It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. Barbara Kingsolver More Quotes by Barbara Kingsolver More Quotes From Barbara Kingsolver He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes,' he still loves to say, as often as possible. 'It's hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in and wreck the shoes. Barbara Kingsolver girl mother running I live in southern Appalachia, so I'm surrounded by people who work very hard for barely a living wage. It's particularly painful that people are working the farms their parents and grandparents worked but aren't living nearly as well. Barbara Kingsolver grandparent southern people I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying. Barbara Kingsolver cute character children I've always seen the world through the eyes of a scientist. I love the predictable outcomes that science gives us, the control over the world that that can render. Barbara Kingsolver eye giving world I know how people are, with their habits of mind. Most will sail through from cradle to grave with a conscience clean as snow...I know people. Most have no earthly notion of the price of a snow-white conscience. Barbara Kingsolver white snow people Be careful what you give children, for sooner or later you are sure to get it back. Barbara Kingsolver be-careful giving children Silence has many advantages. When you do not speak, other people presume you to be deaf or feeble-minded and promptly make a show of their own limitations. Barbara Kingsolver silence speak people A human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? You just can't. That's all there is to it. Barbara Kingsolver illegal be-good humans How strange to read of a place in a book, and then stand on it, listen to the birds sing, and spit on the cobbles if you want. Barbara Kingsolver want bird book The past is all we know of the future. Barbara Kingsolver knows past Does a man become a revolutionary out of the belief he's entitled to joy rather than submission? Barbara Kingsolver doe joy men But nothing on this earth is guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know ? I've been thinking about that. About how your kids aren't really YOURS, they're just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you'll all grow up someday to like each other and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you get is really just on loan. Does that make sense?" Sure,"I said. "Like library books. Sooner or later they've all got to go back into the nightdrop. Barbara Kingsolver growing-up mean book Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular. Barbara Kingsolver infinite numbers lying you can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece Barbara Kingsolver pieces persons missing Silence has many advantages…I write and draw in my notebook and I read anything I please. Barbara Kingsolver notebook silence writing This Forest eats itself and lives forever. Barbara Kingsolver stumps forever forests Mother could go for one year without food, but not one day without her lip sticks. Barbara Kingsolver one-day mother years Hallie and I... were all there was. The image in the mirror that proves you are still here. We had exactly one sister apiece. We grew up knowing the simple arithmetic of scarcity: A sister is more precious than an eye. Barbara Kingsolver mirrors eye simple You can curse the dead or pray for them, but don't expect them to do a thing for you. They're far too interested in watching us, to see what in heaven's name we will do next. Barbara Kingsolver next names heaven It is true that I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell. Barbara Kingsolver speak people thinking