Quotes from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
By Taylor Jasmine | On May 11, 2016 | Updated June 6, 2024 | Comments (12)
Carson McCullers (1917 – 1967) won numerous literary accolades for her 1940 novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Following is a selection of quotes from The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a twentieth-century classic.
Published when McCullers was only twenty-three, she described herself as “much too young to understand what happened to me or the responsibility it entailed.” Still, it was an epic achievement and a marvel that one so young had such a grasp of human nature.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is concerned with the struggle of human beings to build bridges of communication between their separate islands of loneliness. A 1940 review stated:
“The characters move around Singer, a man of mystical understanding, in an intricate dance of hope and despair: Mick, and adolescent ardently longing to express herself in music; Jake Blount, a wild, blundering reformer; Dr. Copeland, the African-American patriarch. Their appeal to Singer is the appeal of all humanity to a silent, cryptic universe.”
. . . . . . . . . .
Learn more about Carson McCullers
. . . . . . . . . .
A novel of its time and ahead of its time
In a sense The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was ahead of its time. No writer in the past twenty years has stated America’s racial dilemma so simply and dramatically. Richard Wright, reviewing the novel in 1940, wrote:
“To me the most impressive aspect of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle African-American characters with as much ease and justice as those of her own race.”
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter made its young author a literary celebrity. Here’s an encapsulating quote from one of the countess accolades this novel received:
“This fine and feeling novel … is a picture of life in a Southern mill town of 30,000 inhabitants, and the characters of the story are poor. None of them is completely educated, and they are all caught in the circumstances of a society which make decent life impossible.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“My advice to you is this. Do not attempt to stand alone …The most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“All we can do is go around telling the truth.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad, the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?”
. . . . . . . . . .
“Sometimes this fellow’s music was like little colored pieces of crystal candy, and other times it was the softest, saddest thing she had ever imagined about.”
. . . . . . . . . .
Carson McCullers’ Mick Kelly: The Tomboy Author and Her Tomboy Heroine
. . . . . . . . . .
“The way I need you is a loneliness I cannot bear.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“She wished there was some place where she could go to hum it out loud. Some kind of music was too private to sing in a house crammed full of people. It was funny, too, how lonesome a person could be in a crowded house.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“The heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of another’s fire … driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there’s no sign of love in sight!”
. . . . . . . . . .
“I’m a stranger in a strange land.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“I do not have any home. So why should I be homesick?”
. . . . . . . . . .
“Wherever you look there’s meanness and corruption. This room, this bottle of grape wine, these fruits in the basket, are all products of profit and loss. A fellow can’t live without giving his passive acceptance to meanness. Somebody wears his tail to a frazzle for every mouthful we eat and every stitch we wear — and nobody seems to know. Everybody is blind, dumb, and blunt-headed — stupid and mean.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“We live in the richest country in the world. There’s plenty and to spare for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this, our country was founded on what should have been a great, true principle — the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of that start? There are corporations worth billions of dollars — and hundreds of thousands of people who don’t get to eat.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.”
. . . . . . . . . .
RELATED POSTS
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968 film)
The Ballad of the Sad Café: And Other Stories
The Member of the Wedding
Best-Loved Quotes by Carson McCullers
. . . . . . . . .
“Her face felt like it was scattered in pieces and she could not keep it straight. The feeling was a whole lot worse than being hungry for any dinner, yet it was like that. I want — I want — I want — was all that she could think about – but just what this real want was she did not know.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“People felt themselves watching him even before they knew that there was anything different about him. His eyes made a person think that he heard things that no one else had ever heard, that he knew things no one had ever guessed before. He did not seem quite human.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“But look what the Church has done to Jesus during the last two thousand years. What they have made of Him. How they have turned every word He spoke for their own vile ends. Jesus would be framed and in jail if he was living today.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and valor. Of the endless fluid passage of the humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who – one word- love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him, he felt a warning, a shaft of terror.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“There are those who know and those who don’t know. And for every ten thousand who don’t know there’s only one who knows. That’s the miracle of all time–the fact that these millions know so much but don’t know this.”
Searching : “ I am not asleep, I just wanted to see what the inside of my eyelids look like”
Is the quote from the book or the screenplay? That would lend credence to whom the quote should be attributed.
Regarding the quote … “The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.”
Jessica, I’m almost certain that this quote is from the book, not the screenplay.
What does “The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.” mean?
Bernard, it’s tricky to parse the exact meaning when out of context of the story. I just enjoy the poetic nature of the quotes!
I think this means that you don’t want to think too much or too far out into the future (or past). It only gets you into trouble — when thoughts wander into darkness and dark places.
That’s a great point — thanks, Kristin.
In which section of the book can I find the below quote?
“The heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of another’s fire … driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there’s no sign of love in sight!”
Doddi, I’m not sure about this. It’s been a while since I read the book and I’m currently traveling and can’t consult the copy I have at home. It is a beautiful quote, though, isn’t it?
I really need to know it too. Have you found it?
Lara, that quote I understand is from a song, not the book.