Barbara Kingsolver

"I don't know what rituals my kids will carry into adulthood, whether they'll grow up attached to homemade pizza on Friday nights, or the scent of peppers roasting over a fire, or what. I do know that flavors work their own ways under the skin, into the heart of longing. Where my kids are concerned I find myself hoping for the simplest things: that if someday they crave orchards where their kids can climb into the branches and steal apples, the world will have trees enough with arms to receive them."

7 likes

Source: Barbara Kingsolver (2012). “Flight Behaviour”, p.21, Faber & Faber

About the author

Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver

Author, Biologist

Barbara Kingsolver is an acclaimed American author known for her novels that intertwine themes of nature, community, and social justice, notably 'The Poisonwood Bible'.

All quotes by Barbara Kingsolver →

Same author

More quotes by Barbara Kingsolver

See all →
Barbara Kingsolver Author, Biologist

"There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature."

Read quote
Barbara Kingsolver Author, Biologist

"Finally, cooking is good citizenship. It's the only way to get serious about putting locally raised foods into your diet, which keeps farmlands healthy and grocery money in the neighborhood."

Read quote