Petelle Jeannette Quotes

I'm a grown woman now," Mom said almost every morning. "Why can't I do what I want to do? ~ Jeannette Walls

I'm a big believer in luck - the harder you work, the luckier you become. ~ Jeannette Walls

Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time. ~ Jeannette Walls

It is unconscionable that 10,000 boys have died in Vietnam. If 10,000 American women had mind enough they could end the war, if they were committed to the task, even if it meant going to jail. ~ Jeannette Rankin

One thing about whoring: It put a chicken on the table. ~ Jeannette Walls

Life there was hard and it made people hard. ~ Jeannette Walls

We often say that we fear no invasion from the south, but the armies of the south have already crossed the border - American enterprise, American capital is taking rapid possession of our mines and our water power, our oil areas and our timber limits. ~ Sara Jeannette Duncan

The dangerous falls were the ones that happened so fast you didn't have time to react ~ Jeannette Walls

Whenever I'm reading a book I enjoy, I always develop a mental list of the people I want to share it with. ~ Jeannette Walls

I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all. ~ Jeannette Walls

She knew how to get by on next to nothing.
pg. 21 ~ Jeannette Walls

I never believed in Santa Claus. None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us. They couldn't afford expensive presents and they didn't want us to think we weren't as good as other kids who, on Christmas morning, found all sorts of fancy toys under the tree that were supposedly left by Santa Claus.
Dad had lost his job at the gypsum, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all. On Christmas Eve, Dad took each one of us kids out into the desert night one by one.
"Pick out your favorite star", Dad said.
"I like that one!" I said.
Dad grinned, "that's Venus", he said. He explained to me that planets glowed because reflected light was constant and stars twinkled because their light pulsed.
"I like it anyway" I said.
"What the hell," Dad said. "It's Christmas. You can have a planet if you want."
And he gave me Venus.

Venus didn't have any moons or satellites or even a magnetic field, but it did have an atmosphere sort of similar to Earth's, except it was super hot-about 500 degrees or more. "So," Dad said, "when the sun starts to burn out and Earth turns cold, everyone might want to move to Venus to get warm. And they'll have to get permission from your descendants first.
We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. "Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten," Dad said, "you'll still have your stars. ~ Jeannette Walls

The greatest threat to peace is the barrage of rightist propaganda portraying war as decent, honorable, and patriotic. ~ Jeannette Rankin

Aficionados of the weather. We'd follow a storm ~ Jeannette Walls

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets. ~ Jeannette Walls

But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence. ~ Jeannette Walls

Everything in life is gray, you know. ~ Jeannette Walls

Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out. ~ Jeannette Walls

Once you start your exercise routine and you include in your daily diet foods rich in calcium and potassium, you will start losing weight in about a week ~ Jeannette Murueta

There it was, the land under 80 degrees, a land of stern magnificence, where icebergs rear up almost to the very mountaintops, and mountain rises above mountain; there it was, inviolate, alive to the raucous voice of millions of birds, the continuous staccato bark of foxes, the castanet click as the hoofs of great herds of deer fell in a swinging trot; there it was, surrounded by waters whose surface was slashed and sprayed by schools of walrus and whales that had swum there before ever man was born. ~ Jeannette Mirsky

If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim ~ Jeannette Walls

I could hear people around us whispering about the crazy drunk man and his dirty little urchin children, but who cared what they thought? ~ Jeannette Walls

One of the many lessons I hope I've learned is how much I underestimated people, their open-mindedness and their willingness to understand. I think, moreover, I underestimated the degree to which everyone has a story. So my advice, for whatever it's worth, is to trust readers, trust the truth and trust the power of storytelling. ~ Jeannette Walls

Living there [Horse Mesa] was like living in a natural cathedral. Waking up every morning, you walked outside and looked down at the blue lake, then up at the sandstone cliffs
those awe-inspiring layers of red and yellow rock shaped over the millennia, with dozens of black-streaked crevices that temporarily became waterfalls after rainstorms. ~ Jeannette Walls

