Karen Hesse

“I have a hunger, for more than food. I have a hunger bigger than Joyce City. I want tongues to tie, and…

— Karen Hesse

“Anyway, this time I caught her in the slow stirring of biscuits, her mind on other things, but anyhow, she was distracted…

— Karen Hesse

I hear the first drops. Like the tapping of a stranger at the door of a dream, the rain changes everything.

— Karen Hesse

As long as you live, it is never too late to make amends. Take my advice, child. Don't waste your precious life…

— Karen Hesse

And I know now that all the time I was trying to get out of the dust, the fact is, what I…

— Karen Hesse

“Daddy named me Billie Jo. He wanted a boy. Instead, he got a long legged girl with a wide mouth with cheekbones…

— Karen Hesse

“We might not belong to anyone else in this whole world. But us Faulstiches,we belong to each other.”

— Karen Hesse

The work of one author or artist may stimulate another author or artist to push the edge, to take the risk, to…

— Karen Hesse

“Apples Ma's apple blossoms have turned to hard green balls. To eat them now, so tart, would turn my mouth inside out,…

— Karen Hesse

I have earned wages as a waitress, a nanny, a librarian, a personnel officer, an agricultural laborer, an advertising secretary, a typesetter,…

— Karen Hesse

My father and I, we can't soothe each other. I'm too young, he's too old, and we don't know how to talk…

— Karen Hesse

When Ma died, I didn't know how to go on, either. I don't know how. I don't feel the same know, not…

— Karen Hesse

Now Livie's gone west, out of the dust, on her way to California, where the wind takes a rest sometimes. And I'm…

— Karen Hesse

I don't know what I am thinking. But I am alone. I am trapped in the net of the room. In the…

— Karen Hesse

“I play songs that have only the pattern of my self in them and you hum along suporting me. You are the…

— Karen Hesse

Young readers are the most challenging, demanding, and rewarding of audiences. Adults often ask why I write for the younger set. My…

— Karen Hesse

“Mr. Noble and Mr. Romney have a bet going as to who can kill the most rabbits. It all started at the…

— Karen Hesse

“It almost rained Saturday.The clouds hung low over the farm.The air felt thick.It smelled like rain. In town,the sidewalks got damp, that…

— Karen Hesse

Sometimes, a flame can be utterly extinguished. Sometimes, a flame can shrink and waver, but sometimes a flame refuses to go out.…

— Karen Hesse

“to those who swear our young are on the road to perdition take comfort in this- every generation has felt somewhat the…

— Karen Hesse

From the time I was ten, I thought of myself as 'good with words,' thanks to a perceptive and supportive fifth grade…

— Karen Hesse

My gut knotted as I wrote from the point of view of characters whose lives were rooted in bigotry and intolerance. But…

— Karen Hesse

“each day after class lets out,each morning before it begins, i sit at the school piano and make my hands work. in…

— Karen Hesse

“The schoolhouse, on this sunlit morning, has begun to take on the scent of girls with wind-blown hair, with seeds in their…

— Karen Hesse

the way i see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. hard times are about losing spirit, and…

— Karen Hesse