How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"It's not like the Colonel to lie," he said. "Of course, he's always been a mystery. We don't really know where he's from, or who his folks are." He flushed. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded, Mo," he said quick. (4.26)
In a place like Tupelo Landing, a lot of your identity is tied up in who you're related to and your ancestors, but that's not the case for Mo and the Colonel. They don't know anything about their families—and that's why Mo feels like an outsider.
Quote #2
"You try to figure out your life every time you get close to a birthday, Mo, and you ain't done it yet. I wish you'd leave it alone," he said, slumping against the door. "I'm tired of hearing about it. There's nothing wrong with the people you got." (5.10)
Dale is sick and tired of hearing about Mo's quest for her "real" family and the fact that she's trying to figure out who she is and where she comes from. He thinks that she's just Mo, and that's good enough.
Quote #3
She smiled. "In the existential sense, we all travel alone, don't we?" she said. "At times I feel it like a dull, aching pain, right here," she said, bringing her hand to her heart. "Don't you? Like a child yearning to go home." (12.73)
Miss Lana is definitely messing with Detective Starr when he asks her if she was traveling alone, but in a way she gets at the heart of what it's like to be a human being. She gives him the most philosophical answer possible.
Quote #4
"There is nothing common about knowledge," she replied. "The fact that I haven't driven doesn't mean that I can't. Now," she said, tilting her head. "This vehicle is new to me. Where is the ignition?" (13.12)
Everyone knows that Miss Lana cannot drive and has never driven, but she's not willing to let that fact define her. Instead she gets into the Thunderbird and immediately starts careening down the road, almost crashing into everything she meets.
Quote #5
Miss Rose looked at Dale. "Baby?"
Dale squared his shoulders. "Don't call me baby," he said, and held out his hands. (13.120-121)
Dale may be considered the baby of Miss Rose's family, but he's not going to let that label follow him forever. When he agrees to be handcuffed and led away from the crime scene, he shrugs off that nickname. He's not a baby anymore.
Quote #6
Strange? The Colonel? That wasn't exactly a news flash. "Strange, how?" I asked.
"Well, he called me baby, for one thing."
"Baby? He never calls you baby."
"And he called you Moses, for another." (17.78-81)
How odd. When the Colonel calls home after disappearing following Mr. Jesse's death, he doesn't sound like himself. The difference in the way he talks is what tips Miss Lana and Mo off to something being terribly wrong.
Quote #7
That's how Macon found us the next day—me unconscious on half a billboard, you nestled in my arms, nursing on the pocket of my uniform. The half billboard said: "…Café…. Proprietor." Our path seemed clear. (20.49)
Everything that the Colonel has become in Tupelo Landing came about through happenstance. After he lost his memory, he chose his next occupation based off of something totally random—the billboard that Mo floated in on.
Quote #8
I looked Mr. Macon in the eye. "Maybe she did throw me away and maybe she didn't," I said. "But if she did, she only did it once. You throw your people away every day that rolls around, and it sure ain't because something's wrong with them." (26.59)
Mo's not going to let Mr. Macon tell her that she's a piece of trash that her parents threw away. She knows that he's more of a piece of garbage than she'll ever be because he throws his perfectly nice family away all the time.
Quote #9
"You're taking those kids with you? You're all crazy," Mr. Macon snarled as Dale trotted to his room for rain slickers. "That boy's a coward. He ain't going to be nothing but in the way."
The Colonel shook his head. "A coward? Dale's already twice the man you'll ever be," he said, slipping the pistol in his pack. (27.34-35)
Mr. Macon just won't stop making the mistake of underestimating his son and calling him a coward. Dale's turned a gun on him and tied him up, and Mr. Macon still can't see that he's a brave kid.
Quote #10
The Colonel backed away like he'd seen the Devil himself.
"God help me," he sobbed, sinking onto Mr. Jesse's sofa and hiding his face in his hands. "I'm a lawyer." (28.51-52)
Oh no… The Colonel probably would have liked it better if he found out that he was a part of Robert Slate's gang. Instead, though, he has to reconsider everything that he's ever known about himself, especially his eternal hatred of lawyers.