Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories Quotes

Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored-up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. (Ballad.80)

Miss Amelia, as has been mentioned, measured six feet two inches in height. Marvin Macy was one inch shorter. In weight they were about even—both of them weighing close to a hundred and sixty pou...

[Morris Finestein] was only a quick, skipping little Jew who cried if you called him Christ-killer, and ate light bread and canned salmon every day. [...] since then if a man were prissy in any way...

If a patient came with a female complaint she could do nothing. (Ballad.53)

These good people judged Miss Amelia in a different way from what the others judged her. (Ballad.47)

At such a time, no individual hesitates. And whether the matter will be settled peaceably, or whether the joint action will result in ransacking, violence, and crime, depends on destiny. (Ballad.51)

The whiskey they drank that evening (two big bottles of it) is important. Otherwise, it would be hard to account for what followed. (Ballad.34)

People, unless they are nilly-willy or very sick, cannot be taken into the hands and changed overnight to something more worthwhile and profitable. (Ballad.5)

This office was also the place where Miss Amelia received sick people, for she enjoyed doctoring and did a great deal of it. (Ballad.53)