Bette Greene Quotes

The secret is in absolutely refusing to let the river beat you down. If I had to, I'd measure my progress in inches. One more inch I've swum - one less inch to swim. Once you know the secret, then nobody's river can bring you down.

But don't go thinking that I'm critical of you, Anton, because really I'm not. Not a bit! It's just that you're not here. I'm alone and I'm frightened and you're not here. And you're not ever going to be here for me.

What is genius, anyway, if it isn't the ability to give an adequate response to a great challenge?

Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain't no greater love in this here world than that.

Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.

The ways of the Lord are filled with wonder and mystery.

And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces - spaces you know can't ever be filled.

Longevity can't be the only test of love.

Folks keep forgetting that wishing don't make nothing so, but prayer sometimes do.

Sometimes when a person be thinking about one thing it don't mean they is mad about another thing.

But will somebody please tell me what's a person to do when they're too afraid of life to live and too afraid of death to die?

The world is not a rational place.

Keep in mind that life produces no maestros, only students of varying shades of ineptitude.

All I know is that growing up hurts too much. Growing down is what I'd really like to do. Be little enough again so it would be perfectly natural to be protected from the wind and the rain - and the world.

It seems to me that a man who is incapable of humor is capable of cruelty.

Six years is plenty long enough to soothe the tearing anguish of...death, but maybe no amount of time is enough to soothe something that is no longer there. Something like an emptiness that can never be filled because it's only a bit of space carved out of air.

But you, Pearl, never liked anything once it was yours.

My deception was believed because it was built on a foundation of truth … Hitler's first layer is an undeniable truth, such as: The German workers are poor. The second layer is divided equally between flattery and truth: The German worker deserves to be prosperous. The third layer is fabrication: The Jews and the Communists and Jews have stolen what is rightfully yours.

I was hooked on writing. I mean, where else can you get paid for sticking your nose into somebody else's business?

Experiencing life through a book can help you learn without all the pain of going through the experiences first hand.

One thing you can say about him is that he's appreciative. He's just happy having someone to sit with.

It was like that. Sometimes I'd go for a period - days or weeks - without feeling the full sweep of my loss, and then as unexpected as a thunderclap, the realization would rip the protective coating from my senses. Maybe that's the way it is with trick knees and aging griefs. Totally pain free one moment and absorbingly painful the next.

What do you know about sooner or later? Is a moment only a moment when you're in pain?

And taking care of somebody else made me feel good. Like discovering you're more than you thought you were. More even than you hoped to be.

Fun, like champagne bubbles, can't completely fill you up.

I love Arkansas but I think Arkansas has its share of unlit minds.

I wondered if a blessing is still a blessing if it lasts for only a little while.