Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! Quotes

“The line between the public life and the private life has been erased, due to the rapid decline of manners and courtesy. There is a certain crudeness and crassness that has suddenly become accepted behavior, even desirable.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“ Poor little old human beings – they’re jerked into this world without having any idea where they came from or what it is they are supposed to do, or how long they have to do it in. Or where they are gonna wind up after that. But bless their hearts, most of them wake up every morning and keep on trying to make some sense out of it. Why, you can’t help but love them, can you? I just wonder why more of them aren’t as crazy as betsy bugs. ”

Aunt Elner, 1978”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“We must be kind and forgive one another or we won't survive. But even among the most religious there seems to be a great blind spot covering the world, an inability to learn from past experience. Civilization is as precarious as a sand castle. All the care and effort it took to create it can be knocked down in a second by some bully or another. And the world is full of bullies.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“you can’t have compassion unless you have a certain loyalty to the human race.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“After Dena hung up she didn’t feel any better. Sookie was wrong. Dena could barely remember any of the girls she went to school with, or at times even the names of the schools. Dena had always been a loner. She did not feel connected to anything. Or anybody. She felt as if everybody else had come into the world with a set of instructions about how to live and someone had forgotten to give them to her. She had no clue what she was supposed to feel, so she had spent her life faking at being a human being, with no idea how other people felt. What was it like to really love someone? To really fit in or belong somewhere? She was quick, and a good mimic, so she learned at an early age to give the impression of a normal, happy girl, but inside she had always been lonely.
As a child she had spent hours looking in windows at families, from trains, buses, seeing the people inside that looked so happy and content, longing to get inside but not knowing how to do it. She always thought things might change if she could just find the right apartment, the right house, but she never could. No matter where she lived it never felt like home. In fact, she didn’t even know what “home” felt like.
Did everybody feel alone out there in the world or were they all acting? Was she the only one? She had been flying blind all her life and now suddenly she had started to hit the wall. She sat drinking red wine, and thinking and wondering what was the matter with her. What had gone wrong?”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“You got some idealist idea about man being some noble creature … and all this crap about how we can change human nature. You can’t change it, you’re beating your head against a brick wall. People have had a couple of million years to change and they ain’t changed yet, have they?”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Oh, I know a lot of people struggle, wondering is there really a God. They sit and think and worry over it all their life. The good Lord had to make smart people but I don’t think he did them any favors because it seems the smart ones start questioning things from the get go. But I never did. I’m one of the lucky ones. I thank God every night, my brain is just perfect for me, not too dumb, not too bright.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Because any idiot can get married and have children; that’s no great accomplishment.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Do you believe in God, Aunt Elner?”
“Sure I do, honey, why?”
“How old were you when you started believing, do you remember?”
Aunt Elner paused for a moment. “I never thought about not believing. Never did question it. I guess believing is just like math: some people get it right out of the chute, and some have to struggle for it. (...) Oh, I know a lot of people struggle, wondering is there really a God. They sit and think and worry over it all their life. The good Lord had to make smart people but I don’t think he did them any favors because it seems the smart ones start questioning things from the get go. But I never did. I’m one of the lucky ones. I thank God every night, my brain is just perfect for me, not too dumb, not too bright. You know, your daddy was always asking questions.”
“He was?”
“I remember one day he said, ‘Aunt Elner, how do you know there is a God, how can you be sure?’ ”
“What did you tell him?”
“I said, ‘Well, Gene, the answer is right on the end of your fingertips.’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, think about it. Every single human being that was ever born from the beginning of time has a completely different set of fingerprints. Not two alike. Not a single one out of all the billions is ever repeated.’ I said, ‘Who else but God could think up all those different patterns and keep coming up with new ones year after year, not to mention all the color combinations of all the fish and birds.’ ”
Dena smiled. “What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Yes, but, Aunt Elner, how do you know that God’s not repeating old fingerprints from way back and reusing them on us?’ ” She laughed. “See what I mean? Yes, God is great, all right. He only made one mistake but it was a big one.”
