Quotes
List here any quote, from Carson McCullers's book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Quotes that inspire you,
or give you a strong visual image, or maybe you just admire the author's use of words . . .
poetic, lyrical, straightforward, cultural, etc . . .
‘God, I’m thirsty,’ Jake said. ‘I feel like the whole Russian army marched through my mouth in its stocking feet.’
ReplyDeleteResentment is the most precious flower of poverty.
ReplyDelete‘It don’t take words to make a quarrel,’ Portia said. ‘It look to me like us is always arguing even when we sitting perfectly quiet like this. It just this here feeling I haves. I tell you the truth - ever time I come to see you it mighty near wears me out. So less us try not to quarrel in any way no more.’
ReplyDeleteWonderful music like this was the worst hurt there could be. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen.
ReplyDeleteA dragnet for lost feelings.
ReplyDeletePortia read with such slow rhythm that the words slept in Doctor Copeland’s ears and he was drowsy.
ReplyDeleteShe sat down on the steps and laid her head on her knees. She went into the inside room. With her it was like there was two places – the inside room and the outside room. School and the family and the things that happened every day were in the outside room. Mister Singer was in both rooms. Foreign countries and plans and music were in the inside room. The songs she thought about were there. And the symphony. When she was by herself in this inside room the music she had heard that night after the party would come back to her mind. This symphony grew slow like a big flower in her mind.
ReplyDeleteThe injustice of need must bring us all together and not separate us. We must remember that we all make the things on this earth of value because of our labor.
ReplyDeleteThe love in him made his chest a dynamo, and he wanted to shout so that his voice could be heard throughout the town. He wanted to fall upon the floor and call out in a giant voice.
ReplyDelete. . . ‘Attention!’ he called. ‘We will save ourselves. But not by prayers of mourning. Not by indolence or strong drink. Not by the pleasures of the body or by ignorance. Not by submission and humbleness. But by pride. By dignity. By becoming hard and strong. We must build strength for our real true purpose.’
‘Our mission is to walk with strength and dignity through the days of our humiliation. Our pride must be strong, for we know the value of the human mind and soul. We must teach our children. We must sacrifice so that they may earn the dignity of study and wisdom. For the time will come. The time will come when the riches in us will not be held in scorn and contempt. The time will come when we will be allowed to serve. When we will labor and our labor will not be wasted. And our mission is to await this time with strength and faith.’
ReplyDeleteLife was only a matter of intake and alimentation and reproduction.
ReplyDeleteHe took in the room with a glance like a lasso.
ReplyDeletePortia spoke in a low voice, and she neither paused between words nor did the grief in her face soften. It was like a low song. She spoke and he could not understand. The sounds were distinct in his ear but they had no shape or meaning. It was as if his head were the prow of a boat and the sounds were water that broke on him and then flowed past. He felt he had to look behind to find the words already said.
ReplyDeleteThey lay on the soft bed and looked up at the dark-green pine clumps against the sky. A bird sang a sad, clear song she had never heard before. One high note like an oboe—and then it sank down five times and called again. The song was sad as a question without words.
ReplyDeleteIn the room there was a feeling tense as conspiracy or as the deadly quiet before an explosion.
ReplyDeleteAnd how can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?
ReplyDelete