Dicey Tillerman Quotes

“The children could look back and see their own car, green and lonely, in the middle of the parking lot. It was kind of like a home, the car, Dicey thought. She understood why Sammy wanted to stay there.”

“I think she got so worried about so many things, about money and us, about what she could do to take care of us, about not being able to do anything to make things better—I think it all piled up inside her so that she just quit. She felt so sad and sorry then, and lost—remember how she’d go out and not come back for hours? I think she got lost outside those times, the way she was lost inside.”

“Dicey was frightened, with a fear that swelled up deep within her. This fear had two heads, and Dicey was caught between them: she was afraid to speak and lose what they had gained of a place for themselves in this house; she was afraid to keep silent and lose what she felt was right for Sammy, for her family.”

“Dicey had lowered her sights. She no longer hoped for a home. Now she wanted only a place where the Tillermans could be themselves and do what was good for them. Home was out of the question.”

“It wasn’t that she couldn’t lie to him. She could lie to anyone and make it good, if she had to—she’d certainly discovered that. But she didn’t want to, not to him or to Windy.”

″‘Dicey?’ ‘She loves us,’ Dicey muttered. ‘But that’s the only reason I can think of that might be true.’ ‘There’s nothing wrong with Maybeth. You know that.‘” “It runs in families. Hereditary craziness.

“The house was before them, overgrown with honeysuckle, dark-windowed, looking abandoned. Off to the right, Dicey saw the lopsided barn. It had once been red, but the paint had weathered, faded and peeled, until it looked pink as a bad sunburn. The tin roof was rusted in large patches.”

“You see, there were kids at school—they hated their parents or they hated other people so much that you knew—it wasn’t just being angry, it was hating. I can’t explain what I mean, but I could feel the unhappiness.”