How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
T. Ray refused to let me bring books out here and read, and if I smuggled one out, say Lost Horizon, stuck under my shirt, somebody, like Mrs. Watson from the next farm, would see him at church and say, 'Saw your girl in the peach stand reading up a storm. You must be proud.' And he would half kill me.
What kind of person is against reading? (1.97).
Lily definitely thinks stories and storytelling are important (she's writing this book, after all), but T. Ray does not. In illustrating the "kind of person he is," rather than focusing on the fact that he would "half kill" her, Lily highlights his grumpiness with reading.
Quote #2
She motioned me to sit next to her in the rocking chair. 'I want to tell you a story,' she said. 'It's a story our mother used to tell me when we got tired of our chores or out of sorts with our lives' (5.61).
Here, August is about to tell Lily the story of Beatrix the nun. Lily correctly guesses that there is a hidden message in the story for her (however, as we discover at the end of the novel, she gets the meaning entirely wrong).
Quote #3
'It's not a pretty story.'
'My story's not pretty either,' I said, and she smiled (5.104-105).
In addition to being instructive or empowering, stories can drag you down. Here, August is about to tell Lily about May's late twin sister, April, who committed suicide when the girls were teenagers. This is a story that has weighed May down since then.