--- title: "2 Dance floor Quotes By Karen Russell" description: "2 Dance floor quotes by Karen Russell. Plus more from Karen Russell and more Dance floor sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66c/karen-russell-1697_best-friend_once-mom-and-ossie-and-i-spent-an-aftern_56038.png" --- > [“Once Mom and Ossie and I spent an afternoon alone together in her hospital room. We were watching the small TV above her head politely, as if the TV were a foreign dignitary giving an unintelligible lecture, and waiting for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/once-mom-and-ossie-and-i-spent-an-afternoon-alone-together-in-her/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66c/karen-russell-1697_best-friend_once-mom-and-ossie-and-i-spent-an-aftern_56038.png) > [Hopes were wallflowers. Hopes hugged the perimeter of a dance floor in your brain, tugging at their party lace, all perfume and hems and doomed expectation. They fanned their dance cards, these guests that pressed against the walls of your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/hopes-were-wallflowers-hopes-hugged-the-perimeter-of-a-dance-floor-in/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4be/karen-russell-1697_brain_hopes-were-wallflowers-hopes-hugged-the_2375241.png) ## Other authors on Dance floor ## More by Karen Russell > [“As a kid I heard the word malignancy as "Malig-Nancy" like an evil woman's name, no matter how many times Kiwi and the Chief…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/as-a-kid-i-heard-the-word-malignancy-as-malig-nancy-like-an-evil/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“Once Mom and Ossie and I spent an afternoon alone together in her hospital room. We were watching the small TV above her head…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/once-mom-and-ossie-and-i-spent-an-afternoon-alone-together-in-her/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [People really get myopic as they get older. We're not a culture that encourages dreaming or distraction. We're not ever good at just being.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/people-really-get-myopic-as-they-get-older-we-re-not-a-culture-that/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [It is a special kind of homelessness to be evicted from your dreams.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/it-is-a-special-kind-of-homelessness-to-be-evicted-from-your-dreams/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“She used to suffer these intense bouts of homesickness in her own bedroom. When she was very small, she would wake up tearing at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/she-used-to-suffer-these-intense-bouts-of-homesickness-in-her-own/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“At ten, I couldn't articulate much but I got the message: to be a true historian, you had to mourn amply and well. (spoken…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/at-ten-i-couldn-t-articulate-much-but-i-got-the-message-to-be-a-true/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“THE ALLIGATOR IS AN ANACHRONISM THAT CAN EAT YOU!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/the-alligator-is-an-anachronism-that-can-eat-you/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“ Forever , just the word fills Beverly with an unaccountable, schoolmarmish sort of rage. Forever, that's got to be bad math, right? Such terrifying math.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/forever-just-the-word-fills-beverly-with-an-unaccountable/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“I swim with all my strength. No superhuman surge, or pony heroics; it's just me at my most desperate.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/i-swim-with-all-my-strength-no-superhuman-surge-or-pony-heroics-it-s/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [So much of the way books get classified has to do with marketing decisions. I think it's more useful to think of literary books…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/so-much-of-the-way-books-get-classified-has-to-do-with-marketing/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [The beginning of the end can feel a lot like the middle when you are living in it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/the-beginning-of-the-end-can-feel-a-lot-like-the-middle-when-you-are/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“I often think, that she foresaw only the end times, never hot dogs.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/i-often-think-that-she-foresaw-only-the-end-times-never-hot-dogs/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“I had an ear for languages, and I could read before I could adequately wash myself. I probably could have vied with Jeanette for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/i-had-an-ear-for-languages-and-i-could-read-before-i-could-adequately/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [“Etiquette was so confounding in this country. Still, looking at Mirabella-her fists balled together like small, white porcupines, her brows knitted in animal confusion-I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/etiquette-was-so-confounding-in-this-country-still-looking-at/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) > [It's funny, for a long time I would go watermelon-red and deny that I was a magical realist. It felt imprecise to me, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-russell/it-s-funny-for-a-long-time-i-would-go-watermelon-red-and-deny-that-i/) [Karen Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-russell/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dance-floor/karen-russell/#itemlist", "name": "2 Dance floor Quotes By Karen Russell", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Once Mom and Ossie and I spent an afternoon alone together in her hospital room. We were watching the small TV above her head politely, as if the TV were a foreign dignitary giving an unintelligible lecture, and waiting for any news from Dr. Gautman. As if on cue, that lame movie from the sixties started playing, Ladies In Waiting. A quintet of actresses haunt the punch bowl--they are supposed to be spinster sisters or spinster best friends, or maybe just ugly and needy acquaintances--anyhow, these pink chameleons, voiceless in their party chignons, they stand around the back of a ballroom having flashbacks for most of the movie, regretting older events in their minds, ladling cups of glowing punch from a big bowl, and only after the dying violin note of the final song do they at last step away from the wall. \"Oh, but we DID want to dance!\" the actresses cry at the end of the scene, their faces changing almost totally. All these angry multiplying women. Hopes were like these ladies, Mom told us. Hopes were wallflowers. Hopes hugged the perimeter of a dance floor in your brain, tugging at their party lace, all perfume and hems and doomed expectation. They fanned their dance cards, these guests that pressed against the walls of your heart. 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