Fannie Flagg Quotes

“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you are two steps ahead.”

— Fannie Flagg

You know, a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same.

— Fannie Flagg

“The ones that hurt the most always say the least.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Face it girls. I'm older and I have more insurance.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Are you a politician or does lying just run in your family?”

— Fannie Flagg

“People cain't help being what they are any more than a skunk can help being a skunk. Don't you think if they had their choice they would rather be something else? Sure they would. People are just weak.”

— Fannie Flagg

“I believe in God, but I don't think you have to go crazy to prove it.”

— Fannie Flagg

“No matter what you look like, there's somebody who's gonna think you're the handsomest man in the world.”

— Fannie Flagg

“You're just a bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode. That's what you are, a bee charmer.”

— Fannie Flagg

“It's funny, most people can be around someone and they gradually begin to love them and never know exactly when it happened; but Ruth knew the very second it happened to her. When Idgie had grinned at her and tried to hand her that jar of honey, all these feelings that she had been trying to hold back came flooding through her, and it was at that second in time that she knew she loved Idgie with all her heart.”

— Fannie Flagg

“That's what I'm living on now, honey, dreams, dreams of what I used to do.”

— Fannie Flagg

“The line between the public life and the private life has been erased, due to the rapid decline of manners and courtesy. There is a certain crudeness and crassness that has suddenly become accepted behavior, even desirable.”

— Fannie Flagg

“You know, a heart can be broken, but it still keeps a-beating just the same.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Hazel always used to say There's not enough darkness in the entire universe to snuff out the light of just one little candle.”

— Fannie Flagg

“All right, then, I'd die for you. How about that? Don't you think somebody could die for love?”

— Fannie Flagg

“He had mourned each of those great trains as, one by one, they were pulled off the lines and left to rust in some yard, like old aristocrats, fading away; antique relics of times gone by.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Grandma Harper has two green bottles shaped like women with black hair painted on their heads and a yellow glass colored captain's hat that she keeps her face powder in that I want too, and a picture of a naked girl in a swing, swinging way up in the air over castles in a blue sky.
I don't know why I want those things, I just do.”

— Fannie Flagg

I just know there's an albino living in the colored quarters. I can feel it in my bones.

— Fannie Flagg

Damn, I'm Miss Mississippi!

— Fannie Flagg

“Do you think that your worrying can prevent anything from happening? Whatever happens is supposed to happen and whatever doesn't, isn't.”

— Fannie Flagg

Marriage. Isn't it great? Each time you fall back in love with your [spouse] it gets better and better.

— Fannie Flagg

Your mother formed an incorrect opinion of you and, naturally, you agreed with her. Children always think their parents are right. But in this case, your mother was entirely wrong. Think about it. Your mother is an overpowering individual,

— Fannie Flagg

All those calm, adult discussions. When all she really wanted to do was scream for her momma, her sweet momma, the one person in the world who loved her better than anyone ever would or ever could.

— Fannie Flagg

“By the way, Boots died and Opal says she hopes you're satisfied.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Hazel: Listen babe you have to search for your luck it's nice if it just falls in your lap but I look for my lucky pennies ...
Maggie: What do you do with all your pennies
Hazel: I give them away. It's good to spread your luck around and it always comes back to you.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Just think, Ruth, I never did it for anybody else before. Now nobody in the whole world knows I can do that but you. I just wanted us to have a secret together, that's all.”

— Fannie Flagg

“He had been told that in America, if you worked hard, anything was possible.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Later on, still looking, she had tried to get involved with the Women's Community Center. She liked what they stood for but secretly wished they would wear just a little lipstick and shave their legs. She had been the only one in the room in full makeup, wearing pantyhose and earrings. She had wanted to belong, but when the woman suggested that next week they bring a mirror so they could all study their vaginas, she never went back.”

— Fannie Flagg

How do you know if you're making the right decision?
Easy. Just like two and two always add up to four, kindness and forgiveness is always right, hate and revenge is always wrong.

