Excerpt: Featuring some powerful themes on abandonment, love, and self-reliance—these quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing will strike a cord.
“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)
“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)
“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)
“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)
“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)
Winged soul, you danced the skies, And startled dawn with shrilling cries. You followed sails and braved the sea, Then caught the wind back to me. You broke your wing; it dragged the land And etched your mark upon the sand. When feathers break, you cannot fly, But who decides the time to die? You disappeared, I know not where. But your wing-marks still linger there. A broken heart cannot fly, But who decides the time to die?
Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 276)
Fading moon, follow My footsteps Through light unbroken By land shadows, And share my senses That feel the cool Shoulders of silence. Only you know How one side of a moment Is stretched by loneliness For miles To the other edge, And how much sky Is in one breath When time slides backward From the sand.
~ Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 214)
I must let go now. Let you go. Love is too often The answer for staying. Too seldom the reason For going. I drop the line And watch you drift away. All along You thought The fiery current Of your lover's breast Pulled you to the deep. But it was my heart-tide Releasing you To float adrift With seaweed.
~ Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 213)
“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)
“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)
“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)
“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)
“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)
“Just as she cast, a stick snapped behind her. She jerked her head around, searching. A footfall in brush. Not a bear, whose large paws squished in debris, but a solid clunk in the brambles. Then the crows cawed. Crows can’t keep secrets any better than mud; once they see something curious in the forest they have to tell everybody. Those who listen are rewarded: either warned of predators or alerted to food. Kya knew something was up.”
Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing (Page 86)
“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)
“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 ➜
![Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens [Book]](https://movemequotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Crawdads.jpeg)
Book Overview: For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens. Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
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