Bud, Not Buddy Quotes

“...that was Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things to Have a Funner LIfe and Make a Better Liar Out of Yourself Number 83...If a Adult Tells You Not to Worry, and You Weren't Worried Before, You Better Hurry Up and Start 'Cause You're Already Running Late.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“There comes a time when you're losing a fight that it just doesn't make sense to keep on fighting. It's not that you're being a quitter, it's just that you've got the sense to know when enough is enough.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“Rules and Things Number 63: Never, Ever Say Something Bad About Someone You Don't Know--Especially When You're Around a Bunch of Strangers. You Never Can Tell Who Might Be Kin to That Person or Who Might Be a Lip-Flapping, Big-Mouth Spy.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower in waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world. And that's you.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“As soon as I got into the library I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I got a whiff of the leather on all the old books, a smell that got real strong if you picked one of them up and stuck your nose real close to it when you turned the pages. Then there was the the smell of the cloth that covered the brand-new books, books that made a splitting sound when you opened them. Then I could sniff the the paper, that soft, powdery, drowsy smell that comes off the page in little puffs when you're reading something or looking at some pictures, kind of hypnotizing smell.

I think it's the smell that makes so many folks fall asleep in the library. You'll see someone turn a page and you can imagine a puff of page powder coming up real slow and easy until it starts piling on a person's eyelashes, weighing their eyes down so much they stay down a little longer after each blink and finally making them so heavy that they just don't come back up at all. Then their mouths open and their heads start bouncing up and down like they're bobbing in a big tub of of water for apples and before you know it... they're out cold and their face thunks smack-dab on the book.

That's the part that makes librarians the maddest. They get real upset if folks start drooling in the books”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“No sir, I don't know why, but my eyes don't cry no more.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“Six is a bad time too 'cause that's when some real scary things start to happen to your body, it's around then that your teeth start to coming a-loose in your mouth.

You wake up one morning and it seems like your tongue is the first one to notice that something strange is going on, 'cause as soon as you get up there it is pushing and rubbing up against one of your front teeth and I'll be doggoned if that tooth isn't the littlest bit wiggly.

At first you think it's kind of funny, but the tooth keeps getting looser and looser and one day, in the middle of pushing the tooth back and forth and squinching your eyes shut, you pull it clean out. It's the scariest thing you can think of 'cause you lose control of your tongue at the same time and no matter how hard you try to stop it, it won't leave the new hold in your mouth alone, it keeps digging around in the spot where that tooth used to be.

You tell some adult about what's happening but all they do is say it's normal. You can't be too sure, though, 'cause it shakes you up a whole lot more than grown folks think it does when perfectly good parts of your body commence to loosening up and falling of off you.

Unless you're as stupid as a lamppost you've got to wonder what's coming off next, your arm? Your leg? Your neck? Every morning when you wake up it seems a lot of your parts aren't stuck on as good as they used to be.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“Just like when there's a time that a smart person knows enough is enough, there's a time when you know you've got to fight.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“having someone who likes you so much that they think everything you say is the truth has got to be a liar’s paradise”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“The big steel wheels creaked a couple times, then started moving.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“inside or the outside. I touched paper. I spread”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“The next thing about the air in the library is that no other place smells anything like it. If you close your eyes and try to pick out what it is that you’re sniffing you’re only going to get confused, because all the smells have blended together and turned themselves into a different one. As soon as I got into the library I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I got a whiff of the leather on all the old books, a smell that got real strong if you picked one of them up and stuck your nose real close to it when you turned the pages. Then there was the smell of the cloth that covered the brand-new books, the books that made a splitting sound when you opened them. Then I could sniff the paper, that soft, powdery, drowsy smell that comes off the pages in little puffs when you’re reading something or looking at some pictures, a kind of hypnotizing smell.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“station and said, “Yup, there’s the gasoline filling station.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“God is great, God is good, Let us thank him For our food. Amen.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“There comes a time when you're losing a fight and it just doesn't make sense to keep on fighting. It's not that you're bring a quitter, it's just that you've got the sense to know when enough is enough.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“If you didn't have a real good imagination you'd probably think those noises were the sounds of some kid blowing a horn for the first time, but I knew better than that. I could tell those were the squeaks and squawks of one door closing and another one opening.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“The floor went completely black when Mr. Amos pulled the door shut. I couldn’t see it now, but I’d rememorized the exact shape the stain was in. The padlock snapped shut with the loudest click I’d ever heard.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“We were all standing in line waiting for breakfast when one of the caseworkers came in and tap-tap-tap”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“Shucks, this is one of the bad things about talking to librarians, I asked one question and already she has us digging through three different books.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“Something like hearing that your grandmother got her whole body pulled through the wringer on a washing machine, or something like hearing about a horse slipping on the ice and landing on some kid you went to school with.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“There’s another thing that’s strange about a library, it seems like time flies when you are in one.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“And when you are done with the book bring it back and I have something special for you!” She had a huge smile on her face.
I said, “Thank you, ma’am,” but I didn’t get too excited ‘ cause I know the kind of things librarians think are special.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“I closed my eyes and took in a big snort of air. It was like someone took a old pot and poured about a hundred gallons of hot apple cider and a hundred gallons of hot coffee into it, then stirred eight or nine sweet potato pies, crusts and all, into that, then let six big steamy meat loafs float on top of all that, then threw in a couple of handfuls of smashed potatoes, then boiled the whole thing on high. This must be exactly how heaven smells!”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“There was a real old smell that came out of it too, like dried-up slobber and something dead. It smelled great!”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“While the rest of the band was being a storm, she was the sun busting through thick, gray clouds. With the first thing she sang, you had to wonder why this band was called Herman E. Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, or Herman E. Calloway and the Nubian Knights, it should be called Miss Thomas and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression and a Mean Old Guy on the Giant Fiddle.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“I could tell those were the squeaks and squawks of one door closing and another one opening.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“all the colors you could think of, black, white and brown, but the fire made everyone look like they were different shades of orange. There were dark orange folks sitting next to medium orange”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“Lefty”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy

“STOP BUD OK IN FLINT STOP AT 4309 NORTH ST STOP RETURN 8PM WED STOP LEFTY STOP”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy