Rebecca Wells Quotes & Sayings

She saw night lights in the rooms of the babies who dreamed soft seersucker dreams, drugged happy with the heat, their pink baby bodies curled against worn out cotton, not fearing Hitler yet, their strong, tiny hearts beating in unison with the trees and the creeks and the bayou — Rebecca Wells

God will not allow us to be overwhelmed by temptation, but with it He will provide a way of escape so that we will be able to endure it. — Rebecca Wells

As a writer, I am not goddess of the universes I create. I am at most a stage manager of the plentiful gifts which tumble out of the horn of plenty, which is to say there is a source so sweet and forgiving and generous that I pray every day to let that source be my guide. — Rebecca Wells

She longed for porch friendship, for the sticky, hot sensation of familiar female legs thrown over hers in companionship. She pined for the girliness of it all, the unplanned, improvisational laziness. She wanted to soak the words 'time management' out of her lexicon. She wanted to hand over, to yield, to let herself float down the unchartered beautiful fertile musky swamp of life, where creativity and eroticism and deep intelligence dwell. — Rebecca Wells

Sometimes lost treasures can be reclaimed. — Rebecca Wells

Shep claimed eating cake like that so early in the morning was a 'whore's breakfast.' The rest of them didn't care. They were happy little whores who didn't worry about saving a morsel. — Rebecca Wells

I can't help it, I'm an addict.'
'Don't corrupt the word 'addict,' Goddamnit,' Caro said. 'I'm fed up with everybody claiming they're addicted. You're just a ponderer, Sidda, that's all. — Rebecca Wells

I come to writing from hearing great stories as a child in Louisiana, where the mark of a person was his or her ability to be a raconteur. I also come to writing as a professional actress whose body has been trained to listen and smell and inhabit characters without judgment. — Rebecca Wells

Uncountable the number off breaths I've taken for granted in my life. — Rebecca Wells

Every time I thought that I was "put together," I realized that we're always putting ourselves together, gathering the world in, letting it sift down and form us. — Rebecca Wells

There is the truth of history, and there is the truth of what a person remembers. — Rebecca Wells

Don't ever worry bout bein holy, babychild. Just keep your eyes wide open except when you sleep. Then let the Lord's mighty vision see you through the night. — Rebecca Wells

At the beauty of what she had stumbled onto, at the fear that something terrible would happen because she was not vigilant enough. She cried at the fear of something so good that she would not be brave enough to bear it. — Rebecca Wells

Glorious theater. It creates family for all kinds of orphans. — Rebecca Wells

I think of myself as Rebecca Wells from Lodi Plantation, in Central Louisiana, a girl who was lucky enough to be born into a family that encouraged creativity and didn't call me lazy or nuts when I dressed up in my mother's peignoirs and played the piano, having painted a small sign decorated in glitter that read 'The Piano Fairy Girl.' — Rebecca Wells

The process of a book's coming to life is not fully complete until your imagination meets mine on the page. The words evoke pictures and something altogether new is created, something different from the limits of my own skills and imagination. Something that is a marriage between your heart, mind, and body - and mine. — Rebecca Wells

You can't let fear of hurricanes stop your from putting seeds in the ground, even if they're going to grow tall only to be destroyed. — Rebecca Wells

Sidda sank down into the wide flannel embrace of their bodies, and she rested. For a moment she died a little death, they died it together. — Rebecca Wells

Friends are supposed to act like harbor boats - let you know if you're off course. But it ain't always possible ... — Rebecca Wells

She breathed in the vast world of suffering and pure, dark love, and as she did, a well of compassion began to flow in her. — Rebecca Wells

Mama parted with these Divine Secrets because I asked her to, Sidda thought. the reason I feel like crying, Sidda realized, is not just because this scrapbook is vulnerable, but because Mama, whether she knows it or not, has made herself so vulnerable to me. — Rebecca Wells

[D]ance can become prayer and prayer can become dance. — Rebecca Wells

As Vivi drove, it seemed that not only the Ya-Ya's bodies but the earth and sky were sweating. The very air they breathed was almost a juice. Moonlight spilled down into the convertible, onto the four friends' shoulders and knees and on the tops of their heads, so that their hair seemed to have little sparks shooting off it. Vivi had no idea at all where she was headed, but she knew that whatever direction she went, her friends would go with her. — Rebecca Wells

