13 Rousing Delia Owens Quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing on Abandonment, Love, and Self-Reliance

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Excerpt: Featuring some powerful themes on abandonment, love, and self-reliance—these quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing will strike a cord.

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Introduction: We fear what we don’t understand

My dog will BARK and YELL and RAGE and fearlessly advance towards even the most vicious looking dogs. But, pops, cracks, and whizzes from the fridge?

Terrified. Whimpers. Needs to be held.

These noises, of course, don’t scare us because we understand them. But, failure, aloneness, suffering?

Leaves most of us terrified, whimpering, and feeling like we need to be held.

Maybe it’s the case that these things aren’t inherently scary, but we’re just scared of them because we don’t fully understand them.

Maybe if we spent more time learning how to fail forward, enjoy aloneness, and channel our suffering—we wouldn’t be so scared?

Things become less scary once we understand them.

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Where The Crawdads Sing is very much a book about fearing what we don’t understand and how we come about understanding.

It’s a story about abandonment, survival, and fighting for independence. It’s about love, loneliness, and forming meaningful relationships. It’s about being different, fitting in, and reevaluating societal norms. It’s about being scared, having courage, and figuring out life as you go. Because understanding it all at the outset isn’t realistic and deep realizations take time.

One of my favorite elements of this book is the beautifully descriptive language Delia Owens uses. I felt like I was right there, immersed in nature, with the main characters throughout the book. If you’re a nature enthusiast, reading this book for Owens’ descriptive passages alone would be worth it. The murder mystery story, coming-of-age narrative, and accompanying life lessons would be the bonus.

Below, you’ll find 13 of my all around favorite quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing. And let me just say, the power of each of these quotes intensifies significantly when you come across the words in the context of the rest of the book. A definite must-read for those looking for an escape. This book will take you on an adventure you won’t soon forget. Until then, I hope you enjoy this brief selection of rousing quotes.

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The List: 13 Rousing Delia Owens Quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing on Abandonment, Love, and Self-Reliance

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“When in trouble, just let go. Go back to idle.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 41) | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜

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“She never collected lightning bugs in bottles; you learn a lot more about something when it’s not in a jar.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 142)

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“On every trip to Kya’s, Tate took school or library books, especially on marsh creatures and biology. Her progress was startling. She could read anything now, he said, and once you can read anything you can learn everything. It was up to her. ‘Nobody’s come close to filling their brains,’ he said. ‘We’re all like giraffes not using their necks to reach the higher leaves.’”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 131)

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“And just at that second, the wind picked up, and thousands upon thousands of yellow sycamore leaves broke from their life support and streamed across the sky. Autumn leaves don’t fall; they fly. They take their time and wander on this, their only chance to soar. Reflecting sunlight, they swirled and sailed and fluttered on the wind drafts.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 124)

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“The lonely became larger than she could hold. She wished for someone’s voice, presence, touch, but wished more to protect her heart.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 146)

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“Faces change with life’s toll, but eyes remain a window to what was…”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing

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“Alone, she’d been scared, but that was already humming as excitement. There was something else, too. The calmness of the boy. She’d never known anybody to speak or move so steady. So sure and easy. Just being near him, and not even that close, had eased her tightness. For the first time since Ma and Jodie left, she breathed without pain; felt something other than the hurt.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 46)

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“She knew his favorite lagoons and paths through difficult quagmires; always following him at a safe distance. Sneaking about, stealing love. Never sharing it. You can’t get hurt when you love someone from the other side of an estuary.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 354)

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“She laughed for his sake, something she’d never done. Giving away another piece of herself just to have someone else.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 177)

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“Tate remembered his dad’s definition of a man: one who can cry freely, feel poetry and opera in his heart, and do whatever it takes to defend a woman.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 356) | Read 25 Quotes on Masculinity ➜

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“Did we exclude Miss Clark because she was different, or was she different because we excluded her? If we had taken her in as one of our own I think that is what she would be today. If we had fed, clothed, and loved her, invited her into our churches and homes, we wouldn’t be prejudiced against her.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 340)

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“She knew the years of isolation had altered her behavior until she was different from others, but it wasn’t her fault she’d been alone. Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would. If consequences resulted from her behaving differently, then they too were functions of life’s fundamental core.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 363)

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“It seemed that now, Kya being more vulnerable than ever, was reason to trust others even less. Standing in the most fragile place of her life, she turned to the only net she knew—herself.”

Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 285)

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If you enjoyed these quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing, you should read Owens’ book in full. It comes highly recommended: