Barbara Kingsolver Quotes

Anatole has been explaining to me the native system of government. He says the business of throwing pebbles into bowls with the most pebbles winning an election—that was Belgium’s idea of fair play, b...

And I have no idea how to be kind to myself. Living, as a general enterprise, seems unkind beyond belief.

And all of us with our closed eyes smelled the frangipani blossoms in the big rectangles of open wall, flowers so sweet they conjure up sin or heaven, depending on which way you are headed.

And you came over to make sure I was all right, is that what you're telling me? You came over here with your shotgun to protect me from my scarecrow?I had to, Garnett said, spreading his hands, throwi...

Anybody can get worked up, if they have the intention. It's peacefulness that is hard to come by on purpose.

April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot wrote, by which I think he meant (among other things) that springtime makes people crazy. We expect too much, the world burgeons with promises it can't keep, al...

Arterial-plaque specials that save minutes now can cost years, later on.

As the storm moved closer it broke into hundreds of pieces so that the rain fell here and there from the high clouds in long, curving gray plumes. It looked like maybe fifty or sixty fires scattered o...

As the storm moved closer it broke into hundreds of pieces so that the rain fell here and there from the high clouds in long, curving gray plumes.

At lunch break [from cheesemaking] I checked out the wildly colorful powder room, where a quote from Alice in Wonderland was painted on the wall:

At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I lived in. But at another point, much earlier I think, I'd quietly begun to hope for nothing at all in th...

Be sweet and carry a sharp knife, was her motto.

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

Bitter words normally evaporate with the moisture of breath, after a quarrel. In order to become permanent, they require transcribers, reporters, complicit black hearts.

Bobby Bingo had skin like a baked potato. A complete vegetable man, Lou Ann thought,

But Anatole said suddenly, 'Don't expect God's protection in places beyond God's dominion. It will only make you feel punished. I'm warning you. When things go bad, you will blame yourself.' 'What are...

But I've swallowed my pride before, that's for sure. I'm practically lined with my mistakes on the inside like a bad-wallpapered bathroom.

But Mama has this certain voice sometimes. Not exactly sassing back, but just about nearly.

But a Congolese life is like the useless Congolese bill, which you can pile by the fistful or the bucketful into a merchant's hand, and still not purchase a single banana. It's dawning on me that I li...

But a spontaneous traveler inevitably will end up with the tummy gauge suddenly on empty, in some place where cuisine is not really the point: a museum cafeteria, or late-night snack bar across from t...