WWJD (What Would Jane Do?)
One of the best reviews that's come in for Calamity was a message that read "There's so much she says that ought to be on crossstitch!" And, damn, if Calamity's eponymous narrator isn't just plumb quotable.
Check out Goodreads for a longer list of quotable excepts from the novel or hunt through your edition for these turns of phrase from Calamity Jane, herself.
“Ain’t no good ever comes of it, if you ain’t steering yourself.”
— Calamity Jane, page 54
“No. Some you put to the bullet. Some to the tongue. Reckon we’ll have to see, yet, which way this is going to turn.”
— Calamity Jane, page 62
“But wasn’t time for what was. Was time to settle up the future.”
— Calamity Jane, page 62
"Was still between Martha and Jane, then. Between the girl I was and who I wanted to be."
— Calamity Jane, page 123
"If revenge was all I had, then I was goddamned if it wouldn’t be enough."
— Calamity Jane, page 179
"Maybe I’d lost a lot—more, even, than I could suffer—but I still had my own self. And lonesome as I might be, wasn’t no force on Earth or from above what could make me less."
— Calamity Jane, page 186
"Wasn’t no way I could tell him all I needed to before my life bleed out of me.
— Calamity Jane, page 208
“Wasn’t no bit of me willing to ride shotgun to my own funeral.”
— Calamity Jane, page 263
“Come calamity or come calm, was myself and none else.”
— Calamity Jane, page 290
