Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 novel by Fannie Flagg. It weaves together the past and the present through the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman who lives in a nursing home. Every week Evelyn visits Ninny, who tells her stories about her youth in Whistle Stop, Alabama where her sister-in-law, Idgie, and her friend, Ruth, ran a café. These stories, along with Ninny's friendship, enable Evelyn to begin a new, satisfying life while allowing the people and stories of Ninny's youth to live on. The book was also made into a movie, and explores themes of family, aging, lesbianism, and the dehumanizing effects of racism on both blacks and whites.
“You know, a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same.”
Variant: You know, a heart can be broken, but it still keeps a-beating just the same.
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you are two steps ahead.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“By the way, is there anything sadder than toys on a grave?”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“You're just a bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode. That's what you are, a bee charmer.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“The ones that hurt the most always say the least.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“Face it girls. I'm older and I have more insurance.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“I believe in God, but I don't think you have to go crazy to prove it.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“That's what I'm living on now, honey, dreams, dreams of what I used to do.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“You never know what's in a person's heart until they're tested, do you?”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“Are you a politician or does lying just run in your family?”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
