People love to read about sins and errors, but not their own. - Barbara Kingsolver
In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves. - Barbara Kingsolver
I learned to write by reading the kind of books I wished I'd written. - Barbara Kingsolver
Why must some of us deliberate between brands of toothpaste while others deliberate between damp dirt and bone dust to quiet the fire of an empty stomach lining? - Barbara Kingsolver
People ask without wanting to know. - Barbara Kingsolver
People read books to escape the uncertainties of life. - Barbara Kingsolver
Your own family resemblances are a frustrating code, most easily read by those who know you least. - Barbara Kingsolver
He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he gets to keep them. A million things you can't have will fit in a human hand. - Barbara Kingsolver
When you're given a brilliant child you polish her and let her shine. Pigs in Heaven - Barbara Kingsolver
If we can't, as artists, improve on real life, we should put down our pencils and go bake bread. - Barbara Kingsolver
A mother's body remembers her babies-the folds of soft flesh, the softly furred scalp against her nose. Each child has it's own entreaties to body and soul. - Barbara Kingsolver
The truth needs so little rehearsal. - Barbara Kingsolver
...The question is, why do you think you can't be a writer?""To be a writer, you need readers.""I'm no painter, then. Who ever looks at my little dumb pieces of shit? - Barbara Kingsolver
High fashion has the shelf life of potato salad. - Barbara Kingsolver
Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization. - Barbara Kingsolver
This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address. - Barbara Kingsolver
Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel. - Barbara Kingsolver
The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away. - Barbara Kingsolver
They said it was to be a revolutionary house, free of class struggle, no servants’ rooms because they didn’t believe in laundry maids or cooks.Nobody does, really. Why should they? Only in having clean clothes, clean floors, and enchiladas tapatias. - Barbara Kingsolver