How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them. Barbara Kingsolver More Quotes by Barbara Kingsolver More Quotes From Barbara Kingsolver I grew up aware of all the people I depended on and who depended on me. Barbara Kingsolver grew grew-up people Codi: Gives you the willies, doesn't it? The thought of raising kids in a place where the front yard ends in a two-hundred-foot drop? [referring to cliff dwellings] Loyd: No worse than raising up kids where the front yard ends in a freeway. Barbara Kingsolver civilization two kids Write a nonfiction book, and be prepared for the legion of readers who are going to doubt your fact. But write a novel, and get ready for the world to assume every word is true. Barbara Kingsolver doubt writing book There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature. Barbara Kingsolver sacrifice boys war A careless way of sauntering across the earth and breaking open its treasures, a terrible dependency on sucking out the world's best juices for ourselves-these may also be our enemies. The changes we dread most may contain our salvation. Barbara Kingsolver earth-day treasure enemy The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Barbara Kingsolver novelists artist writing Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder; it only adds them. Barbara Kingsolver revenge doe numbers The arrogance of the able-bodied is staggering. Yes, maybe we'd like to be able to get places quickly, and carry things in both hands but only because we have to keep up with the rest of you ... We would rather be just like us, and have that be all right. Barbara Kingsolver arrogance able hands Science doesn't tell us what we should do. It only tells us what is. Barbara Kingsolver should Now, see, that's why you want Internet friends. You can find people just exactly like you. Screw your neighbors and your family, too messy...the trouble is, once you filter out everybody that doesn't agree with you, all that's left is maybe this one retired surfer guy living in Idaho. Barbara Kingsolver idaho guy people The substance of grief is not imaginary. It's as real as rope or the absence of air, and like both those things, it can kill. Barbara Kingsolver grief real air I personally am inclined to approach [housework] the way governments treat dissent: ignore it until it revolts. Barbara Kingsolver treats government way This is what it means to be alone: everyone is connected to everyone else, their bodies are a bright liquid life flowing around you, sharing a single heart that drives them to move all together. If the shark comes they will all escape, and leave you to be eaten. Barbara Kingsolver heart mean moving You know things are bad when a woman without any legs and who recently lost two of her own kids feels sorry for you. Barbara Kingsolver sorry two kids People love to read about sins and errors, but not their own. Barbara Kingsolver errors sin people Everything truly important is washable. Barbara Kingsolver housework important I look at my four boys, who are the colors of silt, loam, dust, and clay, an infinite palette for children of their own, and I understand that time erases whiteness altogether. Barbara Kingsolver dust boys children For Lou Ann, life itself was a life-threatening enterprise. Barbara Kingsolver threatening enterprise life They all attended Hester's church, which Dellarobia viewed as a complicated pyramid scheme of moral debt and credit resting ultimately on the shoulders of the Lord, but rife with middle managers. Barbara Kingsolver pyramid-schemes church pyramids Insomnia’s different,” I said. It was hard to explain this to people. “You know the light that comes on when you open the refrigerator door? Just imagine it stays on all the time, even after you close the door. That’s what it’s like in my head. The light stays on. Barbara Kingsolver light insomnia doors
