Forgive me, O Heavenly Father, according to the multitude of Thy mercies. I have lusted in my heart to break a man's skull and scatter the stench of his brains across several people's backyards.

— Barbara Kingsolver

For scientists, reality is not optional.

— Barbara Kingsolver

For time and eternity there have been fathers like Nathan who simply can see no way to have a daughter but to own her like a plot of land. To work her, plow her under, rain down a dreadful poison upon her. Miraculously, it causes these girls to grow. They elongate on the pale slender stalks of their longing, like sunflowers with heavy heads. You can shield them with your body and soul, trying to absorb that awful rain, but they'll still move toward him. Without cease, they'll bend to his light.

— Barbara Kingsolver

God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.

— Barbara Kingsolver

God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much.

— Barbara Kingsolver

He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he gets to keep them. A million things you can't have will fit in a human hand.

— Barbara Kingsolver

He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes,' he still loves to say, as often as possible. 'It's hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in and wreck the shoes.

— Barbara Kingsolver

Hope is a renewable option: If you run out of it at the end of the day, you get to start over in the morning.

— Barbara Kingsolver

How does an artist learn enough about life to fill a thimble?"" Soli, I'm going to tell you. He needs to go rub his soul against life. ...

— Barbara Kingsolver

How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.

— Barbara Kingsolver