The All-American Quotes

“I had plenty of friends if the characters from books counted.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“I can't change the pain, but I can fight to remember the good in everything.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“I decided that I was glad that I could live in a world where there were librarians.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“I glanced out the window toward the pool barn, thinking about what a sad, sad man William Shakespeare must have been, to write plays with so many people dying in them.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“no one escapes difficulty. Nobody. But when it comes, we have a few choices to make. We can become angry, bitter, hard-hearted. Or we can look our troubles right in the face and decide that we won’t let them steal our hope.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“Maybe it was more important to be a good daughter than a good American.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“One of the best things about having an author for a father was that he came up with really great stories.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“Wherever we're together is home.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“No one had ever told me how terrifying it was when a dream actually came true.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“At first, when I felt someone grabbing on to me, I tried pushing them off. I flailed my arms and legs and yelled. I would have hit and bit, but then I heard Mam's voice.
"Flossie, love, it's me," she said.
It was the voice that had sung me to sleep when I was tiny and upset that I had to go to bed so long before Bertha. And it was the voice that comforted me when I was sad or scolded me when I needed it. Mam's voice was the voice of all the characters in the books she read to me and the voice I listened for to call me down for supper.
And it was the voice that told me I was going to be okay.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“I wanted to be an All-American girl. I couldn't very well be that if everybody thought I was a secret Commie.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“It felt like I'd swallowed a rock and my throat was clamping on it to keep it from slipping further down.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“There, under the webbing, in the space where the thumb met hand, was a tiny daisy burned into the leather.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“Any other dad might have ignored his daughter. But my dad wasn't like any other.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American

“No one's opinion mattered quite so much to me as my dad's.”
― Susie Finkbeiner, The All-American