--- title: "4 Mama Quotes By Katherine Dunn" description: "4 Mama quotes by Katherine Dunn. Plus more from Katherine Dunn and more Mama sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/katherine-dunn-2693_crystals_when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets_1122692.png" --- > [When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets-papa-would-say-she-made-the/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/katherine-dunn-2693_crystals_when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets_1122692.png) > [Beside Mama, in my own folding chair, with my feet sticking out in front of me, I thought about my own innards.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/beside-mama-in-my-own-folding-chair-with-my-feet-sticking-out-in/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/726/katherine-dunn-2693_buzz_beside-mama-in-my-own-folding-chair-with_1458780.jpg) > [“And me all the while having to pee—coughing into the mike when my throat was tired and raw—eyes stinging and lips and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/and-me-all-the-while-having-to-pee-coughing-into-the-mike-when-my/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66c/katherine-dunn-2693_baby_and-me-all-the-while-having-to-pee-cough_2353229.jpg) > [“Later, at the sink in our van, Mama rinsed the blue stain and the odd spiders, caterpillars, and stems from the bucket.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/later-at-the-sink-in-our-van-mama-rinsed-the-blue-stain-and-the-odd/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17e/katherine-dunn-2693_adolescence_later-at-the-sink-in-our-van-mama-rinsed_3066734.jpg) ## Other authors on Mama ## More by Katherine Dunn > [Though 'Fat City' was written long before cellphones or the Internet, its human apparatus is state of the art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/though-fat-city-was-written-long-before-cellphones-or-the-internet/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [A true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/a-true-freak-cannot-be-made-a-true-freak-must-be-born/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [I think genetic research is a fascinating and fertile area.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/i-think-genetic-research-is-a-fascinating-and-fertile-area/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [A boxing gym is a place where men are allowed to be kind to one another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/a-boxing-gym-is-a-place-where-men-are-allowed-to-be-kind-to-one/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [My own theory about the phlegmatic qualities and properties of the English is the mountain of pure white sugar hydrocarbons they consume every day…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/my-own-theory-about-the-phlegmatic-qualities-and-properties-of-the/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [Sometimes we followed the crops, doing migrant labor. We did several years of tenant farming in Western Oregon starting in the early '50s. Later,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/sometimes-we-followed-the-crops-doing-migrant-labor-we-did-several/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [There should be unemployment insurance for fictional people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/there-should-be-unemployment-insurance-for-fictional-people/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [My handwriting was nothing to write home about, and I had this idea that calligraphy was like taking Latin in high school: that it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/my-handwriting-was-nothing-to-write-home-about-and-i-had-this-idea/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [“There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behavior and claim…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/there-are-those-whose-own-vulgar-normality-is-so-apparent-and/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [Only a lunatic would want to be president. These lunatics are created deliberately by those who wish to be presided over.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/only-a-lunatic-would-want-to-be-president-these-lunatics-are-created/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [In a really good, closely matched situation, the style of the boxer is every bit as explicit and specific to him as a painter's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/in-a-really-good-closely-matched-situation-the-style-of-the-boxer-is/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [But the animation has become very good, and I think that a movie is not a book, and a book is not a movie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/but-the-animation-has-become-very-good-and-i-think-that-a-movie-is/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [I'd always been fascinated by boxing and became very engaged with it through my husband, actually. But I started to write about it because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/i-d-always-been-fascinated-by-boxing-and-became-very-engaged-with-it/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [I thought that was actually kind of boring, that search for perfection.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/i-thought-that-was-actually-kind-of-boring-that-search-for-perfection/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) > [American culture is torn between our long romance with violence and our terror of the devastation wrought by war and crime and environmental havoc.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/american-culture-is-torn-between-our-long-romance-with-violence-and/) [Katherine Dunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-dunn/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/#itemlist", "name": "4 Mama Quotes By Katherine Dunn", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,\" Papa would say, \"she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katherine Dunn" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets-papa-would-say-she-made-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/katherine-dunn-2693_crystals_when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets_1122692.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/katherine-dunn-2693_crystals_when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets_1122692.