Madame Zeroni had dark skin and a very wide mouth. When she looked at you, her eyes seemed to expand, and you felt like she was looking right through you.
Stanley’s mother insists that there never was a curse. She even doubts whether Stanley’s great-great-grandfather really stole a pig. The reader might find it interesting, however, that Stanley’s father invented his cure for foot odor the day after the great-great-grandson of Elya Yelnats carried the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni up the mountain.
If you forget to come back for Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity.
Madame Zeroni warned that if he failed to do this, he and his descendants would be doomed for all of eternity. At the time, Elya thought nothing of the curse. He was just a fifteen-year-old kid, and “eternity” didn’t seem much longer than a week from Tuesday. Besides, he liked Madame Zeroni and would be glad to carry her up the mountain.
If only, if only, the woodpecker sighs, The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies. The wolf waits below, hungry and lonely, And cries to the moon, If only if only.
You must carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain and sing while I drink so I can get strong, too.
You should go to America. That's where my son is. That's where your future is, not Myra Menke. Her head's as empty as a flowerpot.
He’d walk up to complete strangers and ask if they knew someone named Zeroni, or had ever heard of anyone named Zeroni. No one did.
...if these people, amongst whom there are certainly many good and devout persons, have suffered so great distress, what must not I expect, who have acted with so much ingratitude towards my parents!
I'm aware of what you've done for me, and I'm not ungrateful. I appreciate that you actually showed yourself to be greater than your prejudices and have given me a chance here. But I don't want you for my lover, and you're not my father.
That most ingrateful boy there by your side From the rude sea’s enraged and foamy mouth Did I redeem; a wrack past hope he was. His life I gave him and did thereto add My love, without retention or restraint, All his in dedication. For his sake Did I expose myself, pure for his love, Into the danger of this adverse town
I believe the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.