15 Quotes by Robert McCloskey

So, you never can tell what will happen when you learn to play the harmonica.

Homer got down from the chair and pushed a button on the machine marked, "start". Rings of batter started dropping into the hot fat. After a ring of batter was cooked on one side, an automatic gadget turned it over and the other side would cook. Then another automatic gadget gave the doughnut a little push and it rolled neatly down a little chute, all ready to eat.

That's simply a fascinating machine," said the lady as she waited for the first doughnut to roll out . ⁠"Here, young man, you must have the first one. Now isn't that just too delicious? Isn't it simply marvelous?"⁠"Yes, Ma'm, it's very good," replied Homer, as the lady handed doughnuts to Charles, and to Mr. Gabby, and asked if they didn't think they were simply divine doughnuts.⁠"It's an old family recipe!" said the lady with pride.

By the time Uncle Ulysses and the sheriff arrived and pushed through the crowd, the lunchroom was a calamity of doughnuts! Doughnuts in the window, doughnuts piled high on the shelves, doughnuts stacked on plates, doughnuts lined up twelve deep all along the counter, and doughnuts still rolling down the little chute, just as regular as a clock can tick.

That neighborhood has never been known for racial tensions." ()

It was more exciting to get that first book published, I think.

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today or even ten years, fifteen years later, I would have gone to where the wild ducks were and where I could study them - I would have gone to the country somewhere.

That was the - It was an exciting time because it was as though I was sort of tied up in a paper bag or in a gunny sack with a rope around the neck of it, and all of a sudden with the acceptance of that first book everything sort of spilled out!