Jeannette Walls - The Glass Castle (2005)

28 Sourced Quotes

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Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

Jeannette Walls
It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.

Jeannette Walls
I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.

Jeannette Walls
Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour," she'd ask us, "when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?

Jeannette Walls
Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.

Jeannette Walls
You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

Jeannette Walls
Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.

Jeannette Walls
Look at the way you live. You've sold out. Next thing I know you'll become a Republican." She shook her head. "Where are the values I raised you with?

Jeannette Walls
You West Virginia girls are one tough breed," he said. You got that right," I told him.

Jeannette Walls
I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.

Jeannette Walls
Things usually work out in the end." "What if they don't?" "That just means you haven't come to the end yet.

Jeannette Walls
I hate Erma," I told Mom... "You have to show compassion for her..." She added that you should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. "Everyone has something good about them," she said. "You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that." "Oh yeah?" I said. "How about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality?" "Hitler loved dogs," Mom said without hesitation.

Jeannette Walls
You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

Jeannette Walls
The negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.

Jeannette Walls
Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.

Jeannette Walls
Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness. Rich city folks, he'd say, lived in fancy apartments, but their air was so polluted they couldn't even see the stars. We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them.

Jeannette Walls
Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

Jeannette Walls
Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting. Isn't that a sin?" I asked Mom. Not exactly," Mom said. "God doesn't mind you bending the rules a little if you have a good reason. It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering.

Jeannette Walls
Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.

Jeannette Walls
He said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.

Jeannette Walls
We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Clause myth and got nothing but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. 'Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,' Dad said, ' you'll still have your stars.

Jeannette Walls
You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races.

Jeannette Walls
She was developing what Mom called a bit of a sarcastic streak.

Jeannette Walls
Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.

Jeannette Walls
You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

Jeannette Walls
One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

Jeannette Walls
No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.

Jeannette Walls
One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.

Jeannette Walls