Michelle Collins Anderson > Quotes

“Sometimes I think spring lasts about fifteen minutes around here and then we're all sitting on Hell's front porch.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“You can’t change where and who you’ve come from, only where you will go and who you will be. But that place and those people always call your name,”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“My father could not believe that he was the inspiration for that happiness, that light.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“nasturtiums”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“It is good to test and try on different ideas of what it means to be godly, a good person. To push back against what you are taught and preached until you find what is true. And follow it—relentlessly, exhaustively—holding it up constantly against the changing light and asking hard questions. Doubt is just the dark, necessary side of understanding. Of reconciliation. Of peace.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“But she relished everything about distilling day: the way the sun warmed her scalp through her hair on a midsummer’s morning, the sweet scent of delicate Carolina roses, the breeze full of birdsong—- bluebirds and orioles, crows and cardinals—- warning each other of the Strongs’ intrusion.
But mostly she loved being with her father. Out here in the woods, he walked upright, moving with a freedom and purpose he lacked out in the field or in the barnyard. In those places, he seemed bent, bowed. Not like this tall, long-striding daddy who whistled the birds’ songs back to them, who taught her how to perfectly imitate their calls. It made Shine wish she favored him more—- but Elsie was blond and blue-eyed like Hiram and Rebecca got his length along with her mother’s dark hair and eyes.
But I got his magic. She loved their secret, almost mystical spot and the idea that no one knew exactly where they were. Shine and her daddy were in their own world.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Moonshine Women

“In the Strongs' case, Lidy taught Hiram everything he knew about making shine. A medicine woman of sorts, she often turned to tinctures for those seeking relief. Made with their homemade liquor, the elixirs could offer a much-needed calming effect at a certain dosage or serve as a painkiller in larger ones.
As for special ingredients, she rarely made the same recipe twice. Lidy loved nothing more than tossing a bucketful of overripe peaches or the innards of a mushy melon into the corn mash. Or fermenting some fresh fruit in a batch of shine to make her hooch something special--- and giving those peaches or pawpaws a kick. Shine's daddy had followed suit. But they didn't speak of that extra "somethin'-somethin'" outside the family. You went to your grave with that shit. Or you might get put in it early.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Moonshine Women

“They taught me in different ways that the key to good storytelling is understanding that it is more about people and their responses to life than any particular event. “Just the facts” isn’t enough.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“Even though she was an infant, he saw her spit and vinegar, that spirit that would soon be lighting a fire under them all. His ma said he took a shine to her right away--- and that settled it.
Shine.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Moonshine Women

“The hills surrounding the cabin and fields turned colors, beginning with the bright red pops of leggy sassafras trees, bushy sumac and Virginia creeper vines that gave way to golden hickory, river birch and--- near the creek--- stately yellow cottonwoods. The oaks stubbornly held their leaves, yielding only a buttery brown before turning the color of old soil.
Likewise, the scrubby evergreens began to take on an orange cast as the fall wore on. And the cedar berries, which first appeared as clusters of green in compact cones, began ripening to the dusty deep hue of a blueberry.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Moonshine Women

“Once they had the barrel on flat, dry ground, Hiram pried open the lid. The pungent air set free from the mess of fermenting corn smelled exactly like pineapples.
Shine couldn’t fill her lungs up fast enough. She had only ever savored one of the strange, spiky-headed fruits—- for Christmas one year, a rare treat in these parts—- but she had declared it “divine.” That sweetness in the escaping air was a good sign.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Moonshine Women

“I’ve read a lot about it, and the experts say that identical twins often know what the other is thinking or feeling or about to do without being told.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters

“Because home is a feeling, and the people and place that inspire that feeling.”
― Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters