The most assiduous task of parenting is to divine the difference between boundaries and bondage.

—Barbara Kingsolver

About Barbara Kingsolver

Portrait of Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Ellen Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo; and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. In 2023, she was awarded...

More quotations from Barbara Kingsolver

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.

—Barbara Kingsolver

strength laws motherhood

To people who think of themselves as God's house guests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyond belief. Or stupid. A nation of amnesiacs, proceeding as if there were no other day but today. Assuming the land could also forget what had been done to it.

—Barbara Kingsolver

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.

—Barbara Kingsolver

If I got to make just one law, it would be that the men who make the decisions to drop bombs would first, every time, have to spend one whole day taking care of a baby. We were not made to do this killing thing, I swear. Back up. It's a big mistake.

—Barbara Kingsolver

war law children bombs killing care

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.

—Barbara Kingsolver

History

7 Jun 2015 Added