Quotes from work

The Poisonwood Bible

“Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing blow with his sky-blue mouth as he passed.”

“To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.”

“If the Lord hasn't got a boyfriend lined up for me to marry, that's his business.”

“Oh, mercy. If it catches you in the wrong frame of mind, the King James Bible can make you want to drink poison in no uncertain terms.”

“… I stir in bed and the memories rise out of me like a buzz of flies from a carcass. I crave to be rid of them…”

“God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.”

“How is it right to slip free of an old skin and walk away from the scene of the crime? We came, we saw, we took away and we left behind, we must be allowed our anguish and our regrets.”

“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, and have that be all right.”

“Poor Congo, barefoot bride of men who took her jewels and promised the Kingdom.”

“Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I've only found sorrow.”

“He was getting that look he gets, oh boy, like Here comes Moses tromping down off of Mount Syanide with ten fresh ways to wreck your life.”

“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.”

“The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.”

“The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice. It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep.”

“I wonder that religion can live or die on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze. The scent trail shifts, causing the predator to miss the pounce. One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires.”

“Maybe he's been in Africa so long he has forgotten that we Christians have our own system of marriage, and it is called Monotony.”

“No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and foreign goodwill.”

“I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book.”

“We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle.”