Summer of Salt Quotes

“Because there was nothing in a girl’s history that might negate her right to choose what happens to her body.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“I knew that he would use that gun, because that is what small, scared men did: they used things more powerful than themselves to make up the difference. They hid behind weapons of mass destruction: big guns and bigger bombs.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things: salt and magic.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Are you happy at all?" she asked tentatively.
"Of course I'm happy. Why wouldn't I be happy?"
"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes you just find reasons not to be.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Except there weren’t any princes on By-the-Sea. We didn’t need princes; we saved ourselves.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Oh, By-the-Sea, island of Fernwehs and everything I had ever known and loved. How I would miss you—every part of you—but especially the smell, always the smell: of salt, of brine, of water, of spells, of potions, of feathers, and of what it would mean to leave it all in just two months.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“She was tied to the water, my sister. Moods like tides, temper like a hungry shark.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“I was tempted to tell her that babies born on By-the-Sea tended to always smell like salt, always crave the ocean on their skin, always look for the full moon or North Star to guide them home.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“What more could I want?” I said. But I think we both knew the answer to that question was: Lots lots lots lots lots.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“What time is it, Georgie?” “I’m not saying.” “Georgieeeee.” “I’m not saying it.” “Georgie, what time is it?” “Cute o’clock,” I relented. “It’s cute o’clock, okay, you psychopath.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“What’s on your mind, Willard?” she asked, because she wasn’t the sort of woman who just handed things to people. She liked to make them work for it.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“I’ll have to build a widow’s walk,” she said, and then she looked at Aggie and smiled so Aggie knew that she could smile, too, that the rest of their lives wouldn’t be all sadness and loss.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“What was my sister wearing the night she was raped? How much had my sister had to drink the night she was raped? How many guys had my sister previously had sex with? Because—again, out of a fairy tale—they realized that none of those things mattered.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“There are enough ways to die on this Earth,” my great-grandmother had famously declared, “let ‘distracted reading’ be one less thing to worry about.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“She was born for oceanside bonfires, long gauzy dresses and uncombed hair, the scent of salt like a blanket you can’t peel off your skin. She was born for the smell of water, for the way it sank into your bones, stained your skin, dyed your blood a deep, salty blue.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“And besides that, people don’t always think the truth.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“The island was back to its usual self, heavy with the thick heat of another summer's end, a mugginess that could be picked up in your palms and saved for a later day.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“But alas, the rules of sisterhood: if your sister took residence in the boughs of a tree, you were obligated to go and visit.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“I had heard the story a million times, but I let her tell it to me again, and I listened like it was the very first time, because I loved to hear my mother speak.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“As if out of a fairy tale, nobody asked:
What was my sister wearing the night she was raped?
How much had my sister had to drink the night she was raped?
How many guys had my sister previously had sex with?
Because again, out of a fairy tale, they realized that none of those things mattered.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“As if out of a fairy tale, no one asked:
What was my sister wearing the night she was raped?
How much had my sister had to drink the night she was raped?
How many guys had my sister previously had sex with?
Because again, out of a fairy tale, the realized none of those things mattered.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Oh?” A translation of the word oh: WHY TELL ME WHY TELL ME WHY TELL ME WHY TELL ME— “Because I met you,” she continued. “Oh.” A further analysis of the word oh: OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt