The Memory of Butterflies Quotes

“even the Cooper women, strong-minded though they were, had to take a chance and give the good and bad the opportunity to fight it out, and have faith that the outcome would be the right one, no matter if it meant leaving oneself defenseless and leaving one’s loved ones to figure it out on their own.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“Bare? No. Basic maybe. Yet very rich. People don’t know how that works anymore. They live in their houses and put up glass and screens and yell if the door doesn’t get closed all the way because the AC is getting out or the bugs are getting in. They have their yards and lakes and whatnot, but it’s nothing more than a pretty picture seen through their windows. They don’t live in it. I lived in it. The outside was my home, too. My living didn’t stop at the boundaries of our four walls. It was virtually limitless.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“My heart fluttered. Was it hope, perhaps? I bit my lip. I remembered how cruel hope could be.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“Laws are things politicians write down to make you do what they want you to do. I’m talking about rules. Moral rules but also common-sense rules. Most laws don’t have much common sense built in.” He looked away. “People want black and white, up or down, on or off. They want it spelled out. I’m saying life doesn’t always lend itself to clear, easy choices.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“But herbs and vegetables—good things—started life in the mud. Why should people be different?”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“He’s a boy, Gran. Not a man. The last thing we need is a grown child to take care of. We’re better off without a boy who doesn’t want to be here and doesn’t want to be an adult.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“Man plans; God disposes.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“It was a pretty bare existence from what I’ve seen,” Roger said.
“Bare? No. Basic maybe. Yet very rich. People don’t know how that works anymore. They live in their houses and put up glass and screens and yell if the door doesn’t get closed all the way because the AC is getting out or the bugs are getting in. They have their yards and lakes and whatnot, but it’s nothing more than a pretty picture seen through their windows. They don’t live in it. I lived in it. The outside was my home, too. My living didn’t stop at the boundaries of our four walls. It was virtually limitless.” I added, “And loved. I was so loved, Roger. Sometimes it still overwhelms me. My grandparents were my people. Everything I am or will be is thanks to them. I don’t remember my parents. It hurt my grandparents to speak of them. They loved their only daughter so very greatly that they took all their grief and multiplied it with their love and gave every ounce of it to me. Never failing.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“My heart warmed. Life wasn’t just about genetics and birth and loss. But that’s where my ability to express it ran out. Verbalizing the connectedness I felt, of molecules intermixing and creating something new and beautiful, was beyond my ability to explain even all these years later.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“I don’t care what they think.” “If that were true, then you wouldn’t be hiding and moving around town under cover of dark.”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“herbs and vegetables—good things—started life in the mud. Why should people be different?”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies

“If we’re lucky, we live long enough to work out our differences”
― Grace Greene, The Memory of Butterflies