Sue Monk Kidd > Quotes

“Of all the emotions, Hope was the most mysterious. It grew like the blue lotus, snaking up from muddy hearts, beautiful while it lasted.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

“Sarah was up in her room with her heart broke so bad, Binah said you could hear it jangle when she walked.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“Sometimes you want to fall on your knees and thank God in heaven for all the poor news reporting that goes on in the world.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“A moment of grace. There rose up within me a profound sense of being loved. I felt "gathered together" and encircled by a Presence completely loving, as if I were enveloped by the music of a love song created just for me. It was not overwhelming or even emotional. Just a warm knowing that I was in God's loving embrace...centered and unified there.

[Love]encounters cannot be analyzed, only shared. If you take a butterfly, Robert Frost said, and pin it down into a box, you no longer have a butterfly.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved

“The whole problem with people is they know what matters but they don't choose it.
~Secret Lives of Bees”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“And it comes to me that the echoes of my own life will likely die away in that way thunder does. But this life, what a shining thing-it is enough.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

“All things pass in the end, even the worst melancholy. I opened my dresser and pulled out the lava box that held my button. My eyes glazed at the sight of it, and this time I felt my spirit rise up to meet my will. I would not give up. I would err on the side of audacity. That was what I'd always done.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“People start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“As I squatted on the grass at the edge of the woods, the pee felt hot between my legs. I watched in puddle in the dirt, the smell of it rising into the night. There was no difference between my piss and June's. That's what i thought when I looked at the dark circle on the ground. Piss is Piss.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“The awakening passed from simple recognition of my need for God at the center of my life, to a depth where the will is stirred And that is a deeper place by far. That is the place of response, of unifying one's heart, mind, soul and feet around a decision.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved

“Until we look from the bottom up we have nothing.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

“I felt someone should personally thank every rock out there for the human misery it had absorbed. We should kiss them one by one & say, we are sorry, but something strong & lasting had to do this for May, & you are the chosen ones. God bless your rock hearts.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“There is nothing perfect...there is only life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“The mermaids came to me finally, in the pink hours of my life. They are my consolation. For them I dove with arms outstretched, my life streaming out behind me, a leap against all proprieties and expectations, but a leap that was somehow saving and necessary. How can I ever explain or account for that? I dove, and a pair of invisible arms simply appeared, unstinting arms, like the musculature of grace suddenly revealing itself. They caught me after I hit the water, bearing me not to the surface but to the bottom, and only then pulling me up.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair

“I have one mind for the master to see. I have another mind for what I know is me.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“I will meet you in the place called Deathless, I whispered.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

“[Let's] put feet to our prayers.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“There is nothing perfect,' August said from the doorway. 'There is only life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“Spinners take out the bad stuff, leave in the good. I’ve always thought how nice it would be to have spinners like this for human beings. Just toss them in and let the spinner do its work.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“Depressed people do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“I wanted to say, Who am I to do this, a woman? But that voice was not mine. It was Father's voice. It was Thomas'. It belonged to Israel, to Catherine, and to Mother. It belonged to the church in Charleston and the Quakers in Philadelphia. It would not, if I could help it, belong to me.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“My aspiration to become a jurist had been laid to rest in the Graveyard of Failed Hopes, an all-female establishment. The sorrow of it had faded, but regret remained, and I’d taken to wondering if the Fates might be kinder to a different girl.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“A slave was supposed to be like the Holy Ghost—don’t see it, don’t hear it, but it’s always hovering round on ready.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“I have come here not to find answers, but to find a way to live in a world without any.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair

“When I was finally able to read the Scriptures for myself, I discovered (behold!) there were women.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

“If someone should ask me, 'What does the soul do?' I would say, It does two things. It loves. And it creates. Those are its primary acts.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

“The secret of a good lie is don't overly explain, and throw in one good detail.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“So I taught Sunday school and brought dishes to all manner of potlucks and tried to adjust the things I heard from the pulpit to my increasingly incongruent faith.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn’t know a thing about life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“When he spoke, the roughness was gone from his voice. "I could tell you I did it. That's what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it to herself, but both ways I'd be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn't mean it, but it was you.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees