Home > Author > Betty Smith
1 " I know that's what people say-- you'll get over it. I'd say it, too. But I know it's not true. Oh, youll be happy again, never fear. But you won't forget. Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him. "
― Betty Smith , A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
2 " But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better. "
3 " She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered 'different.' She did not suffer too much. "
4 " In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won't get mixed up. It was the best advice Francie every got. "
5 " There had to be dark and muddy waters so that the sun could have something to background it's flashing glory. "
― Betty Smith
6 " Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer? "
7 " 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. "
8 " Everything, decided Francie after that first lecture, was vibrant with life and there was no death in chemistry. She was puzzled as to why learned people didn't adopt chemistry as a religion. "
9 " Francie, huddled with other children of her kind, learned more that first day than she realized. She learned of the class system of a great Democracy. "
10 " The world was hers for the reading. "
11 " From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived. "
12 " Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants. 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. . . . "
13 " The library was a little old shabby place. Francie thought it was beautiful. The feeling she had about it was as good as the feeling she had about church. She pushed open the door and went in. She liked the combined smell of worn leather bindings, library past and freshly inked stamping pads better than she liked the smell of burning incense at high mass. "
14 " From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. "
15 " But the penciled sheets did not seem like nor smell like the library book so she had given it up, consoling herself with the vow that when she grew up, she would work hard, save money and buy every single book that she liked. "
16 " They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel. "
17 " They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering Wes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel. "
18 " Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words. "
19 " Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way. "
20 " But she didn't want to recall things. She wanted to live things — or as a compromise, relive rather than reminisce. "
