Top 450 Delia Owens Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “She could read anything now, he said, and once you can read anything you can learn everything.”

— Delia Owens

2. “A great blue heron is the color of gray mist reflecting in blue water.”

— Delia Owens

3. “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.”

— Delia Owens

4. “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

5. “But, ladies and gentlemen, did we exclude Miss Clark because she was different, or was she different because we excluded her?”

— Delia Owens

6. “The dishonest signals of fireflies, all she knew of love.”

— Delia Owens

7. “Tate, listen to me. For years I longed to be with people. I really believed that someone would stay with me, that I would actually have friends and a family. Be part of a group. But no one stayed. Not you or one member of my family. Now I’ve finally learned how to deal with that and how to protect myself.”

— Delia Owens

8. “Kya, you can’t run from every whipstitch. Sometimes you have to discuss things. Face things.”

— Delia Owens

9. “Amanda Hamilton poem. “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

10. “Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky. Slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace – as though not built to fly – against the roar of a thousand snow geese.”

— Delia Owens

11. “Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”

— Delia Owens

12. “A man doesn’t set up a palmetto lean-to in a bog unless he’s on the run from somebody or at the end of his own road.”

— Delia Owens

13. “Leaning on someone leaves you on the ground.”

— Delia Owens

14. “Then thought, Like everything else in the universe, we tumble toward those of higher mass.”

— Delia Owens

15. “The sweeping up the heart, And putting Love away We shall not want to use again Until Eternity.”

— Delia Owens

16. “People forget about creatures that live in shells.”

— Delia Owens

17. “Amanda Hamilton poem. “Fading moon, follow My footsteps Through light unbroken By land shadows, And share my senses That feel the cool Shoulders of silence.”

— Delia Owens

18. “Tate, listen to me. For years I longed to be with people. I really believed that someone would stay with me, that I would actually have friends and a family. Be part of a group. But no one stayed. Not you or one member of my family. Now I’ve finally learned how to deal with that and how to protect myself. But I can’t talk about this now. I appreciate your coming to see me in here, I do. And maybe someday we can be friends, but I can’t think about what comes next. Not in here.”

— Delia Owens

19. “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.”

— Delia Owens

20. “Death’s crude pluck, as always, stealing the show.”

— Delia Owens

21. “Nobody’s come close to filling their brains. We’re all like giraffes not using their necks to reach the higher leaves.”

— Delia Owens

22. “Miss Catherine Danielle Clark, October 10, 1945.”

— Delia Owens

23. “Then she whispered Emily Dickinson’s words: The sweeping up the heart, And putting Love away We shall not want to use again Until Eternity.”

— Delia Owens

24. “Kya stood in the middle of her cell. Here she was in jail. If those she’d loved, including Jodie and Tate, hadn’t left her, she wouldn’t be here. Leaning on someone leaves you on the ground.”

— Delia Owens

25. “Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.”

— Delia Owens

26. “In nature – out yonder where the crawdads sing – these ruthless-seeming behaviors actually increase the mother’s number of young over her lifetime, and thus her genes for abandoning offspring in times of stress are passed on to the next generation.”

— Delia Owens

27. “That’s just grass in the wind.”

— Delia Owens

28. “Speaking out loud, she recited an Amanda Hamilton poem: “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

29. “Perhaps love is best left as a fallow field.”

— Delia Owens

30. “Maybe some dreams should just fade away.”

— Delia Owens

31. “Barkley Cove served its religion hard-boiled and deep-fried. Tiny as it was, the village supported four churches, and those were just for the whites; the blacks had three more.”

— Delia Owens

32. “Trapped inside, Love is a caged beast, Eating its own flesh. Love must be free to wander, To land upon its chosen shore And breathe.”

— Delia Owens

33. “Needing people ended in hurt.”

— Delia Owens

34. “Speaking out loud, she recited an Amanda Hamilton poem: “I must let go now. Let you go. Love is too often The answer for staying. Too seldom the reason For going.”

— Delia Owens

35. “Ma used to say that.” Kya remembered Ma always encouraging her to explore the marsh: “Go as far as you can – way out yonder where the crawdads sing.” “Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”

— Delia Owens

36. “We are married. Like the geese.”

— Delia Owens

37. “Amanda Hamilton’s verses: “Never underrate the heart, Capable of deeds The mind cannot conceive. The heart dictates as well as feels. How else can you explain The path I have taken, That you have taken The long way through this pass?”

— Delia Owens

38. “Sunsets are never simple.”

— Delia Owens

39. “Chase was her first visitor since Tate, who had seemed as natural and accepting as other marsh creatures. With Chase, she felt exposed, as if someone were filleting her like a fish. Shame welled up inside.”

— Delia Owens

40. “The marsh did not confine them but defined them and, like any sacred ground, kept their secrets deep.”

— Delia Owens

41. “How much do you trade to defeat loneliness?”

— Delia Owens

42. “Life had made her an expert at mashing feelings into a storable size. But loneliness has a compass of its own. And she went back to the beach to look for him the next day. And the next.”

— Delia Owens

43. “They had known Chase since he was born. Had watched his life ease from charming child to cute teen; star quarterback and town hot shot to working for his parents. Finally, handsome man wedding the prettiest girl. Now, he sprawled alone, less dignified than the slough. Death’s crude pluck, as always, stealing the show.”

— Delia Owens

44. “Barkley Cove was quite literally a backwater town, bits scattered here and there among the estuaries and reeds like an egret’s nest flung by the wind.”

— Delia Owens

45. “Then Mr. Daddy Long-legs And Mr. Floppy Fly Rushed downward to the foamy sea With one sponge-taneous cry; And there they found a little boat, Whose sails were pink and gray; And off they sailed among the waves, Far, and far away.”

— Delia Owens

46. “Barkley Cove served its religion hard-boiled and deep-fried.”

— Delia Owens

47. “Well, we better hide way out there where the crawdads sing. I pity any foster parents who take you on.” Tate’s whole face smiled. “What d’ya mean, where the crawdads sing? Ma used to say that.” Kya remembered Ma always encouraging her to explore the marsh: “Go as far as you can – way out yonder where the crawdads sing.” “Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters. Now, you got any ideas where we can meet?”

— Delia Owens

48. “Never underrate the heart capable of deeds the mind cannot conceive.”

— Delia Owens

49. “Shells the best secret-keepers of all.”

— Delia Owens

50. “A swamp knows all about death, and doesn’t necessarily define it as tragedy, certainly not.”

— Delia Owens