Top 450 Delia Owens Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “After Ma left, over the next few weeks, Kya’s oldest brother and two sisters drifted away too, as if by example. They had endured Pa’s red-faced rages, which started as shouts, then escalated into fist-slugs, or backhanded punches, until one by one, they disappeared.”

— Delia Owens

352. “Her pocket brought a tail feather from an.”

— Delia Owens

353. “She held it against her heart. Where else would one need a compass more than in this place?”

— Delia Owens

354. “For a while she was so stiff she couldn’t swallow, but on cue, the familiar songs of tree frogs and katydids filled the night. More comforting than three blind mice with a carving knife. The darkness held an odor of sweetness, the earthy breath of frogs and salamanders who’d made it through one more stinky-hot day. The marsh snuggled in closer with a low fog, and she slept.”

— Delia Owens

355. “Kya turned the page to continue the story, and there loomed a large picture of Chase and a girl above an engagement announcement: Andrews-Stone.”

— Delia Owens

356. “Miss Kya. I didn’t jus’ fall off the turnip truck.”

— Delia Owens

357. “Her collections matured, categorized methodically by order, genus, and species; by age according to bone wear; by size in millimeters of feahers; or by the fragile hues of greens. The science and art entwined in each other’s strengths; the colors, the light, the species, the life; weaving a masterpiece of knowledge and beauty that filled every corner of her shack. Her world, She grew with them – the trunk of the vine – alone, but holding all the wonders together.”

— Delia Owens

358. “For a scavenger, patience is the key to the pantry.”

— Delia Owens

359. “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

360. “Months turned into a year.”

— Delia Owens

361. “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

362. “Kya watched him gimp along the path, left leg swinging to the side, then forward. Her fingers knotted. Maybe they were all going to leave her, one by one down this lane. When he reached the road and unexpectedly looked back, she threw her hand up and waved hard. A shot to keep him tethered. Pa lifted an arm in a quick, dismissive salutation. But it was something. It was more than Ma had done.”

— Delia Owens

363. “You can’t eat grits without salt.”

— Delia Owens

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

— Delia Owens

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

— Delia Owens

366. “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

367. “Hello, dear, I’m Mrs. Culpepper. You’re all grown up and ready to go to school, aren’t ya?”

— Delia Owens

368. “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

369. “Kya remembered, those many years ago, 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. She read a consolation for females. Nature is audacious enough to ensure that the males who send out dishonest signals or go from one female to the next almost always end up alone.”

— Delia Owens

370. “Kya turned quickly to speed away but, against a strong pull, turned back and searched for him. She knew that no part of this yearning made sense. Illogical behavior to fill an emptiness would not fulfill much more. How much do you trade to defeat lonesomeness?”

— Delia Owens

371. “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.”

— Delia Owens

372. “Tate. The golden-haired boy in the boat, guiding her home before a storm, gifting her feathers on a weathered stump, teaching her to read; the teenager steering her through her first cycle as a woman and arousing her first sexual desires as a female; the young scientist encouraging her to publish her books.”

— Delia Owens

373. “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

374. “One night two years later, without saying good-bye, Jake left before dawn, taking with him as many fine clothes and family treasures – including his great-grandfather’s gold pocket watch and his grandmother’s diamond ring – as he could carry. He hitchhiked to New Orleans and found Maria.”

— Delia Owens

375. “Mostly she looked for the fishing boy.”

— Delia Owens

376. “It didn’t fit that anyone who liked birds would be mean.”

— Delia Owens

377. “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

378. “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

379. “She stared, not knowing how to see this. Would she have to go somewhere, meet people? Tate didn’t miss the questions in her eyes.”

— Delia Owens

380. “But in fact, the restaurant, with all its glitter, wasn’t nearly as grand as her favorite picnic. When she was fifteen, Tate had boated to her shack one dawn, and, after he’d wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, they cruised inland through a maze of waterways to a forest she’d never seen. They hiked a mile to the edge of a waterlogged meadow where fresh grass sprouted through mud, and there he laid the blanket under ferns as large as umbrellas.”

— Delia Owens

381. “Sleep avoided her, slinking around the edges, then darting away. Her mind would plunge along deep walls of sudden slumber – an instant of bliss.”

— Delia Owens

382. “He’d convinced Maria that living in a cabin his father had built as a fishing retreat on the coast of North Carolina would be a new start.”

— Delia Owens

383. “The owner, an old black man, sprang up from his chair to help them – the reason everybody called him Jumpin’.”

— Delia Owens

384. “Her most poignant memories were unknown dates of family members disappearing down the lane.”

— Delia Owens

385. “They sat there like that, quietly. Not remembering.”

— Delia Owens

386. “Unfortunately gravity holds no sway on human thought.”

— Delia Owens

387. “Her heart beat wildly. Of all the ragged loves she’d known from wayward family, none had felt like this.”

— Delia Owens

388. “Chase’s blue eyes were playful; he smiled easily.”

— Delia Owens

389. “Slowly, she unraveled each word of the sentence: “’There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.”

— Delia Owens

390. “I wadn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence.”

— Delia Owens

391. “Faces change with life’s toll, but eyes remain a window to what was, and she could see him there. “Jodie, I’m so.”

— Delia Owens

392. “Yes, Chase had laid out a banquet, but she was worth more than fried chicken.”

— Delia Owens

393. “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

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

— Delia Owens

395. “Who decides the time to die?”

— Delia Owens

396. “The Game 1960 The next noon, hands on her cheeks, Kya approached the stump slowly, almost in prayer. But no feather on the stump. Her lips pinched. “A’ course. I gotta leave something for him.”

— Delia Owens

397. “White Canoe 1960.”

— Delia Owens

398. “Croker Sacks Full 1956 In the winter of 1956, when Kya was ten, Pa.”

— Delia Owens

399. “You’re worse than he is. He might not be perfect, but you’re worse by a long shot.”

— Delia Owens

400. “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