Want Quotes by Betty Smith

8 Want quotes by Betty Smith

Betty Smith’s eight succinct reflections on Want feel like a diary entry from a bustling city street. They capture the everyday tug of yearning, offering a quick, relatable snapshot for anyone trying to map out what drives them.

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A child forgets a time of hunger but never forgets the aching want of other things.

Betty Smith

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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

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Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no…

Betty Smith

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No. I don't want to need anybody. I want someone to need me ... I want someone to need me.

Betty Smith

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It's a beautiful religion and I wish I understood it more. No, I don't want to understand it all. It's beautiful because…

Betty Smith

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Mother, I am young. Mother, I am just eighteen. I am strong. I will work hard, Mother. But I do not want…

Betty Smith

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It meant that she belonged some place. She was a Brooklyn girl with a Brooklyn name and a Brooklyn accent. She didn't…

Betty Smith

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Did you ever see so many pee-wee hats, Carl?" "They're beanies." "They call them pee-wees in Brooklyn." "But I'm not in Brooklyn."…

Betty Smith

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“Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants. I'll have…

Betty Smith

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“Several times that day, the name or thought of Papa had come up. And each time, Francie had felt a flash of tenderness instead…

Betty Smith

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As long as one can suffer, one is living…live and suffer until life is gone.

Betty Smith

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“Sissy told them they were way behind the times; that midwives were things of the past. Besides, she informed them proudly, she had no…

Betty Smith

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“Why, Mrs McGarrity's all right. Mr McGarrity's all right, too. Only I guess they aren't all right to each other.”

Betty Smith

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“I drink because I don't stand a chance and I know it. I couldn't drive a truck and I couldn't get on the cops…

Betty Smith

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“Pipe dreams, he thought to himself, even while he was telling her about his dream winnings. But oh, how wonderful, he thought, if everything…

Betty Smith

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“Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and…

Betty Smith

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It takes a lot of doing to die.

Betty Smith

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“She sat in the sunshine watching the life on the street and guarding within herself, her own mystery of life.”

Betty Smith

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...the reading, the observing, the living from day to day. It was something that had been born into her and her only - the…

Betty Smith

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People always think that happiness is a faraway thing … something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up.

Betty Smith

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“Hildy O’Dair is old for her age,” she thought. “It’s like powder was sprinkled on her yellow hair. But she’s not much older than…

Betty Smith

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“One day they’re babies in buggies and the next day they’re in here taking picks. Kids grow up quick in this neighborhood.”

Betty Smith

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“If she never had any lovers, she kicks herself around when the change comes, thinking of all the fun she could have had, didn’t…

Betty Smith

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