— Fannie Flagg

“Whom the heart first loves does not know or care if they are related by blood.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Mrs. Threadgoode pulled something out of the Cracker Jack box and all of a sudden her eyes lit up. "Oh Evelyn, look! Here's my prize. It's a little miniature chicken ...  just what I like!" and she held it out for her friend to see.”

— Fannie Flagg

“You know, it's funny what you'll miss when you're away from home. Now me, I miss the smell of coffee  ...  and bacon frying in the morning.”

— Fannie Flagg

“They gave Saint Patrick his own day and what did he do but run out a bunch of snakes. Why, Thomas Edison lit up the world. If it hadn't been for him we'd all still be sitting here in the dark, with nothing but a candle,”

— Fannie Flagg

“I eat out of stress, she told Robbie, and now, between work and her nephews driving her crazy, she was just on the verge of having to switch from her MEDIUM to her FAT AS A HOG wardrobe again, which meant she was going to have to switch shoe sizes as well. Robbie said she was the only perwon in America who gained weight in her feet.”

— Fannie Flagg

“As they walked home, and she would”

— Fannie Flagg

Mildred had had a few men friends after that, but she never really loved any of them. None could ever compete with the one that got away.

— Fannie Flagg

“Well, they are trying to get rid of Christianity and once they do that, then you watch. Our taxes will go up and they'll take all our guns away and the next thing you know, a communist or a socialist will get in the White House and then it will be all over.”

— Fannie Flagg

“She sat there admiring the beauty of the light amber fluid in the clear bottle, the way the condensation on the Miller bottle ran down the black and gold label, like it was a fine piece of art. That was the problem with alcohol. It was so beautiful to look at, how could you resist it? And what kind of place could be more inviting and seductive than a truly elegant cocktail bar?”

— Fannie Flagg

“When she finally was able to order a martini, the first sip nearly knocked her head off. It was so strong. And how surprised she was that scotch tasted more like iodine than butterscotch candy. Two of the great disappointments in her life.”

— Fannie Flagg

“But oh, it would just break your heart to see some of them waiting for their visitors. They get their hair all done up on Saturday, and on Sunday morning they get themselves all dressed and ready, and after all that, nobody comes to see them. I feel so bad, but what can you do? Having children is no guarantee that you'll get visitors ... No, it isn't.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Months was ten years.”

— Fannie Flagg

To Toot One's Own Horn Is Unattractive.

— Fannie Flagg

“But you soon find out they don't want to meet you, they want you to meet them.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Hello ... is this Mrs. Fritzi Bevins?'
'Yes, it is.'
'From Pulaski, Wisconsin?'
'Yes.'
'Uh ... you don't know me, but I recently received some papers. From Texas. And, well ... I think I might be your daughter?'
There was a long silence on the other end, and then after a moment, the woman in a softer voice said, 'Hiya, pal. I've been waiting for this call for a long time.”

— Fannie Flagg

Our car would've burned up too, but Michael, who is only twelve, got in it and backed it away. I climbed in with him and noticed some of my school books in the car, so I took them out and threw them in the fire. I figured it would save me from doing a lot of homework, but unfortunately under the headline in the paper the next day that said HARPER'S MALT SHOP BURNS TO THE GROUND IN TRAGIC FIRE it also said that seen throwing her school books into the fire was little Daisy Fay Harper. Rat's foot! No wonder Hollywood stars hate reporters, and after all that some busybody do-gooder has already bought me a new set of books.

— Fannie Flagg

“Idgie smiled back at her and looked up into the clear blue sky that reflected in her eyes and she was as happy as anybody who is in love in the summertime can be.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Remember, Sookie, nothing says more about a family than good silver and real pearls. The rest is just fluff.”

— Fannie Flagg

“Her daughter had given her a puff of a marijuana cigarette once, but after all the hot pads on the counter started walking toward her, she got scared and never tried it again. So dope was out.”

— Fannie Flagg

“I think that people that are not sensitive, who seem to bang through life, do survive, but I don't think they get the really soaring feelings that people who are more artistically bent can get.”

— Fannie Flagg

“I have a lot of friends that are ex-Miss Alabamas and ex-Miss Georgias.”

— Fannie Flagg