Pioneer Girl Quotes

“Everyone is always leaving each other, chasing down the next seeming opportunity—home or body. Where does it stop? Does it ever? I want to believe it all leads to something grander than the imagination, grander than the end-stop of the Pacific. Or is that it: You get to the place where you land; you are tired now; you settle. You settle. You build a home and raise a family. There are years of eating and arguing, working and waking. There are years of dying. No one knows what the last image will be.”
― Bich Minh Nguyen, Pioneer Girl

“I looked back all the time, too much, too often. Like Rose, I would be circling my mother the rest of my life.”
― Bich Minh Nguyen, Pioneer Girl

“Or like the way our mother would never get free of her first-generation immigrant mentality. Once in flight she was always in flight, glancing uneasily around before pushing on to another vista that promised better prospects. Maybe it kept her feeling safe. She couldn't have known that it would leave Sam and me feeling the opposite--permanently unsettled, unable to know what could be called home.”
― Bich Minh Nguyen, Pioneer Girl

“From this little hideaway the city felt entirely removed. That was the difference so much money could make. In a suburban rental, hiding out was the same as being forgotten; here, it was a deliberate choice and the rest of the world would just have to wait.”
― Bich Minh Nguyen, Pioneer Girl