The Story Keeper Quotes
"It’s strange how one person and a handful of stories can alter a life."
"The trick, Jennia Beth Gibbs, is to turn your face to the glory hours as they come. The saddest thing in life is to see them only as they flit away."
"Slush Mountain stood as a reminder that publishing is a labor of love, emphasis on labor."
"You haven’t really lived until you’ve slid off a mountain on a snowmobile and spent twenty-four hours huddled against a blizzard."
"Perfect way to meet the rest of the coworkers. Brilliant. They’ll never forget you now."
"When your past is a locked box, introductions are . . . complicated."
"A woman must be confident! When the negative comes against her, she must B-E-A-T. Be, expand, arise, triumph."
"The secret to happiness is to love where you are."
"The great thing about moving far from the place that began you is that it’s a chance to rewrite your history."
"If they caught Sarra here listenin’, she’d get a beatin’."
"It was the change in the sounds of the cabin that’d finally pulled Sarra from the crock of petal-white membranes."
"The men in Brown Drigger’s store sat gathered round the table. Six, maybe seven in all were there now."
"Ain’t no reasonin’ with a fool, now is there?"
"The girl’s daddy, he’s copperhead mean. Man’d as soon gut ya like them hogs out back as look at ya. Ain’t bound to cross ’im."
"The truth was, because of his height and the fact that he’d grown up among youths who were raised to become gentlemen, physical combat had never become necessary for him."
"This world, this mountain kingdom of questionable men and unforgiving landscape, was ruled by the play of life and death."
Rand’s impressions grew dark and murky. "What girl?"
"What would a bullet feel like? What would be the sensation as it tore through flesh and bone?"
"She seemed a piece of the mountains themselves, pressed into human form, her skin the smooth olive-brown of drying leaves."
"Out of instinct, Rand’s fingers traveled to the gold cross in his pocket . . . this battered creature had been formed by God, not the forest."
"That thang ain’t gonna protect ya. Don’t go gittin’ no fool ideas."
"I am a Christian, sir. I put no stock in such things."
"The past need not determine one moment of the future."
"He don’ talk at none a ya. Been crossed thataway oncet too many times."
"You try’a put a hex on me, I’ll cut yer eyeballs out."
"All things pass, suga’ pea. All the things a this worl’ got a time for bornin’ and time for dyin’, and a time for troublin’ and a time for restin’."
"Ssshhh... It’s time for restin’ now, child."
"A wise woman is always properly prepared. She understands the value of a job done to perfection. She knows that she must be fully capable of making her way independently in a man’s world, Jennia Beth."
"It isn’t what girls of my generation were reared to believe, but our reality is often a far stretch from the things we have dreamed. It is our ability to adapt that determines our survival."
"Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools."
"There’s none can move us too far a piece for love to find us, child. It’s love what ties us to heaven. A-le e-tsa-lv-quo-di-yu ge-sv ni-go-hi-lv-i."
"No need for concern. Had to wrestle down a bear, but all’s well."
"There was two?" She wheeled now, a quick, nervous movement.
"Why, the pair of them stood up on their hind legs and as much as told me so. ‘Rand Champlain,’ they said, ‘you haven’t got much meat on you, but we’re two hungry bears on this snowy day.’"
"It was two against one, and they were bigger than me, but I wasn’t scared. I have to give due credit to the bears. They were quite gentlemanlike, and they came at me only one at a time."
"He suddenly left off all thoughts of former pranks and his sisters."
"Something inside him struggled to find shape, and he had no reference points for it."
"The critter wandered into the open then. A rabbit. Wasn’t any need in killing it, so she only watched as it spotted her and hunkered low."
"All breath in ever’thing been give by Father God, Granddaughter. Not a one he ain’t mindful a."
"Her heart caught like the rabbit’s, and she was the wild thing, afraid of drawin’ breath or movin’."
"Tears stung her eyes, streamin’ warm, then cold, over her skin."
"She didn’t wait for his answer but turned off and started into the woods."
"Father God was one for listenin’ and answerin’ them who asked of him and believed on him."
"You know what? No... I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I’m sure the car’s in good shape. It’s just mud. I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I’m sorry to have interrupted your day with my stupidity."
"Rejected." He grinned and then swayed on his feet just a bit.
"It’s a terrible night to get out. And look, you’re all muddy and wet. You guys just go on with your evening. Thanks so much!"
"That’s not... possible," I stammered, caught completely unprepared for Mitch’s call and the blindside revelation.
"I understand." My stomach sloshed like a water balloon rolling down a steep hill.
"I love you, Jennia Beth. I know you don’t believe that."
"Don’t think about it, don’t think about it..."
"Believe it or not, Evan Hall, everything isn’t about you."
"Those were sure enough made for a fetchin’ neck, I’d say."
"I’ll see what Daddy says," she repeated, which was as good as giving up.
"And Hoffsteader was wrong, most certainly."
"Your eyes are much more lovely than these bits of glass."
"I continue, of course, my study of its flora and fauna."
"The Blue Ridge is, indeed, a hint of heaven."
"Faith was a thing in the way of blood, breath, and sinew."
"The possibilities for a girl of Melungeon blood were slim."
"I’d been threatened with a caning before the church."
"I’m not letting you anywhere near those people."
"Sometimes those are the things that matter most."