Julia Spencer-Fleming Quotes

• “You know it’s a bad sign when the theme song from Titanic describes your relationship.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “It never ceases to amaze me how many folks jump right over "I'll try" to "I can't.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “He stomped away like a pint-sized Godzilla looking for Tokyo.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “I believe that God hears our prayers, and cherishes them. I believe He answers by sending us His spirit, giving us strenght, and peace, and insight. I don't think He responds by turning away bullets and curing cancer. Though sometimes that does happen."
  
  Harlene frowned. "In other words, sometimes, the answer is no?"
  
  "No. Sometimes the answer is "This is life, in all its variety. Make your way through it with grace, and never forget that I love you.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “Russ decided the best defense was a good offense. "I'm Russell Van Alstyne, Millers Kill chief of police." He held out his hand. She shook firm, like a guy.
  
  "Clare Fergusson," she said. "I'm the new priest at Saint Alban's. That's the Episcopal Church. At the corner of Elm and Church." There was a faint testiness in her voice. Russ relaxed a fraction. A woman priest. If that didn't beat all.
  
  "I know which it is. There are only four churches in town." He saw the fog creeping along the edges of his glasses again and snatched them off, fishing for a tissue in his pocket. "Can you tell me what happened, um..." What was he supposed to call her? "Mother?"
  
  "I go by Reverend, Chief. Ms. is fine, too."
  
  "Oh. Sorry. I never met a woman priest before."
  
  "We're just like the men priests, except we're willing to pull over and ask directions.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “Maybe they were back to not talking. That's what she missed the most: talking. Serious, silly, bone-deep, flippant, all their words and thoughts like gifts to each other, the only gifts they, with their hobbled hearts, could give.”

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• “Give them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their common life, that each may be to the other a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy.”

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• “The only other person attending who was close to her age was Father St. Laurent, a devastatingly good-looking Roman Catholic priest who made the RC's vows of celibacy seem like a crime against the human gene pool.”

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• “She wondered what it said about her spiritual fitness that her clearest messages from the Almighty seemed to come from the alternative rock station.”

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• “Because the things you have, and the neighborhood you live in, doesn’t have anything to do with what kind of human being you are.”

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• “So I can be the girl from Titanic who stays high and dry while you, the guy, vanish beneath the icy waves? I don’t think so.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “And as for people shunning us because of our known association with homosexuals”—here she wiggled her eyebrows, because she sounded ridiculously like Joseph McCarthy—“I say we don’t want new members who would think like that. We want people who will admire us for taking a stand and who will say, ‘Yes, that’s Christianity; that’s how I want to live it and that’s the church I want to belong to.”

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• “She was pretty, yeah, but pretty like hundreds of other girls. You," he dabbed the bread in the air as if sketching her, "you're...memorable. Who you are just shines through your face.”

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• “If you know a person’s history, you can use it to help predict what that person might do. A person’s history can be the key to understanding his motivation for committing a crime.”

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• “Oh. Sorry. I never met a woman priest before.” “We’re just like the men priests, except we’re willing to pull over and ask directions.”

  Julia Spencer-Fleming

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• “So you worked for the war industry but came to your senses!” [Margy Van Alstyne] darted a glance at her son. “What rank were you?”
  
  “I was a captain when I resigned.” [Clare]
  
  “Ha!” Margy Van Alstyne’s elbow caught Russ in the solar plexus. “She outranks you, son! Finally, a woman who can boss you around!”
  
  “Every woman in my life bosses me around,” he muttered, rubbing his stomach.”

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• “I’m trying to think…are you the florist?” Malcolm’s voice was slightly off, as if it were coming from someplace other than his own throat. ...
  
  She took a sip from her own drink. “Nope. I like flowers as much as the next woman, but I can’t tell a dahlia from a daisy.”
  
  “Or a lupine from a lobelia?” Hugh Parteger said.
  
  “Or a carnation from a chrysanthemum.”
  
  “You’re obviously not into floral sects,” he said.
  
  She almost spit out a mouthful of kir royale laughing. ... “Mr. Parteger, I don’t discuss what I do in my garden bed with anyone.”
  
  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “For most women, it’s just a matter of finding the right tool.”
  
  She took another drink, enjoying herself immensely. ... “Yes, but it’s such a tedious process, finding one that fits and works really well. Better just stick to hand weeding. Fewer complications that way.”
  
  “Ah, so you’re a master gardener.”
  
  She actually giggled. How mortifying. She took a long swallow from her drink. “As Voltaire said, we must cultivate our garden.”
  
  “I believe he also said, ‘Once, a philosopher, twice, a pervert.”

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• “The old Confession was written by men who knew what it felt like to have done bad things: “We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable.”
  
  Indeed.”

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• “I believe that prayer focuses our human thoughts and energies, sends them to the people we're praying for. I believe that helps, in ways we can't yet understand. I believe that God hears our prayers, and cherishes them. I believe He answers by sending us His spirit, giving us strength, and peace, and insight. I don't think he responds by turning away bullets and curing cancer. Though sometimes that happens.”

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• “Dear God, she thought, help me to accept as Christ accepted. Keep my mind on helping, not judging. And remind me to put in a five-mile run this evening.”

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• “[Father Aberforth]: “...Have you figured out what you’re going to do with this married man of yours?” ... “I’m not here to judge you, girl. You think you’re the first sheep to wander out of the fold because greener pastures beckon?” He reached for his tea. “At least you show some originality. Most priests who dabble in adultery go for the music director or one of the warden’s wives. The town’s chief of police—that’s novel. Not too bright, but novel.”

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• “There are moments in life that are between: between the blow and the pain, between the phone ringing and the answer, between the misstep and the fall. One that comes to everyone is a moment, or three, or five, between sleeping and waking, when the past has not yet been re-created out of memory and the present has made no impression. It is a moment of great mercy; disorienting, like all brushes with grace, but a gift nonetheless.”

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• “If I start bad-mouthing his wife, who is it fixing to get hurt when they get back together?” [Margy, Russ’s mum]
  
  “You think they’re going to get back together?” [Janet, Russ’s sister]
  
  “I’d like to think . . .” Her voice trailed off. Even with the last turn of the stairs and the living room between them, Russ could hear his mother sigh. “Your brother is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a real-life Horton the Elephant. He meant what he said and he said what he meant . . .”
  
  “An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent,” Janet finished the quote.
  
  Great. His entire personality could be summed up by Dr. Seuss.”

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• “At the rectory, she debated acknowledging she was back on the job by wearing clericals, versus pissing the new deacon off by meeting her in her civvies. She compromised by wearing a black blouse, dog collar, and subdued black cardigan over a pair of old undress-green fatigues.
  
  “Interesting look,” Lois said when Clare checked in for a report on the past week.
  
  “It’s a clerical mullet,” Clare said. “Business on the top, party on the bottom.”

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• “Karen sighed. "I know. I could never fall for the easy guys either." She looked at Clare. "It's always the difficult ones that get under your skin, isn't it?”

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