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail is my absolute favorite so far. What an ear she has for the telling phrase, what an eye for the heartbreaking detail. These new stories are stunning.

Josephine Humphreys
Book, Heart, Eye

You must be the greatest mother in the world, but you must also, simultaneously, withdraw from your children's lives. You don't want to be the major force in their whole lives. You need to do the job adequately and as best you can, and then provide them with independence from you. You have to give them enough so that they won't need you anymore.

Josephine Humphreys
Mother, Jobs, Children

People do sometimes change, of course. Habits, allegiances, dreams are all alterable, but only under extraordinary pressure - like great love, fear, grief. More often, people don't change. A girl who never missed a day of work does not suddenly decide to stay home in bed, for no good reason.

Josephine Humphreys
Girl, Dream, Grief
Josephine Humphreys (2000). “Dreams of Sleep”, p.32, Penguin

You can't drown yourself that simply. All good suicides involve speed and irreversibility, because the body will always move to protect itself against the sicko mind trying to do it in.

Josephine Humphreys
Suicide, Moving, Mind
Josephine Humphreys (2000). “Dreams of Sleep”, p.122, Penguin

You know a relationship has deteriorated past the point of salvage when one person detests another's gestures.

Josephine Humphreys
Past, Gestures, Persons
Josephine Humphreys (2000). “Rich in Love”, p.97, Penguin

sharing is the secret of civilization.

Josephine Humphreys
Civilization, Secret

I read Butterfly’s Child in one day, totally hooked. It is a captivating novel of love, guilt, sin, justice—and how all these things are, in time, transformed surprisingly and inevitably.

Josephine Humphreys
Children, Butterfly, Justice

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