Top 450 Delia Owens Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “If only she could join in, belong to them. Kya knew it wasn’t so much that the herd would be incomplete without one of its deer, but that each deer would be incomplete without her herd.”

— Delia Owens

302. “Chase right on the deck of his fancy ski boat. There’s.”

— Delia Owens

303. “A lone tear trailed down Mrs. Culpepper’s cheek, and then a shadow smile for the little swamp truant escaping again.”

— Delia Owens

304. “Drugged by despair and heat, she tossed in clothes and sheets damp from sweat, her skin sticky. She sent her toes on missions to scout for cool spots between the sheets, but they found none.”

— Delia Owens

305. “A Visit from Patti Love 1969.”

— Delia Owens

306. “Don’t go on thinking poetry’s just for sissies. There’s mushy love poems, for sure, but there’s also funny ones, lots about nature, war even. Whole point of it-they make ya feel something.”

— Delia Owens

307. “Finally, she bent over and, heaving, fell to her knees. Cussing worn-out words. As long as she ranted, sobs couldn’t surface. But nothing could stop the burning shame and sharp sadness. A simple hope of being with someone, of actually being wanted, of being touched, had drawn her in. But these hurried groping hands were only a taking, not a sharing or giving.”

— Delia Owens

308. “Just before he stepped into the trees, she finally turned and watched him walk away. “This little piggy stayed home,” she said to the waves.”

— Delia Owens

309. “Looks like it’ll be ’bout eight hundr’d dollars total – put the land free and clear.” Kya walked out of the courthouse with a full deed in her name for three hundred ten acres of lush lagoons, sparkling marsh, oak forests, and a long private beach on the North Carolina coastline.”

— Delia Owens

310. “Boys, not men. She sat straight up. There was no back door.”

— Delia Owens

311. “But now, with permission finally granted, an urgency gripped him and he seemed to bypass her needs and push his way. She cried out against a sharp tearing, thinking something was wrong.”

— Delia Owens

312. “Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates.”

— Delia Owens

313. “Among themselves, doves fight as often as hawks.”

— Delia Owens

314. “Still, she knew by the way he spoke that Pa had slugged his face. “I hafta go, Kya. Can’t live here no longer.”

— Delia Owens

315. “Jodie, showing maturity far beyond his father’s, deadpanned, “Another one’ll just move in, and I always reckoned it’s better the skunk ya know than the skunk ya don’t know.”

— Delia Owens

316. “She walked to the pool twice a day for a week, living on saltines and Crisco, and Pa never came home the whole time. By the eighth day she could circle her foot without stiffness and the pain had retreated to the surface. She danced a little jig, favoring her foot, squealing, “I did it, I did it!” The next morning, she headed for the beach to find more pirates. “First thing I’m gonna do is boss my crew to pick up all them nails.”

— Delia Owens

317. “Jim Bo Sweeny darted from flipping crab cakes on the griddle to stirring a pot of creamed corn on the burner to poking chicken thighs.”

— Delia Owens

318. “He couldn’t come close to sorting it out himself, but he’d never been hit by a stronger wave. A power of emotions as painful as pleasurable.”

— Delia Owens

319. “There in the first row of seats in the court room, sitting with Tate, were Jumpin’ and Mabel. Folks had made a stir when they walked in with Tate and sat downstairs in the “white area.” But when the bailiff reported this to Judge Sims, still in his chambers, the judge told him to announce that anybody of any color or creed could sit anywhere they wanted in his courtroom, and if somebody didn’t like it, they were free to leave. In fact, he’d make sure they did.”

— Delia Owens

320. “Out here, in the real remote, she was free to wander, collect at will, read the words, read the wild. Not waiting for the sounds of someone was a release. And a strength.”

— Delia Owens

321. “Hello, Mister Jake. How ya doin’?” “Well, Ah woke up on the right side of dirt,” Pa answered. Jumpin’ laughed as if he’d never heard the worn-out phrase.”

— Delia Owens

322. “Lui aveva ancora gli stessi occhi; le facce cambiano, con gli eventi della vita, ma gli occhi rimangono una finestra sul passato...”

— Delia Owens

323. “Gently she touched his head, then scratched his neck. A loud purr erupted like a current. She closed her eyes at such easy acceptance. A deep pause in a lifetime of longing.”

— Delia Owens

324. “Thought ya could use that fer yo’ feathers, bird nests, and all that other stuff ya c’lect.”

