36 quotes found
“The world was hers for the reading.”
“Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.”
“Dear God, she prayed, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life.”
“It's come at last", she thought, "the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache.”
“There had to be dark and muddy waters so that the sun could have something to background it's flashing glory.”
“She sat in the sunshine watching the life on the street and guarding within herself, her own mystery of life.”
“This could be a whole life," she thought. "You work eight hours a day covering wires to earn money to buy food and to pay for a place to sleep so that you can keep living to come back to cover more...”
“I know that's what people say-- you'll get over it. I'd say it, too. But I know it's not true. Oh, youll be happy again, never fear. But you won't forget. Every time you fall in love it will be bec...”
“But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.”
“Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be r...”
“She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered 'different.' She did not suffer too much.”
“Did you ever see so many pee-wee hats, Carl?""They're beanies.""They call them pee-wees in Brooklyn.""But I'm not in Brooklyn.""But you're still a Brooklynite.""I wouldn't want that to get around, ...”
“In his business, he observed human nature and came to certain conclusions about it. The conclusions lacked wisdom and originality; in fact, they were tiresome. But they were important to McGarrity ...”
“Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?”
“In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won't ge...”
“...May I have this damaged bunch for two cents? Speak strongly and it shall be yours for two cents. That is a saved penny that you put in the star bank...Suffer the cold for an hour. Put a shawl ar...”
“A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn't tell it like it was, you told it like yo...”
“Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong...”
“They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel.”
“But she didn't want to recall things. She wanted to live things or as a compromise, relive rather than reminisce.”
“Everything, decided Francie after that first lecture, was vibrant with life and there was no death in chemistry. She was puzzled as to why learned people didn't adopt chemistry as a religion.”
“Because the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start o...”
“Francie, huddled with other children of her kind, learned more that first day than she realized. She learned of the class system of a great Democracy.”
