The Great Brain at the Academy Quotes

“Mamma,” I said looking her right in the eye, “you gave birth to a son who is a stupid jackass.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain at the Academy

“at the Throttle ALL WEEK I WONDERED what could possibly have happened to Tom on his first train ride that made it the most exciting experience of his life. When I finally received his second letter I understood why he had said that all the kids in town would turn green with envy. When I showed the kids the letter they didn’t actually turn green any more than a yellow-bellied coward has a yellow belly. But you never saw such a bunch of envious kids in your life. When Tom came home for the Christmas vacation with Sweyn he told Papa, Mamma, Aunt Bertha, our four-year-old foster brother Frankie, and me all about riding in the locomotive from Provo to Salt Lake City.”
― John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain at the Academy