Quotes from book
The Secret Life of Bees

Name: The Secret Life of Bees
Author: Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees is a book by author Sue Monk Kidd. Set in 1964, it is a coming-of-age story about loss and betrayal. It received critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller. It won the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards , and was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

“We walked along the river with the words streaming behind us like ribbons in the night.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

“The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them. I was wondering what my body knew that I didn't.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“We can't think of changing our skin color. Change the world - that's how we gotta think.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“That's what I told myself five hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word is a great big log thrown on the fires of love. ~Page 133.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“I have noticed that if you look carefully at people's eyes the first five seconds they look at you, the truth of their feelings will shine through for just an instant before it flickers away.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Variant: Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

“Actually, you can be bad at something… but if you love doing it, that will be enough. - August Boatwright”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“Now and then sprays of rain flew over and misted our faces. Every time I refused to wipe away the wetness. It made the world seem so alive to me. I couldn't help but envy the way a good storm got everyone's attention.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“You know, some things don't matter that much… Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart - now, matters.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“Standing there, I loved myself and I hated myself. That's what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“It was the in-between time, before day leaves and night comes, a time I’ve never been partial to because of the sadness that lingers in the space between going and coming.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“Look, I know you meant well creating the world and all, but how could you let it get away from you like this? How come you couldn't stick with your original idea of paradise? People's lives were a mess.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“People in general would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language. "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Variant: People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“It was the oldest sound there was. Souls flying away.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

“People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“I'm tired of carrying around the weight of the world. I'm just going to lay it down now. It's my time to die, and it's your time to live. Don't mess it up.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees