Sarah's Quilt Quotes

“I have a deep-down belief that there are folks in the world who are good through and through, and others who came in mean and will go out mean. It's like coffee. Once it's roasted, it all looks brown. Until you pour hot water on it and see what comes out. Folks get into hot water, you see what comes out.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“Living is getting knocked down time and again, then standing up time and again, and once more. It's easy to act honorable when things are coming along and all your pastures are green. Plenty difficult when the ground is dried and burned and people have connived to take even that from you. I'll sell this place, or I'll lose it. I'll go on. People who don't have hard times aren't living.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“What a pure blessing it was to have a bath in a tub alone in a room where all you had to do was pump the water, not tote buckets. Then all you had to do was pull out the cork, not tote more buckets to the back porch--that kind of thing is easy to take lightly until you don't have it.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“Getting out of bed is a good way to leave your troubles behind.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“I thought I was leading them, but the truth was, I was just following them, holding up a lantern.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906

“The best cure for sadness is doing something.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“should”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906

“hard work is still peace compared to what can worry a person on the inside.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“How could I explain to a beautiful lady in a silk dress that when I picked up her baby girl, I felt that lady's long-ago chubby shape in my arms, smelled her sunshine-touched hair? That years and years of tiny memories flitted past my heart like a flock of birds spinning on invisible air? It was the smell of the little girls, slightly wet, somewhat soapy, the smell of porridge supper, and the taste of kissed-away tears. Here in my arms were the best parts of life, going on, blooming like a strong tree.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“A clock only turns one direction”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“and”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906

“At times, it's better to think of exactly what is happening right in front of you every second, rather than going through things from the past in your mind.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“One thing I know from living with Jack is that war, any war, stains a man deep, and nothing can get the stain out. They can wear clothes like a rancher or a banker, but the stains are under there, never far from the surface of their skin.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“I rode toward Rudolfo Maldonado's house, planning to murder him before he got his morning shave.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“But there is no easy way to mourn a child.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“live only to do your bidding.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906

“I'm about fed up with men right now. It's just trouble, always trying to figure what one's got caught in his craw that he isn't telling.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“I have a deep-down belief that there are folks in the world who are good through and through and others who came in mean and will go out mean.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“Being the one doing something is always so much easier than being the one waiting.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“I have a hard time sleeping at night and a hard time staying awake in the day. Being older is harder work that I thought I'd be, that's all.”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“One thing I'd learned from all the burying I'd attended was that sometimes it's hard to pay attention. Burying someone you know will set your mind down some distant trail, as the one you're really on is too painful to view.

at the burial of Ernest, Sarah's brother
p177”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt

“Living is getting knocked down time and again, then standing up time and again, and once more. It’s easy to act honorable when things are coming along and all your pastures are green. Plenty difficult when the ground has dried and burned and people have connived to take even that from you. I’ll sell this place, or I’ll lose it. I’ll go on. People who don’t have hard times aren’t living.” “You don’t have to sell this ranch, do you?”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906

“lightning! Mephistopheles and Beelzebub!”
― Nancy E. Turner, Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906