Amanda Skenandore > Quotes

“A good lie’s always easier to stomach than the truth.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“She’d always found children loud and squirmy and, often as not, smelly. But at least they spoke straight. They laughed when they were happy and cried when they were in pain. You never had to second-guess their motives or scrutinize their expressions.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Undertaker's Assistant

“Even when ya go home, ya won’t be the same person ya were before. No two ways about that. With or without the disease, life ain’t that damn long. Might as well make the most of it, or try at least. Wherever ya are.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“We cannot survive without hope.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“He listened without jumping over her words to correct or cajole her.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“rule number eleven: The best place to hide is in plain sight.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Nursing is not for everyone,” Miss Perkins said. “You see every facet of life—birth, death, illness, healing, trauma, madness, despair, joy. To take all that in demands both an iron constitution and a gentle soul. That’s the type of woman we’re looking for. That’s what matters.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“For those few minutes, she wasn’t Polly the leper or Mirielle the cuckoo mother. She was just a body in motion.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“No matter how grandly or wretchedly you lived, death, in his time, would find you.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Undertaker's Assistant

“Love! What greater culprit was there in the abandonment of reason?”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Undertaker's Assistant

“Rule number sixteen: Don’t write anyone off until they’re dead.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Nursing is not for everyone,” Miss Perkins said. “You see every facet of life—birth, death, illness, healing, trauma, madness, despair, joy. To take all that in demands both an iron constitution and a gentle soul.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Una’s most important rule: Look out for yourself.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“To take all that in demands both an iron constitution and a gentle soul. That’s the type of woman we’re looking for. That’s what matters.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Rule number twenty-seven: Once you pick a lie, stick to it.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Was it so radical to want to walk down the street unmolested? To want to send your children to the same good schools white children attended?”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Undertaker's Assistant

“Most patients prefer to take a new name. We’re very guarded with our records, but with so many residents and personnel and visitors,”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“Rule number fourteen: Don’t waste time on the past.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“To want a seat at the theater, soda shop, or on the streetcar?”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Undertaker's Assistant

“Rule number twenty-three: When a lie isn’t working, don’t complicate things with the truth.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Nursing is not for everyone,” Miss Perkins said. “You see every facet of life—birth, death, illness, healing, trauma, madness, despair, joy. To take all that in demands both an iron constitution and a gentle soul. That’s the type of woman we’re looking for. That’s what matters.” Una”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“Besides, there's more to a person than the worst thing they done.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Medicine Woman of Galveston

“Rule number five: Look like you belong.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“preying upon those who were too uneducated to know truth from lie. But seeing”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Medicine Woman of Galveston

“the sterilizer, five and ten dollar bills neatly folded and tucked within the pages of letters by those residents whose families on the outside still depended upon them to eat. Some families wouldn’t take the money, Mirielle had heard. Others soaked it in bichloride of mercury as soon as it arrived, then hung it on the clothesline to dry. Those in direst need wasted no time in handing it over to the landlord or grocery clerk, she suspected. The”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“In 1870, only 0.8 percent of doctors in America were women. By 1900, that number had increased to nearly 6 percent! Unfortunately, growth slowed (and sometimes ceased) in the decades after. In 1970, women accounted for only 7 percent of doctors. Today, the percentage of active physicians who are women is around 38 percent.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Medicine Woman of Galveston

“I hope you will not hate me for saying so, but I see your illness as a gift. And I plead you don’t squander it. The woman I met all those years ago”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“Maybe that had been the trouble. She’d lost sight of her rules. Forgotten that to survive you couldn’t get wrapped up in anyone else. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to regret that afternoon on the lake with Edwin or her evenings in the library with Dru. Her only regret was how she’d hurt them.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Nurse's Secret

“He leaned forward. “Gonna tell you my real name, not the made-up name the nuns call me.” He paused, smiled again, and leaned closer. “My real name’s Samuel Hatch. Ever heard of me?”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“What if I am panicked”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Medicine Woman of Galveston