Ellen Raskin Quotes & Sayings

She could have been an interior decorator, a good one, too, if it wasn't for the pressing demands of so on and so forth. — Ellen Raskin

Grace said,"Dr. Wexler was called away on an emergency operation."
"An emergency Packers game in Green Bay," Turtle confided to Flora Baumbach. — Ellen Raskin

Hi Sandy, I won! — Ellen Raskin

Who were these people, these specially selected tenants? They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. — Ellen Raskin

Sunset Towers faced east and had no towers. — Ellen Raskin

Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want, and which way the wind blows. — Ellen Raskin

Your trouble comes from years of wearing the wrong kind of shoes. - Jake Wexler — Ellen Raskin

Angela Wexler, person — Ellen Raskin

The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange! — Ellen Raskin

Angela could not be the bomber, not that sweet, pretty thing. Thing? Is that how she regarded that young woman, as a thing? And what had she ever said to her except "I hear you're getting married, Angela" or "How pretty you look, Angela." Had anyone asked her about her ideas, her hopes, her plans? If I had been treated like that I'd have used dynamite, not fireworks; no, I would have just walked out and kept right on going. But Angela was different. — Ellen Raskin

Friday was back to normal, if the actions of suspicious would-be heirs competing for a two-hundred-million-dollar prize could be considered normal. — Ellen Raskin

You can't read my shorthand because I wrote in Polish. — Ellen Raskin

Jake Wexler, standing or sitting when not lying down — Ellen Raskin

Grace sat down where the chair wasn't. — Ellen Raskin

Smiling without good reason is demeaning. — Ellen Raskin

I try to say one thing with my work: A book is a wonderful place to be. A book is a package, a gift package, a surprise package-and within the wrappings is a whole new world and beyond. — Ellen Raskin

Death is senseless yet makes way for the living. — Ellen Raskin

I remember the will said, 'May God thy gold refine.' That must be from the Bible."
"Shakespeare," Turtle said. All quotations were either from the Bible or Shakespeare. — Ellen Raskin

Hey Chris, bet you don't know the Latin name of the red-headed woodpecker.
That was a hard one. Chris had to say Melanerpes erythrocephalus very slowly. — Ellen Raskin

The poor are crazy, the rich just eccentric. - James Shin Hoo — Ellen Raskin

Sandy fidgeted with his pen. "There's something I didn't write down. Maybe I shouldn't tell you, you being a judge and all, but, well, Jake Wexler ... he's a bookie."
No, he should not have told her. "A small-time operator, I'm sure, Mr. McSouthers," the judge replied coldly. "It can have no bearing on the matter before us. Sam Westing manipulated people, cheated workers, bribed officials, stole ideas, but Sam Westing never smoked or drank or placed a bet. Give me a bookie any day over such a fine, upstanding, clean-living man. — Ellen Raskin

Can you stand on your legs?" Sydelle Pulaski asked. "Can you walk at all?"
People never asked Chris those questions; they whispered them to his parents behind his back. "N-n-no. Why?"
"What better disguise for a thief or a murderer than a wheelchair, the perfect alibi."
Chris enjoyed being taken for the criminal type. Now they really were friends. — Ellen Raskin

I can write about images from my own childhood for children today. I wasn't sure I could do this, but there was no way out; I had to use the images from my own childhood, because the child I was is the only child I really know. — Ellen Raskin