I never claimed to be a low-maintenance gal, but when I'm writing, it's particularly challenging. I lose things constantly: my watch, my glasses, my papers, my mind. — Rebecca Wells

Tears will do you no good. — Rebecca Wells

I wish I knew then what I know now - and still had those thighs! — Rebecca Wells

Life is short but it is wide. this too shall pass. — Rebecca Wells

We have to suffer mosquitoes the size of blackbirds. — Rebecca Wells

[T]he right way to pray is not to beg, but to picture good things, to banish all bad things from our mind. — Rebecca Wells

Zip it kiddo. Don't ever admit you know a thing about cooking or it'll be used against you later in life. — Rebecca Wells

This is a cardinal Ya-Ya rule: you must meet each person's eyes while clinking glasses in a toast. Otherwise, the ritual has no meaning, it's just pure show. And that is something the Ya-Yas are not. — Rebecca Wells

I have been to the edge and lived to tell the tale.. — Rebecca Wells

The very air they breathed was almost a juice. — Rebecca Wells

Sidda can't help herself. She just loves books. Loves the way they feel, the way they smell, loves the black letters marching across the white pages ... — Rebecca Wells

In the crook of the crescent moon sits the Holy Lady, with strong muscles and a merciful heart. She kicks her her splendid legs like the moon is her swing and the sky, her front porch. She waves down at Sidda like she has just spotted an old buddy. — Rebecca Wells

It's life, Sidda. You just climb on the beast and ride. — Rebecca Wells

The notes danced through the June air; Vivi could feel them dust her hair and shoulders. She could feel the notes enter her and settle deep into her bones. — Rebecca Wells

Because I miss them. Because I need them. Because I love them. — Rebecca Wells

I believe that we are given strength and help from a power much larger than ourselves. I believe if I humble myself that this power will come through me, and help me create work that is bigger than I would have ever been able to have done alone. — Rebecca Wells

Sometimes I wonder if any of us are cut out for the lives we lead. — Rebecca Wells

Secret codes and lore and lingo stretching back into that fluid time before air conditioning dried up the rich, heavy humidity that used to hang over the porches of Louisiana, drenching cotton blouses, beads of sweat tickling the skin, slowing people down so the world entered them in an unhurried way. A thick stew of life that seeped into the very blood of people, so eccentric, languid thoughts simmered inside. Thoughts that would not come again after porches were enclosed, after the climate was controlled, after all windows were shut tight, and the sounds of the neighborhood were drowned out by the noise of the television set. — Rebecca Wells

Say there is no truth. Say there are only scraps that we feebly try to sew togethr. — Rebecca Wells

Many people are more like the earth than we know. Maybe they have fault lines that sooner or later are going to split open under pressure. — Rebecca Wells

You know how some people, when they're together, they somehow make you feel more hopeful? Make you feel like the world is not the insane place it really is? — Rebecca Wells

Connor: [about Sidda and Connor's wedding] Vivi, it's taken years to nail down a date. She's always said, "What's the rush, when things are so good?" I don't know what the hell she's so afraid of - it's like she's always waiting for the bottom to drop out. Vivi: You know why she thinks that, don't ya, honey? Because it did. It always did. — Rebecca Wells

I believe that illness has led me to a life of gratitude, so I consider Lyme disease at this point in my life to be a blessing in disguise. — Rebecca Wells

Those eagles, like angels, don't distinguish between work and play. To them, it is all one and the same. — Rebecca Wells

They wanted to rock, they wanted to roll, they wanted to feel the peculiarly human feeling of having a perfect night in an imperfect world. — Rebecca Wells

A full moon shimmered over central Louisiana. This was no rinky-dink moon. This was a moon you had to curtsy to. A big, heavy, mysterious, beautiful, bossy moon. The kind you want to serve things to on a silver platter. — Rebecca Wells

I try to believe," she said, "that God doesn't give you more than one little piece of the story at once. You know, the story of your life. Otherwise your heart would crack wider than you could handle. He only cracks it enough so you can still walk, like someone wearing a cast. But you've still got a crack running up your side, big enough for a sapling to grow out of. Only no one sees it. Nobody sees it. Everybody thinks you're one whole piece, and so they treat you maybe not so gentle as they could see that crack. — Rebecca Wells

