The Bean Trees

by Barbara Kingsolver

struck her that his presence was different from the feeling of women filling up the house. He could be there, or not, and it hardly made any difference.

“Hogs go deaf at harvest time.” It meant that people would only hear what they wanted to hear. Mama was raised on a hog farm.

This is what happens to people without TVs, I thought. They die of junk food.

‘Please Note. Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts.’ That’s kind of my philosophy about men. I don’t think there’s an installation out there that could use all of my parts.”

To hear you tell it, you’d think man was only put on this earth to keep urinals from going to waste.”

About how your kids aren’t really yours, they’re just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you’ll all grow up someday to like each other and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you ever get is really just on loan.

This is pure wisdom!