Haven Kimmel Quotes

• I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls.

  Haven Kimmel

  Sports, Passion, Athlete

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.127, Broadway Books

  45 Copy quote

• I respect every way in which you are a troublemaker, now get up and do what your mother says.

  Haven Kimmel

  Mother, Way, Get Up

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.46, Broadway Books

  4 Copy quote

• Possibility, infinity, beauty -- none of those words were right. [...] What he really wanted to say was: have you felt this? this phantom life streaking like a phosphorescent hound at the edges of your ruin?

  Haven Kimmel

  Ruins, Phantoms, Infinity

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “The Solace of Leaving Early: A Novel”, p.35, Anchor

  7 Copy quote

• Decoupage hit Mooreland pretty hard.

  Haven Kimmel

  Hard

  4 Copy quote

• I honestly believe that people who never have children or never love a child are doomed to a sort of foolishness because it cant be described or explained, that love. I didnt know anything before I had him, and I havent learned anything since I lost him. Everything that isnt loving a child is just for show.

  Haven Kimmel

  Children, Believe, People

  4 Copy quote

• My hair looks like it had been purchased at a rummage sale after all the real hair was gone.

  Haven Kimmel

  Real, Hair, Looks

  Haven Kimmel (2007). “She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana”, p.60, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Mother always said she was a size 7 woman she kept wrapped in fat to prevent bruising.

  Haven Kimmel

  Mother, Size, Fats

  Haven Kimmel (2007). “She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana”, p.188, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• My mother was good at reading books, making cinnamon biscuits, and coloring in a coloring book. Also she was a good eater of popcorn and knitter of sweaters with my initials right in them. She could sit really still. She knew how to believe in God and sing really loudly. When she sneezed our whole house rocked. My father was a great smoker and driver of vehicles..He could hold a full coffee cup while driving and never spill a drop, even going over bumps. He lost his temper faster than anyone.

  Haven Kimmel

  Mother, Father, Coffee

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.109, Broadway Books

  10 Copy quote

• Ordinarily my mom just sunk deeper into her corner of the couch and ignored it. She had succesfully ignored a quarter of a century of entropy and decay, had sat peacefully crunching popcorn and drinking soda while the house fell down around us. If I had to guess the number of books she read during that time, I would place the number at somewhere in the neighborhood of forty thousand.

  Haven Kimmel

  Mom, Drinking, Book

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.163, Broadway Books

  4 Copy quote

• What kind of good deeds? Like Girl Scouts? Because I got kicked out of Brownies and they won't give me another chance to keep my clothes on at camp.

  Haven Kimmel

  Girl, Kind Deeds, Clothes

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.193, Broadway Books

  6 Copy quote

• They did a lot of cleaning in their house, which I considered to be a sign of immoral parenting. The job of parents, as I saw it, was to watch television and step into a child's life only when absolutely necessary, like in the event of a tornado or a potential kidnapping.

  Haven Kimmel

  Jobs, Children, House

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.111, Broadway Books

  4 Copy quote

• My favorite was Love Is...Never Having to Say You're Sorry. This was,the good Lord knew, a dream of mine. But every time I refused to apologize for something, Love seemed to just fly out the window.

  Haven Kimmel

  Dream, Sorry, Love Is

  Haven Kimmel (2007). “She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• On Jesus: "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people.

  Haven Kimmel

  Mother, Jesus, Animal

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.137, Broadway Books

  5 Copy quote

• But I think that what you'll discover more and more as you get older is that most people aren't thinking about you at all.

  Haven Kimmel

  Thinking About You, Thinking, People

  4 Copy quote

• ...she waited until she and my grandfather Anthel were just home from their honeymoon, and then sat him down and told him this: "Honey, I know you like to take a drink, and that's all right, but be forewarned that I ain't your maid and I ain't your punching bag, and if you ever raise your hand to me you'd best kill me. Because otherwise I'll wait until you're asleep; sew you into the bed; and beat you to death with a frying pan." Until he died, I am told, my grandfather was a gentle man.

  Haven Kimmel

  Home, Men, Hands

  6 Copy quote

• On the wall next to the table, next to the scones that provided each table with its own circle of lamplight were quotations about reading, her favorite of which was from Kafka: 'A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.

  Haven Kimmel

  Wall, Book, Reading

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “The Solace of Leaving Early: A Novel”, p.127, Anchor

  7 Copy quote

• Contrary to popular opinion, my dad was not a lazy man. He was not lazy at all, for instance, when it came to Going Places In His Truck. He was also very industrious about Preparing To Go Camping. And if something really interested him, he would work on it all day.

  Haven Kimmel

  Dad, Men, Lazy Man

  Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.163, Broadway Books

  4 Copy quote

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