A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Quotes

“Gently, Teacher explained the difference between a lie and a story. A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn’t tell it like it was; you told it like you thought it should have been.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“But there was no music in the children. Evy took the bull by the horns. They would have to love music whether they wanted to or not. If talent wasn’t born in them, maybe it could be shoved in at so much per hour.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Why? When I, myself do not believe?
"Because,"explained Mary Rommely simply, "the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. t is necessary that she believe. She must start out believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination. I , myself, even in this day and at my age, have great need of recalling miraculous lives of the Saints and the great miracles that have come to pass on earth. Only by having this in my mind can I live beyond what I have to live for.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“She loved the library and was anxious to worship the lady in charge. But the librarian had other things on her mind. She hated children anyhow.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“the fabric of family, the limits of love, the loss of innocence and the birth of knowledge.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Johnny had been on earth for thirty-four years. Less than a week ago, he walked on those streets. And now the cup, the ring and two unironed waiter's aprons at home were the only concrete objects left to connote that a man had once lived. There were no other physical reminders of Johnny, as he had been buried in all the clothes he owned with his studs and his fourteen-carat gold collar button.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Education! That was it! It was education that made the difference! Education would pull them out of the grime and dirt.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“She was the books she read in the library.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Wouldn't it be more of a free country," persisted Francie "if we could ride in them free?" "No." "Why?" "Because that would be Socialism," concluded Johnny triumphantly, "and we don't want that over here." "Why?" "Because we got democracy and that's the best thing there is," clinched Johnny.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Going home in the trolley, Francie held the shoebox in her lap because Mama had no lap now. Francie thought deep thoughts during her ride. 'If what Granma Mary Rommely said is true, then it must be that no one ever dies, really. Papa is gone, but he's still here in many ways. He's here in Neeley who looks just like him and in Mama who knew him so long. He's here in his mother who began him and who is still living. Maybe I will have a boy some day who looks like Papa and has all of Papa's good without the drinking. And that boy will have a boy. And that boy will have a boy. It might be there is no real death.' Her thougths went to McGarrity. 'No one would ever believe there was any part of Papa in him.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie's secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father staggering home drunk”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“The world was hers for the reading”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering Wes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“The parents were too American, too aware of the rights granted them by their Constitution to accept injustices meekly. They could not be bulldozed and exploited as could the immigrants and the second-generation Americans.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Sometimes when you had nothing at all and it was raining and you were alone in the flat, it was wonderful to know that you could have something even though it was only a cup of black and bitter coffee. a”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Katie had married Johnny because she liked the way he sang and danced and dressed. Womanlike, she set about changing all those things in him after marriage.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“I’ll have a desk like this in my parlor and white walls and a clean green blotter every Saturday night and a row of shining yellow pencils always sharpened for writing and a golden-brown bowl with a flower or some leaves or berries always in it and books…books…books….”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“She did not hate Miss Garnder anymore. She didn’t like her, but she felt sorry for her. Miss Garnder had nothing in all the world excepting a sureness about how right she was.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Why can't they," she thought bitterly, "just give the doll away without saying I am poor and she is rich? Why couldn't they just give it away without all the talking about it?”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Francie said nothing more. Katie knew that she was letting them down. But she couldn't help it, she just couldn't help it. Yes, she should go with them to lend the comfort and authority of her presence but she knew she couldn't stand the ordeal. Yet, they had to be vaccinated. Her being with them or somewhere else couldn't take that fact away. So why shouldn't one of the three be spared? Besides, she said to her conscience, it's a hard and bitter world. They've got to live in it. Let them get hardened young to take care of themselves.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“She adapted herself to the split-second rhythm of the New Yorker going to and from work. Getting to the office was a nervous ordeal. If she arrived one minute before nine, she was a free person. If she arrived one minute after, she worried because that made her the logical scapegoat of the boss if he happened to be in a bad mood that day.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Arriving at the store, she walked up and down the aisles handling any object her fancy favored. What a wonderful feeling to pick something up, hold it for a moment, feel its contour, run her hand over its surface and then replace it carefully. Her nickel gave her this privilege. If a floor-walker asked whether she intended buying anything, she could say, yes, buy it and show him a thing or two. Money was a wonderful thing, she decided.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“The sad thing was in the knowing that all their nerve would get them nowhere in the world and that they were lost as all people in Brooklyn seem lost when the day is nearly over and even though the sun is still bright, it is thin and doesn’t give you warmth when it shines on you.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Poor people have a great passion for huge quantities of things.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“They were in Julius Caesar now and the stage direction “Alarum” confused Katie. She thought it had something to do with fire engines and whenever she came to that word, she shouted out “clang-clang.” The children thought it was wonderful.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Most women had the one thing in common: they had great pain when they gave birth to their children. This should make a bond that held them all together; it should make them love and protect each other against the man-world. But it was not so. It seemed like their great birth pains shrank their hearts and their souls. They stuck together for only one thing: to trample on some other woman…whether it was by throwing stones or by mean gossip. It was the only kind of loyalty they seemed to have.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“People always think that happiness is a faraway thing,” thought Francie, “something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains—a cup of strong hot coffee when you’re blue; for a man, a cigarette for contentment; a book to read when you’re alone—just to be with someone you love. Those things make happiness.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“They lived comfortably and it was a good life they had...happy and full of small adventures.

And they were so young and loved each other so much.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“But in their secret hearts, each new that it wasn't all right and would never be all right between them again.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“He talked about democracy and good citizenship and about a good world where everyone did the best he could for the common good of all.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn