This Tender Land Quotes
"People are most afraid of things they don't understand, and if something frightened you, you should get closer to it."
"The awful you knew was easier to handle than the awful you imagined."
"Whenever I was thrown into the quiet room, I fed Faria crumbs and imagined tales about him."
"If she kept my harmonica, she wouldn’t have anything to threaten me with. I don’t mind the quiet room."
"Sometimes when I’m working for her, after she’s had a drink or two, she lets something else show through, something sad."
"Nobody’s born mean. Life warps you in terrible ways."
"I’m afraid I’ll get taken from you, and who’d look after you then?"
"We lost our dad because he died. Hers sold her, Odie."
"Listen, Odie, what does a shepherd eat? His flock. One by one."
"The little creature was dead. Right there in front of me, no more than half a dozen feet away, he’d given up the ghost."
"If ever there’d been an angel on this earth, it was her."
"I’m sorry, Emmy. I truly am. But I’ve wanted so much to be free again."
"But God? I’d had my hopes once; now I had no idea what to expect."
"We’re your family now, Emmy. We won’t ever leave you."
"That’s where my tears were coming from."
"The hurt from the welts on my back was nothing compared to the hurt I felt when I realized Faria was gone."
"Will I always miss her, Odie? Will it always hurt?"
"Everything that’s been done to us we carry forever. Most of us do our damnedest to hold on to the good and forget the rest."
"Our former selves are never dead. We speak to them, arguing against decisions we know will bring only unhappiness, offering consolation and hope, even though they cannot hear."
"Loss comes in every moment. Second by second our lives are stolen from us."
"There is a deeper hurt than anything sustained by the body, and it's the wounding of the soul."
"In your darkest hour, even when Satan is knocking at your door, God is beside you."
"I play the odds. Every once in a while, I get an answer."
"The land is what it is. Life is what it is. God is what God is. You and me, we’re what we are."
"A wounded body heals itself, but there is a scar. Watching Emmy weep in Mose’s strong arms, I thought the same must be true for a soul."
"This is not a God who would ever turn his back on you. In your darkest hour, even when Satan is knocking at your door, God is beside you, and he forgives your sins."
"The music broke out again from inside the big tent, a hymn I recognized from the services the Brickmans had held in the gymnasium at Lincoln School, 'Lord of All Hopefulness.'"
"Only God is perfect, Odie. To the rest of us, he gave all kinds of wrinkles and cracks."
"If you're careful, you can follow a squirrel to his cache. The same was true for Sid, I thought. So I became his shadow."
"Despite the summer heat, he was shaking something awful, and I didn’t know if it was because of the poison or because he was as scared as I was."
"When you’re a kid, Odie, things seem cut-and-dried, but it ain’t that way."
"We all have secrets. With them, we're like squirrels with nuts. We hide them away, and bitter though they may be, we feed on them."
"I’m thinking he won’t lie if I ask him straight."
"That’s it? He studied Albert’s black, swelling calf, and his eyes behind those thick lenses were huge blue pools of doubt."
"The room felt stifling despite the open window, and the scent of the roses from the backyard garden did nothing to dull the hovering sense of doom."
"When you kick your dog, do you also blame him for the bruise?"
"I’d rather be a princess riding on the back of a swan."
"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow."
"When you don’t have anything else to believe in, that’s when you need to believe in miracles."
"You can't help them. If they're smart enough to build a teepee, I'm guessing they're smart enough to get through this."
"I often felt a deep peace. Maybe that's what God is, and Wakan Tanka, in the end."
"The heart is a rubber ball. No matter how hard it's crushed, it bounces back."
"If you never make that kind of bet, you'll never see the good that might come from it."
"The mistake had been falling in love with Maybeth Schofield, which had changed everything."
"I was thinking how grateful Maybeth would be. Thinking that most of all."
"You've brought a little sunshine to us Schofields, and I want you to know I'm grateful."
"We breathe love in and we breathe love out. It’s the essence of our existence, the very air of our souls."
"I don’t believe in one god, I decided. I believed in many, all at war with one another."
"Life’s stranger and more beautiful than I ever thought possible."
"In every sinner, Gertie, is the possibility of a saint."
"We had started for Saint Louis, and by God, I’d see to it that we got there."
"He’s not like that. None of them are, kid."
"I tried to make sense of the love they shared."
"I remember the day you were born. Remember it as if it were yesterday."
"I named you Odysseus because Rosalee and I had grown up listening to our mother read Homer’s epic story to us."
"You're the biggest part of every memory I have. You are my brother."
"Maybe the universe is one grand story, and who says that it can’t be changed in the telling?"
"My mother finally woke. Her eyes slowly opened, and she turned her head on the pillow."