Quotes by Fannie Flagg

I wonder how many people dont get the one they want, but end up with the one theyre supposed to be with.

The line between the public life and the private life has been erased, due to the rapid decline of manners and courtesy. There is a certain crudeness and crassness that has suddenly become accepted behavior, even desirable.

Hazel always used to say Theres not enough darkness in the entire universe to snuff out the light of just one little candle.

It was a stretch to imagine that Barbara Walters might want to give it all up for Ed Couch, but Evelyn tried her hardest. Of course, even though she was not religious, it was a comfort to know that the Bible backed her up in being a doormat.

...but oh, it would just break your heart to see some of them waiting for their visitors. They get their hair all done up on Saturday, and on Sunday morning they get themselves all dressed and ready, and after all that, nobody comes to see them. I feel so bad, but what can you do? Having children is no guarantee that youll get visitors . . . No, it isnt.

People didnt call blacks names anymore, at least not to their faces. Italians werent wops or dagos, and there were no more kikes, Japs, chinks, or spics in polite conversation. Everybody had a group to protest and stick up for them. But women were still being called names by men. Why? Where was our group? Its not fair.

After the boy at the supermarket had called her those names, Evelyn Couch had felt violated. Raped by words. Stripped of everything. She had always tried to keep this from happening to her, always been terrified of displeasing men, terrified of the names she would be called if she did. She had spent her life tiptoeing around them like something lifting her skirt stepping through a cow pasture. She had always suspected that if provoked, those names were always close to the surface, ready to lash out and destroy her.

Its funny, most people can be around someone and they gradually begin to love them and never know exactly when it happened; but Ruth knew the very second it happened to her. When Idgie had grinned at her and tried to hand her that jar of honey, all these feelings that she had been trying to hold back came flooding through her, and it was at that second in time that she knew she loved Idgie with all her heart.

The food in the South is as important as food anywhere because it defines a persons culture.

I knew I wasnt the picture of health, but I didnt think I was headed for the last roundup.

...nobody was ever really ready to turn off their mothers machine, no matter what they thought; to turn off the light of their childhood and walk away, just as if they were turning out a light and leaving a room.

I brought a picture with me that I had at home, of a girl in a swing with a castle and pretty blue bubbles in the background, to hang in my room, but that nurse here said the girl was naked from the waist up and not appropriate. You know, Ive had that picture for fifty years and I never knew she was naked. If you ask me, I dont think the old men theyve got here can see well enough to notice that shes bare-breasted. But, this is a Methodist home, so shes in the closet with my gallstones.

All those calm, adult discussions. When all she really wanted to do was scream for her momma, her sweet momma, the one person in the world who loved her better than anyone ever would or ever could.

And her dumplings were so light they would float in the air and youd have to catch em to eat em.

Hazel: Listen babe you have to search for your luck its nice if it just falls in your lap but I look for my lucky pennies. ... Maggie: What do you do with all your pennies Hazel: I give them away. Its good to spread your luck around and it always comes back to you.

Our car wouldve burned up too, but Michael, who is only twelve, got in it and backed it away. I climbed in with him and noticed some of my school books in the car, so I took them out and threw them in the fire. I figured it would save me from doing a lot of homework, but unfortunately under the headline in the paper the next day that said HARPERS MALT SHOP BURNS TO THE GROUND IN TRAGIC FIRE it also said that seen throwing her school books into the fire was little Daisy Fay Harper. Rats foot! No wonder Hollywood stars hate reporters, and after all that some busybody do-gooder has already bought me a new set of books.

Evelyn stared into the empty ice cream carton and wondered where the smiling girl in the school pictures had gone.

And so, as quietly as he had lived, he slipped out of town, leaving only a note behind:Well, thats that. Im off, and if you dont believe Im leaving, just count the days Im gone. When you hear the phone not ringing, itll be me thats not calling. Goodbye, old girl, and good luck.Yours truly,Earl AdcockP.S. Im not deaf.

Remember if people talk behind your back it only means youre two steps ahead!

Being an only child and losing both my parents at an early age, I have found that the friends I have made over the years are the people who help me get through life, good times and bad.