The War That Saved My Life Quotes

“It had been awful, but I hadn't quit. I had persisted. In battle I had won.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I don't know what to say," she said, after a pause. "I don't want to tell you a lie, and I don't know the truth."
It was maybe the most honest thing anyone had ever said to me.”
― Kimberly Brubaker-Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I wanted to say a lot of things, but, as usual, I didn't have the words for the thoughts inside my head.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I don't want to just survive”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“Then I did what I should have done to start with. I taught myself to walk.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“After that it was easy. It was the most impossible thing I’d ever done, but it was also easy. I held on to Jamie, and I kept moving forward.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“Victory,' she said, 'means peace.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“Sourpuss,” she said, laughing. “Would it kill you to be grateful?” Maybe. Who knew?”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“It was us, I thought. Jamie and me. We had fallen down a rabbit hole, fallen into Susan’s house, and nothing made sense, not at all, not anymore.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“Somehow Christmas was making me feel jumpy inside. All this talk about being together and being happy and celebrating - it felt threatening. Like I shouldn't be part of it. Like I wasn't allowed. And Susan wanted me to be happy, which was scarier still.”
― Kimberly Brubaker-Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“But what do I do with them?" Miss Smith said "I've never been around children." "Feed them, bathe them, make sure they get plenty of sleep," the doctor said. "They're no more diffi cult than puppies, really." He grinned”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“My bad foot’s a long way from my brain.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War that Saved My Life

“Jamie sings like a squirrel.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“And even if it felt like Mam hated me, she had to love me, didn’t she? She had to love me, because she was my mam, and Susan was just somebody who got stuck taking care of Jamie and me because of the war.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I stared at the paper. I said, “This isn’t reading. This is drawing.” “Writing,” she corrected. “It’s like buttons and hems. You’ve got to learn those before you can sew on the machine. You’ve got to know your letters before you can read.” I supposed so, but it was boring. When I said so she got up again and wrote something along the bottom of the paper. “What’s that?” I asked. “‘Ada is a curmudgeon,’” she replied. “Ada is a curmudgeon,” I copied at the end of my alphabet. It pleased me. After”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“One step, I thought. One step at a time.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I wanted to talk to her when she hadn’t just been hit on the head. I wanted to know if she’d still like me when she wasn’t woozy.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“But now, thinking back, it seemed a little silly to be unhappy about a dress when the pilots were dead. If I had it to do over, I would at least have learned their names.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“You feel safer in your bedroom, but you’re actually much safer in the shelter.” It didn’t matter how I felt. She made me go into the shelter every time the sirens wailed. Men came and removed all the signposts from the roads around the village, so that when Hitler invaded he wouldn’t know where he was. When he invaded, we were to bury our radio. Jamie had already dug a hole for it in the garden. When Hitler invaded we were to say nothing, do nothing to help the enemy. If he invaded while I was out riding, I was to return home at once, as fast as possible by the shortest route. I’d know it was an invasion, not an air raid, because all the church bells would ring. “What if the Germans take Butter?” I asked Susan. “They won’t,” she said, but I was sure she was lying. “Bloody huns,” Fred muttered, when I went to help with chores. “They come here, I’ll stab ’em with a pitchfork, I will.” Fred was not happy. The riding horses, the Thortons’ fine hunters, were all out to grass, and the grass was good, but the hayfields had been turned over to wheat and Fred didn’t know how he’d feed the horses through the winter. Plus the Land Girls staying in the loft annoyed him. “Work twelve hours a day, then go out dancing,” he said. “Bunch of lightfoots. In my day girls didn’t act like that.” I thought the Land Girls seemed friendly, but I knew better than to say so to Fred. You could get used to anything. After a few weeks, I didn’t panic when I went into the shelter. I quit worrying about the invasion. I put Jamie up behind me on Butter”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“After that, with help from Jamie, I left Susan little notes every day. Susan is a big frog. (That one made Jamie giggle.)”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I wasn’t relaxed. I was wearing the green dress. I’d put it on when I came in from seeing Butter, because I knew it would please Susan, and it did. She brushed my hair and let it hang loose, tying my new green ribbon around my head. “That’s an Alice ribbon,” she said. “The girl in your book, Alice, she wears her hair like that.” I felt like an imposter. It was worse than when I tried to talk like Maggie. Here I was, looking like Maggie. Looking like a shiny bright girl with hair ribbons. Looking like a girl with a family that loved her.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“There,” she said, smiling, her eyes soft and warm. “It’s perfect. Ada. You’re beautiful.” She was lying. She was lying, and I couldn’t bear it. I heard Mam’s voice shrieking in my head. “You ugly piece of rubbish! Filth and trash! No one wants you, with that ugly foot!” My hands started to shake. Rubbish. Filth. Trash. I could wear Maggie’s discards, or plain clothes from the shops, but not this, not this beautiful dress. I could listen to Susan say she never wanted children all day long. I couldn’t bear to hear her call me beautiful. “What’s the matter?” Susan asked, perplexed. “It’s a Christmas present. I made it for you. Bottle green velvet, just like I said.” Bottle green velvet. “I can’t wear this,” I said. I pulled at the bodice, fumbling for the buttons. “I can’t wear it. I can’t.” “Ada.” Susan grabbed my hands. She pulled me to the sofa and set me down hard beside her, still restraining me. “Ada. What would you say to Jamie, if I gave him something nice and he said he couldn’t have it? Think. What would you say?” Tears were running down my face now. I started to panic. I fought Susan’s grasp. “I’m not Jamie!” I said. “I’m different, I’ve got the ugly foot, I’m—” My throat closed over the word rubbish.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“wanted Mam to be like Susan. I didn’t really trust Susan not to be like Mam.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“When Jamie had to use the toilet, soldiers passed him over their heads to the one at the end of the car, and back again when he was done.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“The officer stopped his car and got out. ‘Papers, please,’ he said. ‘Really?’ said the man, in perfect English with the accent Lady Thorton used. ‘Why ever for?’ ‘Routine,’ the officer said. The man raised his eyebrow as if it were all a joke, but reached into his pocket readily enough. He pulled his identity card out of a battered leather wallet. ‘I’m just on a bit of a walking holiday,’ he said, indicating the rucksack on his back. ‘My ration card’s in there if you want me to fish it out.’ He could not sound more English. He could not look more English. And yet— ‘Sir,’ I said to the officer. He came over to the window on the passenger side, and leaned in. ‘I’m sorry, miss,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘but I think you’ve—’ I said, ‘His trouser cuffs are wet. And they’re full of sand.’ No one went on the beaches anymore. No one ever. It wasn’t allowed. The officer’s smile disappeared.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War that Saved My Life

“Christmas trees are a nice tradition. Green in the midst of winter, light in the midst of darkness—it’s all metaphors for God.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“Saying something stupid doesn't make you stupid," Susan said. " Luckily for all of us.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“I didn’t know what to do. Susan was temporary. My foot was permanent.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“crippled. He’d been better as soon as his hooves were trimmed.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life

“You mustn’t listen to people who don’t know you. Listen to what you know, yourself.”
― Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War That Saved My Life