Flora & Ulysses Quotes

“The Criminal Element spoke often, and passionately, about the nefarious activities that every human being is capable of. Not only did it insist that the human heart was dark beyond all reckoning; it also likened the heart to a river. And further, it said, "If we are not careful, that river can carry us along in its hidden currents of want and anger and need, and transform each of us into the very criminal we fear.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“I ask you, why is it so hard to stay away from the euphemisms? They creep in, always, and attempt to make the difficult things more pleasing.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“So much happiness!" said Dr. Meescham. "This is how it was when I was a girl in Blundermeecen. Like this. Always opening the door in the middle of the night and finding the face of someone you wanted to see. Well, not always. Sometimes it was the face of someone you did not want to see.
But always, always in Blundermeecen, you opened the door because you could not stop hoping that on the other side of it would be the face of someone you loved." Dr. Meescham looked at William Spiver and then at Tootie. She smiled. "And maybe, too, the face of someone you did not yet know but might come to love.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Flora hated the phrase “correct me if I’m wrong.” In her experience, people only said it when they knew they were right.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“What was the apostrophe doing there? Did the doctor own the Meescham? And what was it with exclamation marks? Did people not know what they were for? Surprise, anger, joy—that's what exclamation marks were for. They had nothing to do with who resided where.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“This malfeasance must be stopped,” said Flora in a deep and superheroic voice.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Normalcy is an illusion, of course,” said William Spiver. “There is no normal.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“It was astonishing, really, what people could live through. Flora felt cheered up all of a sudden, just thinking about eating seal blubber and doing impossible things, surviving when the odds were against her and her squirrel. They”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Flora had decided that this was part of the reason her parents had divorced. Not the noise of the writing, but the writing itself. Specifically, the writing of romance. Flora”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“the human heart was dark beyond all reckoning; it also likened the heart to a river. And further, it said, “If we are not careful, that river can carry us along in its hidden currents of want and anger and need, and transform each of us into the very criminal we fear.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Stall! Delay! Obfuscate! “Let’s,” said Flora.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“To have someone get out of bed and bring you little fishes and sit with you as you eat them in the dark of night. To hum to you. This is love.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“know to be a safe port in a storm?” Flora suddenly remembered her dream, how warm William Spiver’s hand had felt in her own. She blushed. Whom did she trust? Good grief, she trusted William Spiver.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Flora sighed. She looked down at Ulysses. Considering the human beings she was surrounded by, believing in a squirrel seemed like an increasingly reasonable plan of action.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“What was a squirrel supposed to do with all of these thoughts and feelings?”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“She was on her own. She laughed. “What are you laughing about?” said William Spiver. Flora laughed louder. William Spiver laughed along with her. “What’s so funny back there?” said Tootie. “Everything,” said Flora. “Wheeee,” said Tootie. And then they were all laughing. Except for Mary Ann, who couldn’t laugh because she was inanimate. But even if she had been capable of laughing, she probably wouldn’t have done it. She just wasn’t that kind of lamp.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Such tenderness. To have someone get out of bed and bring you little fishes and sit with you as you eat them in the dark of night. To hum to you. This is love.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“here was Ulysses, sitting in a shoe box, knowing that there was a shovel in the trunk of the car and that the man driving the car had been instructed to whack him over the head with the shovel, and the squirrel didn’t look worried or afraid. He looked happy.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“The miraculous happened every day. Sometimes it did not happen. But still, we expected it. Even when it didn't happen, we were expecting it. We knew the miraculous would come.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“I’m”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Bah,”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Words for Flora Nothing would be easier without you, because you are everything, all of it — sprinkles, quarks, giant donuts, eggs sunny - side up — you are the ever - expanding universe to me.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“The”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“YOU’RE GOING TO VACUUM UP THAT SQUIRREL!”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“I want things to be normal. I want a daughter who is happy. I want her to have friends who aren’t squirrels. I don’t want her to end up unloved and all alone in the world. But it doesn’t matter, does it?”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“TERRIBLE THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“will be a scientific adventure.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Everything was astonishing. The setting sun was illuminating each blade of grass. It was reflecting off the girl’s glasses, making a halo of light around the girl’s round head, setting the whole world on fire.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“thoughts of food.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“food.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures