Catherine, Called Birdy Quotes

“I watched the early morning light pass over and through the windows of colored glass, leaving streaks of red and green and yellow on the stone floor. When I was little, I used to try and capture the colored light. I thought I could hold it in my hand and carry it home. Now I know it is like happiness-- it is there or it is not, you cannot hold it or keep it.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Corpus Bones! I utterly loathe my life.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I think sometimes that people are like onions. On the outside smooth and whole and simple but inside ring upon ring, complex and deep.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“. . . . I cannot escape my life but can only use my determination and courage to make it the best I can.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I am near fourteen and have never yet seen a hanging. My life is barren.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I have developed a rash on my body where the rough cloth rubs on my skin. I wanted to take a bath, thinking that the dirt on my skin made the rash worse, but the bathing tub has been turned upside down and is being used as an extra table in the kitchen and i cannot have it until spring, so I just spread goose grease on my rash. The dogs are following me everywhere.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Just as a river by night shines with the reflected light of the moon, so too do you shine with the light of your family, your people, and your God. So you are never far from home, never alone, wherever you go.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I cannot be a monk, nor a crusader, nor a tumbler. I must stay here and hem sheets until I die. My humors are greatly out of balance. I prescribe for myself wormwood and spiced wine and some of the custard left from supper, and I will let all of the dogs sleep in my bed.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“My mother makes the best cider in Lincolnshire. She swears it is because she always includes a number of rotten apples in the mix. I was wondering if this could be true of people - if the world needs a few rotten people to make the sweetest mix. This would explain the problem of God allowing evil in the world.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“More lady-lessons. It is impossible to do all and be all a lady must be and not tie oneself in a knot. A lady must walk erect with dignity, looking straight before her with eyelids low, gazing at the ground ahead, neither trotting nor running nor looking about nor laughing nor stopping to chatter. Her hands must be folded below her cloak while at the same time lifting her dress from the floor while at the same time hiding her mouth if her smile is unattractive or her teeth yellow. A lady must have six hands!”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Ladies, it seems, seldom have strong feelings and, if they do, never never let them show. God’s thumbs! I always have strong feelings and they are quite painful until I let them out, like a cow who needs to give milk and bellows with the pain in her”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“19TH DAY OF OCTOBER, Feast of Saint Frideswide, virgin, though why that should make someone a saint I do not know”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Corpus bones, I thought. To be wedded to this perfumed prig with his mouth in a knot and a frown always on his face!”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“The first memory I have of this brother is his drowning ants by pissing on the anthill.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“who lived three years on nuts and herbs”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I began to keep birds in order to hear their chirping, but most often now they have to listen to mine.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“First I wondered why, after Lazarus was raised from the dead, people did not ask him about heaven and hell and being dead. Were they not curious? Indeed, this may have been our only chance to find out without dying.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I have been gathering violets to make oil of violets against attacks of melancholy. Since I turned thirteen last year I have used a great amount of oil of violets.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Today my father questioned me about the bearded pig. I said he affected my stomach like maggoty meat and my father laughed and said, "Learn to like it.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I walked down to the churchyard and watched the village boys dancing and fooling. I wonder which is the day when ladies dance and fool.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Perkin wants me to teach him to read. He dreams of being a scholar but most likely will just be a goat boy who can read.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I think I love geese more than any other birds because no one else does. They are not small and delicate like larks and sparrows, or swift and clever like hawks and falcons. They cannot sing like nightingales and cannot be trained to talk or dance or do tricks. They are cunning, greedy, shortsighted, and stubborn - much like me, now that I think on it.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I am frequently told not to spend so much time with the goat boy, so of course I seek him out whenever I can.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“Morwenna says beauty and rainbows soon pass away, but I know for the rest of my life when I look at Meg I will see her like this.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy

“I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.”
― Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy