Patricia Reilly Giff Quotes

Patricia Reilly Giff is an American author and teacher. She was educated at Marymount Manhattan College, where she was awarded a B.A. degree, and St. John's University, where she earned an M.A. and Hofstra University, where she was awarded a Professional Diploma in Reading and a Doctorate of Humane Letters. After spending some twenty years as a full-time teacher, she began writing, specializing in children's literature. Giff now resides in Trumbull, Connecticut, along with her husband Jim and their three children. Giff's writing workshops have influenced other children's authors such as Tony Abbott and Elise Broach. She is a Newbery Honor, ALA Best Book For Young Adults, and Christopher Award laureate. Wikipedia

✵ 26. April 1935

Works

Lily's Crossing

Lily's Crossing

Patricia Reilly Giff

Patricia Reilly Giff: 32 quotes 3 likes

Famous Patricia Reilly Giff Quotes

“I told her that saying goodbye didn't matter, not a bit. What mattered were all the days you were together before that, all the things you remembered.”

Patricia Reilly Giff book Lily's Crossing

Source: Lily's Crossing

“She wanted to put her head down on her knees and close her eyes. She felt the way she had years ago when she'd tumbled down the stairs and had the wind knocked out of her: a pain in the chest and stomach so strong it was hard to breathe.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 139

“If only she could have held on to that day, held on to that moment forever, grasped it in her fists so it wouldn't escape.
If only.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 11

“Bird.
A good name for her. She wasn't a sparrow or a songbird, though. She stood so straight, and her face was strong.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 27-28

“With just the sweep of a pen, Thomas, you can change the world, all of it.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Prologue, p. 3; spoken by an unknown woman

“Sometimes in life you have to do the hardest things to get somewhere—to change your life.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 87; spoken by Mr. Mallon

Patricia Reilly Giff Quotes about birds

“But what gave him the most satisfaction was going back through the pages to read about his first story appearing in the Saturday Evening Post.
That afternoon he'd bought Bird the largest bag of lemon drops he could find.
"He gives her candy," she had said, remembering too.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Epilogue, p. 164 (closing words); reference to quote from Chapter 11

“How different everyone looked. How louldly they talked about who was starting work tomorrow, who would start in a week, while Sister Raymond sat at her desk looking serene. Bird felt a lurch in her chest. Of all of them, she though, she might be the one who'd miss school the most.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 159

“Is there anyone noisier in the world than Bird Mallon?”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 20; spoken by Annie

“He was laughing again. What was it about Bird that made him do that?”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 73

“The girl's mouth was chapped, tight and pinched, her skin dry. Mama would say she looked woebegone, but as Bird looked at her eyes, the word she thought of was desperate.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 127

Patricia Reilly Giff Quotes about the world

“How quiet everything was this Sunday afternoon, how still. No horse and wagon clopped down the street, no cart; no one stood on the corner talking. It was as if they were the only ones in the world.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 44

“No one in the world like my sister Birdie.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 84; spoken by Hughie

“A new start," Pop said as they stopped at the corner and waited to cross over to where te horse and cart waited for them. "A new apartment, Thomas. A new life.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

A new world to write about.
Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 17

Patricia Reilly Giff Quotes

“What was the use of writing if someone didn't read what you have to say?”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 134

Reading

“Thomas watched him for a few minutes. Pop was good-looking, muscular, and his hair was almost gold even though it was getting a little thin on top. Thomas must have taken after his mother, whoever she was.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 13

“Writing wasn't easy for her. It wasn't like arithmetic, not like a column of numbers to be added or subtracted from the top of the blackboard to the bottom, neat and organized; or science, figuring out the why of things.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 65

Science

“And the boy was right in back of her, his neck thin as a pencil. "My name is Thomas," he said. "Thomas Neary."
She didn't answer.
"The horse's name is Alfred, in case you want to know." He screwed up his face. "Or maybe Fernando."”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 21-22

Boy , Horse

“I don't think he's touched a washcloth to his face since the day he was born.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 30; spoken by Bird about Thomas.

Thinking

“How many times had she seen Annie sew in a sleeve, easing both sides so that they wouldn't pucker, taking a stitch, and smoothing out the fabric again? And now Mama was doing the same thing to someone's head. Someone's skin.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 47

Time

“He remembered everything. Maybe that was why he was such a great writer. What he remembered he'd put on paper, but it came out different, more interesting, more exciting than she'd ever been able to imagine.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 90

Imagination

“But that was a realworld, and he didn't have to put it down on paper. He ripped the page out of the book, tore it into shreds, and threw them behind the tree, where they settled into the weeds.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 15

Books , Tree

“He wrote stories about everything he saw, and he saw a lot. He walked through the streets of Brooklyn along the water, or leaned against the store windows on Livingston Street watching people hurrying along, making up stories about this one or that one.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Prologue, p. 3

People , Water

“Leave it to Annie. She knew everything.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 162

“Outside it had begun to rain, a fine mist of a rain: fall leaves were plastered to the walkway, and puddles filled with bits of hay and coal lay in the street. A nice bit to remember for the writing. Water Street! He loved to look at it.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 72

Love , Water

“She didn't want to touch the baby. Didn't want to know if she was dead. But still she reached down, her arms underneath that small body, and pulled it up against her. The body was burning with fever.
But alive. Alive!”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 131

Baby , Dead

“Everything stopped: forks half raised, a bowl being passed. It seemed that the man was bathed in red, great swaths of it across his shirt and hands. And then Thomas realized: he was covered in blood.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 43

“How could she know what she wanted to do with her life? All these years she thought she'd be a healer like Mama, and now she knew it was never going to happen.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 64

Life

“What had it been like the first time Da tried to read the same page? She could almost see his finger under each word, the whisper of his voice as he sounded out the words to himself. How had he ever done that? It seemed impossible.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 95-96

Time , Reading

“He knew what she'd be reading first as she started from the beginning, reading what he'd had to say when he was younger, and then growing older, stories at first about tiny mice who lived in families in back of the wall, and stories about school, and apartments in Greenpoint and Carnasie and Flatbush, elves in Ireland that he'd pictured as Pop had told him about them, and the woman with lace on her sleeves.
She kept turning pages, and then halfway through, she whispered, "Water Street."
Thomas knew she was reading now about a boy who listened at a register, thinking about a family, and a lighthouse, and then she turned the next page and took a breath.
It was the story he really wanted her to see: a story about a girl who though less of herself than everyone else did, who worried about everyone, even when she didn't want to, even when it made her irritable. A girl who was afraid, and who hardly knew it yet, but was on her way to being a healer like her mother, because there'd never be anything else for her, and how lucky they were just to know her.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 135-136

School , Family , Way , Girl

“She gives him candy. They're probably going to get married.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 61; spoken by one of the girls at Bird and Thomas's school

“But what gave him the most satisfaction was going back through the pages to read about his first story appearing in the Saturday Evening Post.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

That afternoon he'd bought Bird the largest bag of lemon drops he could find.
"He gives her candy," she had said, remembering too.
Source: Water Street (2006), Epilogue, p. 164 (closing words); reference to quote from Chapter 11

Appearance , Reading

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