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/katherine-dunn-2693_crystals_when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets_1122692.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,\" Papa would say, \"she made the nipping off of noggins such a…” — Katherine Dunn", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Beside Mama, in my own folding chair, with my feet sticking out in front of me, I thought about my own innards. Just a few months before I'd had no idea whether my reproductive equipment worked. There was no evidence. But that week I had become a full-fledged bleeder and was still absorbed by this first change in myself that I had ever noticed. The click and buzz of my synapses kept making the same connection. If you can change, you can also end. Death had always been a theory to me. Now I knew. The terror hurt good and I nursed it and played it like a loose tooth.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katherine Dunn" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/beside-mama-in-my-own-folding-chair-with-my-feet-sticking-out-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/726/katherine-dunn-2693_buzz_beside-mama-in-my-own-folding-chair-with_1458780.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/726/katherine-dunn-2693_buzz_beside-mama-in-my-own-folding-chair-with_1458780.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/726/katherine-dunn-2693_buzz_beside-mama-in-my-own-folding-chair-with_1458780.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Beside Mama, in my own folding chair, with my feet sticking out in front of me, I thought about my own…” — Katherine Dunn", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“And me all the while having to pee—coughing into the mike when my throat was tired and raw—eyes stinging and lips and chin crumpling in grief at his anger. The sweet tinkle of Electra on the bass and Iphy on the treble with Mama’s voice counting, “One and two and …” as the twins had their piano lesson inside the trailer. The gurgle and hum of the pumps that filtered my brother Arty’s “Aqua Boy” tank. And the dim round moon of baby Fortunato’s face peering at me from the dark of the risers above Papa.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katherine Dunn" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/and-me-all-the-while-having-to-pee-coughing-into-the-mike-when-my/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66c/katherine-dunn-2693_baby_and-me-all-the-while-having-to-pee-cough_2353229.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66c/katherine-dunn-2693_baby_and-me-all-the-while-having-to-pee-cough_2353229.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66c/katherine-dunn-2693_baby_and-me-all-the-while-having-to-pee-cough_2353229.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“And me all the while having to pee—coughing into the mike when my throat was tired and raw—eyes stinging and…” — Katherine Dunn", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Later, at the sink in our van, Mama rinsed the blue stain and the odd spiders, caterpillars, and stems from the bucket. \"Not what we usually start with, but we can go again tomorrow. And this will set up nicely in about six, eight jars.\" The berries were beginning to simmer in the big pot on the back burner. Mama pushed her dark wooden spoon into the foaming berries and cicrcled the wall of the pot slowly. I leaned my hot arms on the table and said, \"Iphy better not go tomorrow. She got tired today.\" I was smelling the berries and Mamaa's sweat, and watching the flex of the blue veins behind her knees. \"Does them good. The twins always loved picking berries, even more than eating them. Though Elly likes her jam.\" \"Elly doesn't like anything anymore.\" The knees stiffened and I looked up. The spoon was motionless. Mama stared at the pot. \"Mama, Elly isn't there anymore. Iphy's changed. Everything's changed. This whole berry business, cooking big meals that nobody comes for, birthday cakes for Arty. It's dumb, Mama. Stop pretending. There isn't any family anymore, Mama.\" Then she cracked me with the big spoon. It smacked wet and hard across my ear, and the purple-black juice spayed across the table. She started at me, terrified, her mouth and eyes gaping with fear. I stared gaping at her. I broke and ran. I went to the generator truck and climbed up to sit by Grandpa. That's the only time Mama ever hit me and I knew I deserved it. I also knew that Mama was too far gone to understand why I deserved it. She'd swung that spoon in a tigerish reflex at blasphemy. But I believed that Arty had turned his back on us, that the twins were broken, that the Chick was lost, that Papa was weak and scared, that Mama was spinning fog, and that I was an adolescent crone sitting in the ruins, watching the beams crumble, and warming myself in the smoke from the funeral pyre. That was how I felt, and I wanted company. I hated Mama for refusing to see enough to be miserable with me. Maybe, too, enough of my child heart was still with me to think that if she would only open her eyes she could fix it all back up like a busted toy.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katherine Dunn" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-dunn/later-at-the-sink-in-our-van-mama-rinsed-the-blue-stain-and-the-odd/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17e/katherine-dunn-2693_adolescence_later-at-the-sink-in-our-van-mama-rinsed_3066734.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17e/katherine-dunn-2693_adolescence_later-at-the-sink-in-our-van-mama-rinsed_3066734.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/17e/katherine-dunn-2693_adolescence_later-at-the-sink-in-our-van-mama-rinsed_3066734.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Later, at the sink in our van, Mama rinsed the blue stain and the odd spiders, caterpillars, and stems from…” — Katherine Dunn", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/", "name": "Mama Quotes by Katherine Dunn", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/katherine-dunn-2693_crystals_when-your-mama-was-the-geek-my-dreamlets_1122692.png" }, "description": "4 Mama quotes by Katherine Dunn. Plus more from Katherine Dunn and more Mama sayings from other authors.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Mama", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Katherine Dunn", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mama/katherine-dunn/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```