I want to live for something. I don't want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go… — Betty Smith Charity Copy Share Image
But this tree in the yard-this tree that men chopped down...this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“How’d you know it was a tulip if you’d never seen one?” “I’d seen pictures. Well, when I looked at it, the… — Betty Smith Flowers Copy Share Image
It was a good thing that she got herself into this other school. It showed her that there were other worlds beside… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
She went out and took a last long look at the shabby little library. She knew she would never see it again.… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Somehow, good talking had gotten tied up with good sex in his mind. He wanted a woman to talk to, one to… — Betty Smith Good sex Copy Share Image
All my life I've been lonely. I've been lonely at crowded parties. I've been lonely in the middle of kissing a girl… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
I hate all those flirty-birty games that women make up. Life's too short. If you ever find a man you love, don't… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Wouldn't it be more of a free country," persisted Francie "if we could ride in them free?" "No." "Why?" "Because that would… — Betty Smith Democracy Copy Share Image
“And that’s where the whole trouble is,” thought Francie. “We’re too much alike to understand each other because we don’t even understand… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Joanna. Remember Joanna. Francie could never forget her. From that time on, remembering the stoning women, she hated women. She feared them… — Betty Smith Time Copy Share Image
“When it first appeared, in 1943, it was called, by those critics who liked it, an honest book, and that is accurate… — Betty Smith Books Copy Share Image
“All she’d notice was that some things were strange because they reminded her of Brooklyn and that other things were strange because… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Why? When I, myself do not believe? "Because,"explained Mary Rommely simply, "the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination.… — Betty Smith Child Copy Share Image
“Katie stood alone... 'They think this is so good,' he thought. 'They think it's good- the tree they got for nothing and… — Betty Smith Better way Copy Share Image
“Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants.… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“The tree man eulogized them by screaming, 'And now get the hell out of here with your tree, you lousy bastards.' Francie… — Betty Smith Emotional expression Copy Share Image
And you must tell the child the legends I told you--as my mother told them to me and her mother to her.… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“The baby Francie crowed with delight as her grandmother held up the cruet and the sun shone through it and made a… — Betty Smith Rainbow Copy Share Image
“But there was no music in the children. Evy took the bull by the horns. They would have to love music whether… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“When the children were ready to go to bed, Katie did something very unusual. It was unusual because she was not a… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“What is the difference between happiness and contentment?" “Well, happy is like when somebody gives you a big hunk of something wonderful… — Betty Smith Contentment Copy Share Image
“In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think… — Betty Smith Future Copy Share Image
Everything, decided Francie after that first lecture, was vibrant with life and there was no death in chemistry. She was puzzled as… — Betty Smith Chemistry Copy Share Image
But the penciled sheets did not seem like nor smell like the library book so she had given it up, consoling herself… — Betty Smith Book Copy Share Image
I never listen to what people tell me and I can't read. The only way I know what is right and wrong… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“She wanted to own a book so badly and she had thought the copying would do it. But the pencilled sheets did… — Betty Smith Book Copy Share Image
In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think… — Betty Smith Advice Copy Share Image
“The neighborhood stores are an important part of a city child's life. They are his contact with the supplies that keep life… — Betty Smith Beauty Copy Share Image
“Flossie was always running after men and they were always running away from her. Francie's Aunt Sissy ran after men, too. But… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“It’s a fact. They’re gonna stop making liquor and in a few years the country will be dry. A man that works… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“What had granma Mary Rommely said? "To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or… — Betty Smith Glory Copy Share Image
A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“The Nolan's just could't get enough of life. They lived their own lives up to the hilt but that wasn't enough. They… — Betty Smith Life Copy Share Image
“Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with… — Betty Smith Life Copy Share Image
“Why can't they," she thought bitterly, "just give the doll away without saying I am poor and she is rich? Why couldn't… — Betty Smith Doll Copy Share Image
“Why should I want to cheat you, Mrs. Nolan?” he asked plaintively as he put the money away carefully. “Why should anyone… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“you’ll always come out all right – no matter what. You’re like me that way.’ And that’s where the whole trouble is,”… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Somehow during their aimless but oh-so-significant conversation with its delicious pauses and thrilling undercurrents of emotion, they came to know that they… — Betty Smith Communication Copy Share Image
“Laurie's going to have a mighty easy life all right. Annie Laurie McShane! She'll never have the hard times we had, will… — Betty Smith Easy life Copy Share Image
