The Altar Girl Quotes

“There’s an old Ukrainian proverb: He who licks knives will soon cut his tongue.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“She’d been up all night baking paska—the special Easter bread—and babkas.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The one thing she knew not to do was drink from the stream. One of the boys had done that last summer camp and ended up in the hospital with a Cryptosporidium parasite and diarrhea for a week.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“When you’re a woman living alone you can’t take any chances. If a burglar sees those shoes, he’ll assume there’s a man inside and he’ll go away. Unless the burglar knows my son and daughter. Then he’ll waltz right in, rob me, and kill me because he’ll know that neither of them stuck around to take care of me.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“My brother and I never suffered for anything other than calm. We were nervous all the time. In fact, our nerves remained on alert for the first eighteen years of our lives until each of us left for college. We simply never knew when our father would explode.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“community. I was sure Donnie had experienced the same single-minded”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“to their trunks with their branches and devouring her with”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“I felt as though I were following the headsman to the town square to receive my just punishment.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“looked Brazilian, with bronzed bubble butts so big you could have gotten loans to build condos on them in the days of zero percent financing.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The conclusion was as clear as the whipped nougat was delicious:”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“Beads of sweat covered her arms as though her skin was a pancake in the making.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“It was a smile as spontaneous and genuine as the pile of shit I’d stepped in was deep.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“In the absence of familial bliss, we always have chocolate.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“Love had been conditional in our house.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“that as she aged, a woman had to decide whether to preserve her ass or her face. She couldn’t keep both.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“A fractured family is the hardest break to mend. Sometimes . . . sometimes we need a little help from a stranger.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“You can’t trust anyone that drives a Maserati. It pretends to be a Ferrari but it’s not.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“A waitress whose figure could have turned ketchup into Tabasco told me Marko was in the back.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“Kobalt, made in America.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“Don’t be scared of getting scared, he said. It’s normal to be frightened in unusual circumstances. Make fear your friend. Let the fluttering in the belly and the pounding of the heart remind you to be alert and not do anything stupid. Then focus your mind on something else, Marko said. Picture yourself doing something you enjoy, and imagine you’re really doing it.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“Love had been conditional in our house. Growing up it was based on scholastic achievement. Ever since I got a job, it was based on money.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“In her world, guilt inspired remorse. Contrition was measured in dollars.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“ensued. It happened right in front of me. Then I felt my head falling”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The woman who keeps her emotions at bay can find the way.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“The flame illuminated a pair of lush lips, the kind that could suck a grapefruit dry from across the room.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl

“You’re a tough chick. But even a tough chick can’t make it on her own. Everyone needs a little help from somebody every once in a while. Everyone.”
― Orest Stelmach, The Altar Girl