The Glass Castle Quotes

"Things usually work out in the end."
"What if they don't?"
"That just means you haven't come to the end yet."

You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.

If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.

....he said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.

I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.

Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.

She had her addictions and one of them was reading.

No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.

Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are

One thing about whoring: It put a chicken on the table.

We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Clause myth and got nothing but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. 'Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,' Dad said, ' you'll still have your stars.

Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten, you'll still have your stars.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

Look at the way you live. You've sold out. Next thing I know you'll become a Republican." She shook her head. "Where are the values I raised you with?

But I also hoped that [she] had chosen California because she thought that was her true home, the place where she really belonged, where it was always warm and you could dance in the rain, pick grapes right off the vines, and sleep outside at night under the stars.

Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour," she'd ask us, "when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?

You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.

Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting. Isn't that a sin?" I asked Mom.Not exactly," Mom said. "God doesn't mind you bending the rules a little if you have a good reason. It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering.

It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.

You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races.

Life there was hard and it made people hard.

It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

That was the thing to remember about all monsters, Dad said: They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run. All you have to do, Mountain Goat, is show old Demon that you’re not afraid.

She was developing what Mom called a bit of a sarcastic streak.

You West Virginia girls are one tough breed," he said.You got that right," I told him.

No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids. Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics.

Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.

Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

All seasons have something to offer

But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.

If you had weak eyes, they needed exercise to get strong. Glasses were like crutches. They prevented people with feeble eyes from seeing the world on their own.

Once you go on welfare it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You're scarred for life.

Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.

I told Mom that maybe I had made a terrible mistake, but mom said sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

If you want to be treated like a mother, I said, you should act like one.

Don't you make fun of me or my children! Some babies are premature. Mine were all postmature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop.

People worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you. It immunized your body and soul...

Every household needs one piece of furniture in really bad taste.

Dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would have let me drown, but you can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.

Fussing over children who cry only encourages them. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

I felt best when I was on the move, going someplace rather than being there.