Betty Smith Quotes

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading.

But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.

This is the book, then , and the book of Shakespeare. And every day you must read a page of each to your child--even though you yourself do not understand what is written down and cannot sound the wor...

Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong be...

I want to live for something. I don't want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go back to get more charity food.

Ghosts are not always those who pass through closed doors, said Mary Rommely. Katie has told how her husband used to talk to this saloon man. In all those years of the talking, Yohnny gave away pieces...

I believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and His Mother, Holy Mary. Jesus was a living baby once. He went bare-footed like we do in the summer. I saw a picture where He was a boy and had no shoes on. And...

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.

Sometimes when you had nothing at all and it was raining and you were alone in the flat, it was wonderful to know that you could have something even though it was only a cup of black and bitter coffee...

Maybe they knew their own gift of imagination colored too rosily the poverty and brutality of their lives and made them able to endure it.

Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?

The child must have a valuable thing which Is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. Then when the world becomes...

She got herself widowed, divorced, married, and pregnant – all in ten days’ time.

She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered 'different.' She did not suffer too much.

They learned no compassion from their own anguish. Thus their suffering was wasted.

Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.

The child will grow up and find out things for herself. She will know that I lied. She will be disappointed.That is what is called learning the truth. It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self....

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either first time or last time.

There had to be the dark and muddy waters so that the sun could have something to background its flashing glory.

It was one of the links between the ground-down poor and the wasteful rich. The girl felt that even if she had less than anybody in Williamsburg, somehow she had more. She was richer because she had s...