— Delia Owens

325. “Now, Miss Kya, this ain’t nothin’ to be ‘shamed of. It ain’t no curse, like folks say; this here’s the startin’ of all life, and only a woman can do it.”

— Delia Owens

326. “Most people don’t have to be acquitted of murder to be accepted.”

— Delia Owens

327. “Kya, I want you more than anything. I want you forever. But you’re too young. You’re only fifteen.”

— Delia Owens

328. “But he had noticed her. Had held her eyes. Her breath froze as a heat flowed through her. She tracked them, mostly him, down to the shore. Her mind looking one way, her desire the other. Her body watched Chase Andrews, not her heart.”

— Delia Owens

329. “I brought them in case you were still here. Rosemary sent these to me. She said that for years, day and night, Ma painted us.”

— Delia Owens

330. “Kya was the youngest of five, the others much older, though later she couldn’t recall their ages.”

— Delia Owens

331. “Kya sat frozen, her arms slightly raised, so as not to interfere with his maneuvering. Finally, he settled as though he had nested here every night of his life. He looked at her. Gently she touched his head, then scratched his neck. A loud purr erupted like a current. She closed her eyes at such easy acceptance. A deep pause in a lifetime of longing.”

— Delia Owens

332. “Maybe Ma was never coming home. Maybe some dreams should just fade away.”

— Delia Owens

333. “At the bottom of the carton was a note.”

— Delia Owens

334. “Now at last Kya could label all her precious specimens. She took each feather, insect, shell, or.”

— Delia Owens

335. “When all her shelves were empty, she finally motored to Jumpin’s for supplies but didn’t chat with him as usual. Did her business and left him standing, staring after her. Needing people ended in hurt.”

— Delia Owens

336. “But in her twenty-second year, more than a year after Chase and Pearl announced their engagement, she walked the sandy lane, blistering with heat, to the mailbox every day and looked inside. Finally one morning, she found a bulky manila envelope and slid the contents – an advance copy of The Sea Shells of the Eastern Seaboard, by Catherine Danielle Clark – into her hands. She breathed in, no one to show it to.”

— Delia Owens

337. “I have almost no recollection of the few hours after we left the plateau. I think I was concentrating so hard on the immediate that my mind couldn’t afford space for anything else. Maybe to have a memory, you need time for reflection, however brief, just to let the memory find a place to settle.”

— Delia Owens

338. “Before moving, Vern stared for a long minute at Chase, as though he had overlooked something. As a doctor, he should fix this. Heavy swamp air stood.”

— Delia Owens

339. “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.”

— Delia Owens

340. “But this time there was laughter and love.”

— Delia Owens

341. “They stopped laughing. He took her shoulders, hesitated an instant, then kissed her lips, as the leaves rained and danced around them as silently as snow.”

— Delia Owens

342. “Kya leaned over gently, as if to kiss a baby. The microscope’s light reflected in her dark pupils, and she drew in a breath as a Mardi Gras of costumed players pirouetted and careened into view. Unimaginable headdresses adorned astonishing bodies so eager for more life, they frolicked as though caught in a circus tent, not a single bead of water.”

— Delia Owens

343. “Pa had always bought the kerosene and filled the lamp, so she hadn’t thought much about it. Until it was dark.”

— Delia Owens

344. “Even Jodie had said she should give Tate another chance. But every time she thought of him or saw him, her heart jumped from the old love to the pain of abandonment. She wished it would settle on one side or the other.”

— Delia Owens

345. “She’d always found the muscle and heart to pull herself from the mire, to take the next step, no matter how shaky. But where had all that grit brought her?”

— Delia Owens

346. “Kya wondered who started using the word cell instead of cage.”

— Delia Owens

347. “Ma warning her older sisters about young men who overrevved their rusted-out pickups or drove jalopies around with radios blaring. “Unworthy boys make a lot of noise,” Ma had said.”

— Delia Owens

348. “Jodie, I’m so sorry you worried about leaving me. Not once did I blame you. We were the victims, not the guilty.”

— Delia Owens

349. “Without another word, he got in his boat and motored across the lagoon. Just before entering the thick brambles of the channel, he turned and waved. She lifted her hand high above her head, and then touched it to her heart.”

— Delia Owens

350. “Kya, you know why. I just can’t do that. I want to study the marsh, be a research biologist.” They had reached the beach and sat on the sand. “Then what? There’re no jobs like that here. You’ll never come home again.” “Yes, I will. I won’t leave you, Kya. I promise. I’ll come back to you.”

— Delia Owens