Virginia Hamilton > Quotes

“The books from which [children] learn must reflect movement and change and all of the infinite possibilities of minds at liberty.
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― Virginia Hamilton

“I call myself a wordkeeper, or a keeper of words. I enjoy words and looking at them on all sides… Words are magnificent… They form rhythms of living in meaningful prose… It is the force of my desire, my wish to make myself understood, that powers these words.”
― Virginia Hamilton

“Stalagmite: a calcium carbonate deposit shaped like an icicle and formed by the dripping of percolating calcareous water … Stalagmite: dripping of percolating calcareous …”
― Virginia Hamilton, The House of Dies Drear

“Mr. Small had to drag his son along. Thomas gaped at the stalactites, fearful that one might fall on him. He was terrified of the stalagmites that they had to walk through.”
― Virginia Hamilton, The House of Dies Drear

“Their message was clear: Anthony Burns was cared for.”
― Virginia Hamilton, Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

“When the fugitive Thomas Sims was captured and returned to slavery in 1851, five hundred business and professional men of Boston volunteered as special constables to aid Marshal Freeman in removing the prisoner from the city. But the public sentiment had changed so greatly by the year 1854 that now no decent man would help the Marshal serve up another slave.”
― Virginia Hamilton, Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave

“Overnight, without his ever knowing it, Anthony Burns became a symbol of freedom.”
― Virginia Hamilton, Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave