I got to wear blinders all the time, so I won't think sideways or in the past.

— Carson McCullers

In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.

— Carson McCullers

In one of their quarrels, they had begun calling each other Mister. And Misses., and since then they had never made it up enough to change it.

— Carson McCullers

It was as though his son cheated him by depriving him of his beloved presence, the sweet and treacherous thief had plundered his heart. If Johnny had died in any other way, cancer or leukemia… he could have grieved with a clear heart, cried also. But suicide seemed a deliberate act of spite which the Judge resented.

— Carson McCullers

It was a year when Frankie thought about the world. And she did not see it as a round school globe with the countries neat and different-colored. She thought of the world as huge and cracked and loose and turning a thousand miles an hour.

— Carson McCullers

It was like that kid had been born knowing how to read. He was only in the second grade, but he loved to read stories by himself - and he never asked anybody else to read to him.

— Carson McCullers

It wasn't like she was lonely and in fact – she had understood it all in every way except with her brain. Now she knew that she knew.

— Carson McCullers

It was the year Frankie thought about the world. And she did not see it as a round school globe, with the countries neat and different-colored. She thought of the world as huge and cracked and loose and turning a thousand miles an hour.

— Carson McCullers

Leonora Henderson feared neither man, beast, nor the devil; God she had never known.

— Carson McCullers

Maybe that was the trouble. She got the first and biggest share of everything – first whack at the new clothes and the biggest part of any special treat. Hazel never had to grab for anything and she was soft.

— Carson McCullers