Joy School Quotes

“If I were to draw on a paper what gym does for me, I would make one dot and then I would erase it.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“When it's new and important, you have to rest in between times. And anyway, even when I like a person there is a weariness that comes. I can be with someone and everything is fine and then all of a sudden it can wash over me like a sickness, that I need the quiet of my own self. I need to unload my head and look at what I've got in there so far. See it. Think what it means. I always need to come back to being alone for a while.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“I would make an anonymous call and say, this is someone who cares, do you know what kind of children you have?”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“This is one rule about mixing boys and girls: that a date always comes first.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“Nona leans forward, "I had-a love."
I nod.
"You know how it was? It was like-a trees. Oak and elm." Her voice has been soft, like it was lost in memory, but now she stares at me, her eyes narrowed, and she makes a fist and pounds the side of her chair. "The roots, they bound-a together, but the trees, they are free. You know what it's-a mean?”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“This is the way things work sometimes, that good things get ideas from each other, say, well now let’s go ahead and let her have it all.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“This is the thing about strong people: you can mostly be scared of them but sometimes the way they are makes you feel safe.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“These yanks into someone's personal past, that's the kind of history I like. Not wars, but who was your grandmother and what did she dream of? Did she walk up stairs to where she lived and what did it smell like and what was she wearing and who were her neighbors?”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“The beginning is always so hard. Any beginning is always so hard.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“I can be with someone and everything is fine and then all of a sudden it can wash over me like a sickness, that I need the quiet of my own self. I need to unload my head and look at what I’ve got in there so far. See it. Think what it means. I always need to come back to being alone for awhile.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“He said there are times we must let sorrow come, learn the lesson and then move on. He said when you think about it, life is just moments. And you have to have faith that the next good moment is coming right along.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“big love, it’s like a powerful blanket, laid down on your land, warming you and protecting you. Something like that. I get out my poetry notebook. History can wait. Today two kids fell asleep in Mr. Spurlock’s class and he didn’t even notice until one started snoring.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“have never done this except with old-fashioned adults. It feels like we’re in a new club. Gwen is wearing a brown”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“can never get enough time in here.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“Everybody likes outlaws. Everybody wants to look at them, like they are in the zoo.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School

“She is like a sparkler you cannot stop watching and want to touch so badly.”
― Elizabeth Berg, Joy School