I don't know. I don't know anything, really. I just feel. And when the feeling is strong enough, then I just say I know. But I don't...
He talked about democracy and good citizenship and about a good world where everyone did the best he could for the common good of all.
Growing up spoiled a lot of things. It spoiled the nice game they had when there was nothing to eat in the house. When money gave out and food ran low, Katie and the children pretended they were explo...
Francie went over to stand at the great window from which she could see the East River twenty stories below. It was the last time she'd see the river from that window. The last time of anything has th...
Francie said nothing more. Katie knew that she was letting them down. But she couldn't help it, she just couldn't help it. Yes, she should go with them to lend the comfort and authority of her presenc...
Francie nodded shyly. The girl brought an eraser close to the mesh. Francie poked a finger through to touch the vari-colored felt layers blended together by a film of powdered chalk. As she was about...
Don't say that. It's not better to die. Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there from the grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing...
But there was no music in the children. Evy took the bull by the horns. They would have to love music whether they wanted to or not. If talent wasn’t born in them, maybe it could be shoved in at so mu...
But I saved it for you because I know your mama likes tongue and I like your mama. You
As she read, at peace with the world and happy as only a little girl could be with a fine book and a little bowl of candy, and all alone in the house, the leaf shadows shifted and the afternoon passed...
And the sleds! (Or, as the Williamsburg children called them, the sleighs.) There was a child’s dream of heaven come true! A new sled with a flower someone had dreamed up painted on it—a deep blue flo...
And she doesn’t have to worry about me, either. I don’t need to drink to get drunk. I can get drunk on things like the tulip—and this night.
And he asked for her whole life as simply as he'd ask for a date. And she promised away her whole life as simply as she'd offer a hand in greeting or farewell.
And always, there was the magic of learning things.
And Francie whispered yeah in agreement. She was proud of that smell. It let her know that nearby was a waterway, which, dirty though it was, joined a river that flowed out to the sea. To her, the stu...
Although Katie had this same flair for coloring an incident and Johnny himself lived in a half-dream world, yet they tried to squelch these things in their child. Maybe they had a good reason. Maybe t...
You'll never raise that one,' they told her. 'Her color ain't good. If the good Lord takes her, it will be for the best.'...Don't say that,' Katie held her baby tightly. 'It's not better to die. Who w...
There are two truths, said Katie finally. As a mother, I say it would have been a terrible thing for a girl to sleep with a stranger--a man she had known less than forty-eight hours. Horrible things m...
The difference between rich and poor, said Francie, is that the poor do everything with thier own hands and the rich hire hands to do things.
Some people do crossword puzzles. I do books.