Bud, Not Buddy Quotes
"It's at six that grown folks don't think you're a cute little kid anymore, they talk to you and expect that you understand everything they mean."
"When one door closes, don't worry, because another door opens."
"A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower-in-waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world."
"Being hungry for a whole day is about as bad as it can get."
"If a Adult Tells You Not to Worry, and You Weren't Worried Before, You Better Hurry Up and Start 'Cause You're Already Running Late."
"Please eat as quickly and quietly as possible."
"We are terribly sorry but we have no work available."
"As soon as I got into the library I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I got a whiff of the leather on all the old books, a smell that got real strong if you picked one of them up and stuck your nose real close to it when you turned the pages."
"I think it’s that smell that makes so many folks fall asleep in the library."
"Drooling in the books is even worse than laughing out loud in the library."
"RULES AND THINGS NUMBER 16: If a Grown-up Ever Starts a Sentence by Saying 'Haven't You Heard,' Get Ready, ’Cause What’s About to Come Out of Their Mouth Is Gonna Drop You Headfirst into a Boiling Tragedy."
"She laughed a quiet, librarian-type laugh and said, 'Really, it’s not bad news. Unless you had matrimonial plans concerning Miss Hill.'"
"Chicago might as well be a million miles away from Flint."
"That library door closing after I walked out was the exact kind of door Momma had told me about."
"I could feel two eyes staring at me real hard, and I knew these weren’t critter eyes, these eyes made the hair on the back of my neck raise up the way only human bean eyes can do."
"It’s not like it was when I first got there, shucks, half the folks that run it don’t even tell you their name and don’t remember yours unless you’re in trouble all the time or getting ready to move out."
"The man smiled and said, 'Well, son, anyplace where there’re other folks in need of the same things that you are is the right place to be. This is exactly the Hooverville you’re looking for.'"
"My mother said the same thing, that families should be there for each other all the time. She always used to tell me that no matter where I went or what I did that she’d be there for me, even if she wasn’t somewhere that I could see her."
"She would tell me every night before I went to sleep that no matter what happened I could sleep knowing that there had never been a little boy, anywhere, anytime, who was loved more than she loved me."
"Shucks, there’re some folks who’ll have you running your mouth before you know what you’re doing."
"When I opened my eyes and pulled back Deza kept hers closed and smiled."
"The only good thing that came out of going to Hooverville was that I finally kissed a girl."
"Maybe someone was trying to tell me something, what with me missing the train and the blue flyer floating back to me, maybe Deza Malone was right."
"It’s funny how ideas are, in a lot of ways they’re just like seeds. Both of them start real, real small and then... woop, zoop, sloop... before you can say Jack Robinson they’ve gone and grown a lot bigger than you ever thought they could."
"Something about the way he said it made me nervous but I answered him. 'Yes, sir.' That’s the bad thing about lying, once you say one you’ve usually got to stick with it."
"The only kind of people who would carry human blood around in a car were vampires!"
"I knew I was going to be safe, because I’d never heard of a vampire that could drive a car and I’d never seen one that had such a good sense of humor."
"WOW! I must have been real, real tired. Walking and ducking in and out of the bushes between Flint and Owosso was a lot more work than I thought it was."
"Sometimes it’s terrible to have been brought up proper."
"There comes a time when you’re doing something and you realize it just doesn’t make any sense to keep on doing it, you ain’t being a quitter, it’s just that the good Lord has seen fit to give you the sense to know, you understand, enough is enough."
"Whenever a Adult Tells You to Listen Carefully and Talks to You in a Real Calm Voice Do Not Listen, Run as Fast as You Can Because Something Real Terrible Is Just Around the Corner."
"At one of the foster houses where I’d stayed a woman told me she knew I was going to be a criminal because 'anyone who sleeps that light has got to have a guilty conscience.'"
"You just steer clear of Mr. C. for a while, he’s not someone you want to toy with, and for God’s sake whatever you do don’t call him Daddy or Poppa or anything that’s going to give anyone the idea you two are kin, you hear?"
"But the point is you were very lucky this time. You’ve got to be good and stay put. I know your dad’s not the easiest man in the world but, believe me, he’s mellowed a lot from when it was just him and your sister."
"Never, Ever Say Something Bad About Someone You Don’t Know—Especially When You’re Around a Bunch of Strangers. You Never Can Tell Who Might Be Kin to That Person or Who Might Be a Lip-Flapping, Big-Mouth Spy."
"I like that, ‘my eyes don’t cry no more.’ You mind if I borrow that? That sounds like a great name for a song."
"The Lord give me the good sense to know when enough is enough."
"Even Blind Lemon Jefferson could see something’s wrong with this baby’s eye."
"You’re all right, little man, you’re a tough little nut, I like that."
"Sleeping with two sheets puts you out like a baby that’s been rode around in a automobile."
"If you urinate in the pool a bright red cloud will surround you."
"Nothing makes you want to pee in a pool more than someone who thinks you’re stupid telling you not to do it."
"You were the subject of a very long conversation last night."
"I don’t always travel with the band, so I don’t want you to forget what I’m telling you."
"You’ve got the look of a future sax man about him."
"You know, Herman, half the time I don’t know if I should laugh at you or just feel sorry for you."
"We all like a very clean house and none of us are too used to having children around, so we’re all going to have to learn to be patient with each other."
"It’s a good thing I’ve got lots of patience ’cause I waited a long, long time."
"If I could get my hands back on my rocks I knew I could outrun Mr. C."
"Herman B. Calloway said, 'Answer me, where’d you take these from?'"
"I said, 'Mr. Jimmy, I didn’t find them or steal them from nowhere, these’ve always been mine. I got them from my momma and that’s the swear-’fore-God truth.'"
"Mr. Jimmy said, 'Bud, he’s not your father.'"
"Something told me I could learn how to play this. Something told me that those sounds were more than just bad notes."
"RULES AND THINGS NUMBER 39: The Older You Get, the Worse Something Has to Be to Make You Cry."
"The picture looked like it belonged. It’s strange the way things turn out, here I’d been carrying Momma around for all this time and I’d finally put her somewhere where she wanted to be, back in her own bedroom, back amongst all her horses."
"I couldn’t think of my momma any better than I already do."
"Be smarter than I was: Go talk to Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad and other relatives and friends. Discover and remember what they have to say about what they learned growing up. By keeping their stories alive you make them, and yourself, immortal."