Ten Miles Past Normal Quotes

“When I think about everything that's happened since school started, well, I don't think the word 'normal' applies to any of it. Verbena is right - I'm way past normal. Only I've realized that when you move beyond normal, the road you're on doesn't necessarily take you to the land of the abnormal or the weird or the freakish. Instead you might find yourself in a place where people build Freedom School and have the courage to live large. It's a place where people don't worry too much when they get a little goat poop on their shoes.”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“Live large.”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“Dream girl? Ain't such a thing. You walk, you talk, you got mammary glands, well, that's gonna do it right there for most guys.”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“I like your mama,' Trena tells me. 'She seems like good people.'
'Smile!' my mom calls to me from across the room, and I look at her and smile. Because she is good people. And she means well, even if she does drive me crazy.”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“My dad, who my mom always refers to as DH for Darling Husband, was protrayed as a 'let's look on the bright side of things' kind of guy, the pillar my everbumbling mother leans on in times of distress.”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“Only one thing to do about hate that big...and that's to put a bigger love out there" -Monster”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong" -Emma”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“Authentic funkiness mean never trying to hard" -Janie”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“I look at Sarah and Emma, and I know that's what they want someday, to have an amazing story like this to tell, one where they faced obstacles but were brave, one where they made a difference in people's lives.
And that's when I feel that big feeling again - the one I felt the first time I picked up Monster's bass - that strange sense that I'm becoming larger. Just by sitting here listening. Just by understanding how large a person's life can be" -Janie”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal

“What's really weird is my mom's clothes smell like her. I mean, her perfume, and so all day it's like m mom has been walking right beside me. Which, you have to admit, a pretty freaky feeling.”
― Frances O'Roark Dowell, Ten Miles Past Normal