“What was that?”
“Free will. That was his one big blunder. He gave us a choice whether or not to be good or bad. He made us too independent … and you can’t tell people what to do; they won’t listen. You can tell them to be good until you’re blue in the face but people don’t want to be preached at except at church, where they know what they are getting and are prepared for it.”
“What’s life all about, Aunt Elner? Don’t you ever wonder what the point of the whole thing is?”
“No, not really; it seems to me we only have one big decision in this life, whether to be good or bad. That’s what I came up with a long time ago. Of course, I may be wrong, but I’m not going to spend any time worrying over it, I’m just going to have a good time while I’m here. Live and let live.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Marry a nearsighted man and you’ll never look old.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“…  Poor little old human beings—they’re jerked into this world without having any idea where they came from or what it is they are supposed to do, or how long they have to do it in. Or where they are gonna wind up after that. But bless their hearts, most of them wake up every morning and keep on trying to make some sense out of it. Why, you can’t help but love them, can you? I just wonder why more of them aren’t as crazy as betsy bugs.” —Aunt Elner, 1978”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“But you soon find out they don’t want to meet you, they want you to meet them.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“And when you wonder where I am, just look up at the sun and that’s where I’ll be.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?’ Luke 12:25.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“You think people are some kind of pure, white feathered birds flying in the clouds. They’re not. They’re pigs and they love to wallow in the mud and dirt.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“When she finally was able to order a martini, the first sip nearly knocked her head off. It was so strong. And how surprised she was that scotch tasted more like iodine than butterscotch candy. Two of the great disappointments in her life.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“She sat there admiring the beauty of the light amber fluid in the clear bottle, the way the condensation on the Miller bottle ran down the black and gold label, like it was a fine piece of art. That was the problem with alcohol. It was so beautiful to look at, how could you resist it? And what kind of place could be more inviting and seductive than a truly elegant cocktail bar?”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Remember, if people talk behind your back, it only that you are two steps ahead of them.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Aunt Elner,” she said, “do you like people?”
“Oh, lands, yes, honey, sure, I do. Come to think of it, I guess you could go so far as to say that people are my pets (...) To tell you the truth, I feel sort of sorry for most of them. Some days I could just sit down and cry my eyes out … poor little old human beings—they’re jerked into this world without having any idea where they came from or what it is they are supposed to do, or how long they have to do it in. Or where they are gonna wind up after that. But bless their hearts, most of them wake up every morning and keep on trying to make some sense out of it. Why, you can’t help but love them, can you?”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“you will find at least one or two pairs of bronzed baby shoes and a picture of some child on top of the same brown and white Indian pony as the kid next”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Every woman wants to get married and have children.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Well, they are trying to get rid of Christianity and once they do that, then you watch. Our taxes will go up and they’ll take all our guns away and the next thing you know, a communist or a socialist will get in the White House and then it will be all over.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“They always wanted too much from her, something she could not give. She had told him over and over she would not marry him or ever live with him. But, typical of most men, they always believed she didn’t really mean what she said and would change her mind. She never did. Why did they always have to push her into a corner and get so upset? She didn’t want to live with anybody. She liked being alone. She hated anybody grabbing at her, trying to smother her.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“She knew that being in love all by yourself was the loneliest, most painful experience known to man—or woman—and there was nothing she could do to help him.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Sex, maybe, friendship, yes, but love, no. If she ever felt love coming toward her, she would cross the street to the other side.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“She had no interest in love. Love had taken her in the back room and beaten her up pretty badly.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

“Wouldn’t it be great if it were true, that we really did get to see the people we knew after we die? My father was killed before I was born. I sure would like to get a chance to meet him. I’ve seen pictures of him but he has no idea what I look like. He probably wouldn’t even know who I was if he did see me. I’d probably just be a stranger.”
― Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!