Mom said we should all live near the Pacific Ocean at least once in our lives, so we kept going all the way to San Francisco. ~ Jeannette Walls

Dad's death didn't hollow me out the way Helen's had. After all, everyone had assumed Dad was a goner back when he got kicked in the head as a child. Instead, he had cheated death and, despite his gimp and speech impediment, lived a long life doing pretty much what he wanted. He hadn't drawn the best of cards, but he'd played his hand darned well, so what was there to grieve over? ~ Jeannette Walls

Discordantly - out of the mists - he heard her voice: "Dead faces," she said whitely, "they're all the same. . . . They don't, I mean, tell of the person as they were alive. ~ Jeannette Haien

You know, if it's humanly possible, I'll get it for you. And if it ain't humanly possible, I'l die trying. ~ Jeannette Walls

Most important thing in life is learning how to fall. ~ Jeannette Walls

There can be no compromise with war; it cannot be reformed or controlled; cannot be disciplined into decency or codified into common sense. ~ Jeannette Rankin

I think you'd make a wonderful teacher. You have a strong personality. The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers. ~ Jeannette Walls

What turns to stone is inside you. ~ Jeannette Walls

I find books that have a moral and spiritual center, that speak to what is really important and lasting, hugely appealing. ~ Jeannette Walls

We both stood a better chance if we took on the world together. ~ Jeannette Walls

Phoenix was square and straight, boxy and boxed in, and above all, fake. ~ Jeannette Walls

The water you kids were playing in, he said, had probably been to Africa and the North Pole. Genghis Khan or Saint Peter or even Jesus may have drunk it. Cleopatra might have bathed in it. Crazy Horse might have watered his pony with it. Sometimes water was liquid. Sometimes it was rock hard- ice. Sometimes it was soft- snow. Sometimes it was visible but weightless- clouds. And sometimes it was completely invisible- vapor- floating up into the the sky like the soals of dead people. There was nothing like water in the world, Jim said. It made the desert bloom but also turned rich bottomland into swamp. Without it we'd die, but it could also kill us, and that was why we loved it, even craved it, but also feared it. Never take water forgranted, Jim said. Always cherish it. Always beware of it. ~ Jeannette Walls

If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise. ~ Jeannette Walls

Poor old Venus didn't even make her own light, Dad said. She shone only from reflected light. ~ Jeannette Walls

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear. ~ Jeannette Walls

If you have anything to tell me of importance, for God's sake begin at the end. ~ Sara Jeannette Duncan

The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers. Teaching is a calling, too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy
angles leading their flocks out of the darkness. ~ Jeannette Walls

What doesn't kill you will make you stronger ~ Jeannette Walls

Books are my very favorite gift to give. If you give a book to someone and they really respond to it, you feel you've actually changed their life in some way. ~ Jeannette Walls

When two friends understand each other totally, the words are soft and strong like an orchid's perfume. ~ Sara Jeannette Duncan

Dad was on the porch, pacing back and forth in that uneven stride he had on account of having a gimp leg. When he saw, he let out a yelp of delight and started hobbling down the steps towards us. Mom came running out of the house. She sank down on her knees, clasped her hands in front of her, and started praying up to the heavens, thanking the Lord for delivering her children from the flood.
It was she who had saved us, she declared, by staying up all night praying. "You get down on your knees and thank your guardian angel," she said. "And thank me, too."
Helen and Buster got down and started praying with Mom, but I just stood there looking at them. The way I saw it. I was the one who'd saved us all, not Mom and not some guardian angel. No one was up in that cottonwood tree except the three of us. Dad came alongside me and put his arms around my shoulders.
"There weren't no guardian angel, Dad," I said. I started explaining how I'd gotten us to the cottonwood tree in time, figuring out how to switch places when our arms got tired and keeping Buster and Helen awake through the long night by quizzing them.
Dad squeezed my shoulder. "Well, darling," he said, "maybe the angel was you. ~ Jeannette Walls

Confidence doesn't come from thinking you're perfect or flawless. That's arrogance. Confidence comes from appreciating the beauty of your texture. ~ Jeannette Walls