“Tobin, my man, you are going to learn about chickens. And when you to learn about chickens, you will learn about life.”

“You can't expect a person to love an animal they might see decapitated at any minute. It ain't realistic," I told Miss Blue, who was gulping down her worm. She looked up at me like it shocked her to learn that some chickens got treated that way.”

“4. If you do not give your chickens enough space, light, air, and walking-around room, they will eat one another.”

“That was a funny thing about friends, Marylin thought. You could know a person practically your whole life and she could still surprise you.”

“When I think about everything that's happened since school started, well, I don't think the word 'normal' applies to any of it. Verbena is right - I'm way past normal. Only I've realized that when you move beyond normal, the road you're on doesn't necessarily take you to the land of the abnormal or the weird or the freakish. Instead you might find yourself in a place where people build Freedom School and have the courage to live large. It's a place where people don't worry too much when they get a little goat poop on their shoes.”

“You gonna stand in my backyard and ignore me to my face?”

“I'm not done arguing with you, Mrs.Fletcher. I'm going to convince you yet." "Well I reckon I got ten or twenty more years in me before I pass on," Granny told him. "So feel free to take your time.”