264 Quotes by Betty Smith

Somehow, good talking had gotten tied up with good sex in his mind. He wanted a woman to talk to, one to whom he could tell all his thoughts; and he wanted her to talk to him, warmly, wisely and intimately...In his dumb fumbling way, he wanted a union of mind and soul along with union of body.

She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered 'different.' She did not suffer too much.

Francie, huddled with other children of her kind, learned more that first day than she realized. She learned of the class system of a great Democracy.

Willie tried to enlist in the army and was turned down; whereupon he threw his job, came home, announced that he was a failure, and went to bed. (...) He said he was going to stay in bed and never get up as long as he lived.

He wasn't exactly a bum, he was just a weak man who whined all the time. But he played the guitar.

It's come at last", she thought, "the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache.

It is good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.

It was one of the links between the ground-down poor and the wasteful rich. The girl felt that even if she had less than anybody in Williamsburg, somehow she had more. She was richer because she had something to waste.

A wave of hurt broke over Francie and left her weak when it was passed. Another wave came, broke and receded. She found her way down to the cellar of her house and sat in the darkest corner on a heap of burlap sacks and waited while the hurt waves swept over her. As each wave spent itself and a new one gathered, she trembled. Tensely she sat there waiting for them to stop. If they didn't stop, she'd have to die--she'd have to die.