A scent that disturbs me and delights me. It smells like ripe pears, vetiver, a bit of violet and something else- something spicy almost biting and exotic. — Rebecca Wells

What does my smile look like now? Vivi wondered. Can you reclaim that free-girl smile, or is it like virginity- once you loose it, that's it? — Rebecca Wells

Those porch girls had no idea they were going to sprawl on that couch until the weight of their adolescent bodies sank down into the pillows. They have no idea when they will get up off that couch. They have no plans for what will happen next. They only know their bodies touching as they try to keep cool. They only know that the coolest spot they can find is in front of that rotary fan.
I want to lay up like that, to float unstructured, without ambition or anxiety. I want to inhibit my life like a porch. — Rebecca Wells

The alligators can get you at any age, Buddy. But the worst thing you can do is freeze. — Rebecca Wells

Once the scent caught me on the street in Greenwich Village. I stopped in my tracks and looked around. Where was it coming from? A shop? The trees? A passerby? I could not tell. I only knew the smell made me cry. I stood on the sidewalk in Greenwich Village as people brushed by, and felt suddenly young and terribly open, as if I were waiting for something. I live in an ocean of smell, and the ocean is my mother. — Rebecca Wells

Sometimes you just have to reach out and grab what you want, even when they tell you not to. This is something that I've struggled with my whole life long. — Rebecca Wells

It was the kind ... of Southern women ... who believe ... that it is impossible to arrive in a new place without a pair of shoes to match every possible change of clothes. — Rebecca Wells

She leaned down and smelled the skin at Connor's shoulders right at the spots where, as Martha Graham might have said, his own wings might have been attached. — Rebecca Wells

Sadness can find you anywhere, anytime, so you better have fun when you can. — Rebecca Wells

Smoke, drink and never think. — Rebecca Wells

Some women pray for their daughters to marry good husbands. I pray that my girls will find girlfriends half as loyal and true as the Ya-Yas. — Rebecca Wells

You do not have too many boogeymen for me. You have just the right number. — Rebecca Wells

Of all the secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood the most divine was humor. — Rebecca Wells

She's smiling that smile they smile before they grow bosoms. — Rebecca Wells

She used to say she could taste sleep and that it was as delicious as a BLT on fresh French bread. — Rebecca Wells

... the love we most cherish will, of necessity, bring us pain. Because that love is like the setting of a body with broken bones. But I want to stage the setting. I want to direct all scenes. — Rebecca Wells

His tall, lanky body had the wrinkles of sleep, and he smelled like cotton and dreams. — Rebecca Wells

The moon loved them. Not because they were beautiful, or because they were perfect, or because they were perky, but because they were her darling daughters. — Rebecca Wells

True love is not a crock, but patriotism is. — Rebecca Wells

It's life. You don't figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride. — Rebecca Wells

When the Deep Purple falls,
Over sleepy garden walls,
And the stars begin to flicker in the sky,
Thru the mist of a memory
You wander back to me,
Breathing my name with a sigh.
In the still of the night,
Once again I hold you tight,
Tho' you're gone, your love lives on
When moonlight beams.
And as long as my heart will beat
Lover, we'll always meet
Here in my Deep Purple dreams. — Rebecca Wells

What they don't know is that I went over the edge years ago, and lived to tell the tale. — Rebecca Wells

Listen to me, Siddalee, and listen good: There is no excuse to let your looks go, no matter how poor you are. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but honey let me tell you, ugliness will get you nowhere. — Rebecca Wells

Forget love. Try good manners. — Rebecca Wells

Flowers heal me. Tulips make me happy. I keep myself surrounded by them as soon as they start coming to the island from Canada, and after that when they come from the fields in La Connor, not far from where I live. — Rebecca Wells

I value humor, kindness, and the ability to tell a good story far more than money, status, or the kind of car someone drives. — Rebecca Wells

But all she wanted to do was lie in bed, eat Kraft macaroni and cheese, and hide from the alligators. — Rebecca Wells

pretty is as pretty does — Rebecca Wells

Nothing picks me up quicker than a movie, a Coca-Cola, and a box of popcorn. I could walk in feeling like I didn't want to live anymore, and walk out on cloud nine. — Rebecca Wells

