Vera Cleaver > Quotes

“He’s seen those lights up on the ridge a hundred times if he’s seen them once but still can’t get it through his head they might be natural. Caused by electricity in the air or something like that. He says they’re ghosts looking for each other. Well, I don’t think he’ll see much of them tonight. Fall is the best time for that.”
“Kiser has got a lot of romance in him,” observed Gaither. His expression was steady and intense.
I said, “I never noticed. I guess a man could do worse than be a lover of ghosts. What are you doing?”
“Taking off my shoes and socks.”
“What for? Gaither, I don’t want you to help me mop tonight.”
“Why? It wouldn’t be the first time. Where’s that mop I brought you?”
“I don’t know. It’s out on the back stoop. Gaither, I don’t WANT you to help me with my cleaning. It makes us look like we’re . . . Gaither!”
Gaither was not listening. He had gone for the mop.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“I said that I had never experienced a love-pinch and on a wave of amusement Kiser said, “Then you got that to look forward to. I don’t know, though. That Yancey fella don’t look very playful to me and Gaither’s not a very forward boy so maybe you’ll just have to skip that part of your life.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“I've got other things on my mind besides in love."
"I thought you would tell me that," said Ima Dean in a wise, positive voice. "So I asked Kiser first. Guess what he told me."
"I don't want to. I don't like riddles."
"He said for me to watch Gaither Graybeal look at you next time he comes to our house. And Thad Yancey too. He said then at least I'd know what in love looks like."
"Kiser said that? Well, of all the—"
"And then he laughed. Devola did too. Kiser laughed so hard he busted a button off his shirt.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“Deciding she had not forgotten how to speak Ima Dean offered me this: "Those boys looked mean, like they'd start a fire or something like that. That's why I hollered at them like I did."
"I see. Ima Dean, can you hear me or have your ears gone bad on you again?"
"No'm, I can hear you. You're mad at me, aren't you?"
"Why, no. Why should I be? It's all right to holler at strangers. I always do. If they run up to you and stick a knife in your ribs, well, what does that matter? We're Christians. We know this is not the only life.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“Friends were another thing Miss Breathitt believed in and thought wonderful. Friends, she said, improved talents and happiness and all of us should take care to make some.”
― Vera Cleaver, Where the Lilies Bloom: The National Book Award Finalist Novel of Family, Survival, and Sacrifice in Appalachia

“Mopping is day work, don’t you know that?”
I said, “This swill hole doesn’t know the difference between night and day. I hardly do myself anymore. All I have to do to wake up broad is lie down and close my eyes. Then it’s like a bell goes off in my head and I jump up and grab a broom or a mop and start swinging. Even in the middle of the night I do that sometimes.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“Anxiety and apprehension should have been the furthest things from my mind. But because I am a pessimist and must always keep sticking my tongue in pessimism the way you do a sore tooth I couldn't help thinking that it was all too easy. Things just aren't this easy for people...Something or somebody is bound to come and spoil it...so you can just get yourself ready for it.”
― Vera Cleaver, Where the Lilies Bloom: The National Book Award Finalist Novel of Family, Survival, and Sacrifice in Appalachia

“We're going to see the freaks," said Ima Dean. "Kiser gave us the money. Don't worry, DON'T WORRY, it's not a present. We're going to do some work for him and pay him back."
"Freaks," I said. "Since when have the people in town started charging to be looked at?”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“One of my most favored day fancies creates a fool drama that goes something like this: It is evening. We have had our supper and the dishes have been washed and put away. Ima Dean and Romey are in chairs in the sitting room reading books. Though there is candy in the sack on the table they have remembered we cannot afford trips to the dentist and are munching fruit. The pages which so absorb them are taking them to faraway borders and on the way they are being introduced to great men and great women. They have come around to my way of thinking. We do not need television. It’s fare is pretty dull and slovenly compared to the excitement and order there is to be found in the written word.
I go to my room and open the door and look in. The sewing machine is gone. During our day’s absence somebody has come and swiped it. I go back to the sitting room and make my spooky announcement. “The sewing machine is gone. Somebody has swiped it.”
“I’m glad,” says Ima Dean, throwing her legs over the arm of her chair. “Old no-account hunk of garbage. Mrs. Connell knew it was on its last legs when she gave it to us for five dollars. I thank whoever took it. The only thing makes me mad is it didn’t happen sooner. Nobody should have to drive themselves crazy learning how to sew after they’ve worked all day at making a living. Don’t fret, Mary Call. I don’t need any new dresses. When I start to school again if people don’t like the way I look in my old ones they can look the other way. We don’t owe anybody anything and this is a free country. If I went to school in a gunnysack wouldn’t be anybody’s business but yours and mine. Clothes aren’t important, it’s brains that count. My, this is a good book. When I grow up I think I’m going to be a medical missionary and go somewheres far off and work. I don’t want to waste my life. I want it to count for something and be of some good to humanity.”
“I have decided either to become an explorer or an archaeologist,” says Romey. “I haven’t settled on which yet but either way I won’t be wasting my life either. I’ll be working for the good of humanity too. You are raising Ima Dean and me right, Mary Call, and we will always be grateful to you for the way you have sacrificed yourself for us.”
End of dream. The sewing machine has not been swiped. Ima Dean and Romey have not forgotten we don’t have television. They don’t give a whoop or a holler about the great men and great women in our history. Or about humanity or what sacrifices I might be making for their good. Distant shores do not beckon them. They spend their evenings wrangling with each other and listening to radio music. Sometimes, when they feel kind toward each other, they dance.
I love these two but can hardly stand them.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley

“The sound of Kiser's departing car had hardly died away before Romey with a stony glint in the depths of his eyes asked, "Mary Call, how long is temporary?"
I said, "Romey, there is the dictionary over there. It's smarter than I am. Ask it.”
― Vera Cleaver, Trial Valley