Good Lord didn't mean for us to hate ourself. He made us to love ourself like He do, with wide open arms. — Rebecca Wells

I want to lay up like that, to float unstructured, without ambition or anxiety. I want to inhabit my life like a porch. — Rebecca Wells

How wide and sweet and wild motherhood and sisterhood can be. — Rebecca Wells

I swear I could write a book about all the things no one has ever thanked me for. — Rebecca Wells

I now know that things I always thought I could depend on can crash in an instant. Because of the love that I have been shown, I now know what it means to be 'beloved.' I now know that no breath is to be taken for granted. — Rebecca Wells

Our Lady of Cheribim Chit-Chat. — Rebecca Wells

Books are living things with blood and bones, and it breaks our heart when people dissect them. — Rebecca Wells

You don't get no trophies for livin the life you born into. It just be your job, and you lucky if you can do the work set out in front of you and not fret if it seem puny.
Chaney, Little Altars Everywhere — Rebecca Wells

These are all I have. I do not have the wide, bright beacon of some solid old lighthouse, guiding ships safely home, past the jaggedrocks. I only have these little glimmers that flicker and then go out. — Rebecca Wells

As Sidda joined Vivi in staring out into the darkness of the fields, where hundreds of sunflowers grew, she thought: I will never fully know my mother, any more than I will ever know my father or Connor, or myself. I have been missing the point. The point is not knowing another person, or learning to love another person. The point is simply this: how tender can we bear to be? What good manners can we show as we welcome ourselves and others into our hearts? — Rebecca Wells

But who has time to write memoirs? I'm still living my memoirs. — Rebecca Wells

I am the kind of woman who loves hurricanes. They put me in a party mood. Make me want to eat oysters on the half shell, and act slutty. — Rebecca Wells

You cannot escape from life. Life is not a book. You can't just set it down on the coffee table and walk away from it when it gets boring or you get tired. — Rebecca Wells

She walks barefoot into the humid night, moonlight on her freckled shoulders. Near a huge, live oak tree on the edge of her father's cotton fields, Sidda looks up into the sky. In the crook of the crescent moon sits the Holy Lady, with strong muscles and a merciful heart. She kicks her splendid legs like the moon is her swing and the sky, her front porch. She waves down at Sidda like she has just spotted an old buddy.
Sidda stands in the moonlight and lets the Blessed Mother love every hair on her six-year-old head. Tenderness flows down from the moon and up from the earth. For one fleeting, luminous moment, Sidda Walker knows there has never been a time when she has not been loved. — Rebecca Wells

Life is short, but it is wide. Genevieve Whitman taught me that. — Rebecca Wells

Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time. — Rebecca Wells

The soft aroma of old worn cotton from a linen chest, the lingering smell of tobacco on an angora sweater; Jergen's hand lotion, sauteed green peppers and onions; the sweet, nutty smell of peanut butter and bananas, the oaken smell of good bourbon. A combination of lily of the valley, cedar, vanilla, and somewhere, the lingering of old rose. These smells are older than any thought. Mama, Teensy, Neecie, and Caro, each one of them had an individual scent, to be sure. But this is the Gumbo of their scents. This is the Gumbo Ya-Ya. This is the internal vial of perfume I carry with me everywhere I go. — Rebecca Wells

Life is short, but wide. — Rebecca Wells

Do you think any of us know how to love?! Do you think anybody would ever do anything if they waited until they knew how to love?! Do you think that babies would ever get made or meals cooked or crops planed or books written or what God-damn-have-you? Do you think people would even get out of bed in the morning if they waited until they knew how to love? You have had too much therapy. Or not enough. God knows how to love, kiddo. The rest of us are only good actors.
Forget love. Try good manners. — Rebecca Wells

The words shot through Vivi's bones and blood and muscle, and her body relaxed, so that when her feet touched the ground they met the earth differently, as though they had found roots that reached deep down and anchored to something tender and undamaged. — Rebecca Wells

The point is not knowing another person, or learning to love another person. The point is simply this: how tender can we bear to be? — Rebecca Wells