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Rose Pickles
Sam is Dolly’s husband and the father of Rose, Ted, and Chub. After losing his right hand and his brother Joel in quick succession, Sam has no choice but to move the Pickles family into the large old house on Cloud Street that Joel had left him in the event of his death. After gambling away the money Joel left him, he rents out half of the house to the Lamb family as a source of income. Sam has a firm belief in the power of luck, despite his frequent and financially disastrous losing streaks when it comes to his gambling. He often senses a strange feeling in the air and a tingling in the stump of his right hand, detecting the presence of what he calls the “Shifty Shadow.” This sensation always indicates a major shift in the fortunes of Sam and the people around him, for good or ill. But Sam can only detect luck, not control it, and he insists that he's always at the mercy of fate, while still believing that his luck will change for the better. This attitude creates tension with his wife and daughter, who are often disappointed and angered by how much money he wastes by gambling at the racetrack. Many characters reflect on the power of random chance in their lives, but Sam is the most deeply connected to luck, and the most accepting of its ever-shifting nature. Sam often feels deeply ashamed of himself despite his belief in luck, but over the course of the novel, he learns to appreciate how lucky he is already, even without winning a fortune at the races.
Sam Pickles Quotes in Cloudstreet
The Cloudstreet quotes below are all either spoken by Sam Pickles or refer to Sam Pickles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Some people are lucky, she heard him say. Joel, he’s lucky. Got a good business. His hayburners win. See, I got me ole man’s blood. Dead unlucky.
Rose yawned. Until your luck changes.
Luck don’t change, love. It moves.
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Chapter 3
Quotes
It’s just them in this vast indoors and though there’s a war on and people are coming home with bits of them removed, and though families are still getting telegrams and waiting by the wireless, women walking buggered and beatenlooking with infants in the parks, the Pickleses can’t help but feel that all that is incidental. They have no money and this great continent of a house doesn’t belong to them. They’re lost.
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Chapter 4
Quotes
I only believe in one thing, Les, Sam solemnly uttered. Hairy Hand of God, otherwise known as Lady Luck. Our Lady, if she’s shinin that lamp on ya, she’ll give you what you want. There’s two other things people say are worth believin in—the Labor Party and God, but they’re a bit on the iffy side for my money. The ALP and the Big Fella, well they always got what I call a tendency to try an give ya what they think ya need. And what a bloke needs most is to get what he wants most. Ya with me?
Chapter 5
Quotes
Well the Shadow was on him, the Hairy Hand of God, and he knew that being a man was the saddest, most useless thing that could happen to someone. To be alive, to be feeling, to be conscious. It was the cruelest bloody joke. In the dark, night after night, he raised his mangled fist to the sky and said things that frightened him.
Rose. People are… who they are.
Then they should change! People should do things for themselves, not wait for everyone else to change things for em!
You can’t beat your luck, love.
No, you have to be your luck. There’s nothin else, there’s just you.
Chapter 9
Quotes
They’re gonna come looking for him. The police, the screaming, hurting family, the whole defeated city. You have to be a winner. Even the short and ugly and deformed, they have to win sometimes. He’s winning, beating them all. A little truckdriving bloke with no schooling, he’s killing them in their beds and they’re losing at last.
Get the entire Cloudstreet LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sam Pickles Quotes in Cloudstreet
The Cloudstreet quotes below are all either spoken by Sam Pickles or refer to Sam Pickles. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Some people are lucky, she heard him say. Joel, he’s lucky. Got a good business. His hayburners win. See, I got me ole man’s blood. Dead unlucky.
Rose yawned. Until your luck changes.
Luck don’t change, love. It moves.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3
Quotes
It’s just them in this vast indoors and though there’s a war on and people are coming home with bits of them removed, and though families are still getting telegrams and waiting by the wireless, women walking buggered and beatenlooking with infants in the parks, the Pickleses can’t help but feel that all that is incidental. They have no money and this great continent of a house doesn’t belong to them. They’re lost.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4
Quotes
I only believe in one thing, Les, Sam solemnly uttered. Hairy Hand of God, otherwise known as Lady Luck. Our Lady, if she’s shinin that lamp on ya, she’ll give you what you want. There’s two other things people say are worth believin in—the Labor Party and God, but they’re a bit on the iffy side for my money. The ALP and the Big Fella, well they always got what I call a tendency to try an give ya what they think ya need. And what a bloke needs most is to get what he wants most. Ya with me?
Chapter 5
Quotes
Well the Shadow was on him, the Hairy Hand of God, and he knew that being a man was the saddest, most useless thing that could happen to someone. To be alive, to be feeling, to be conscious. It was the cruelest bloody joke. In the dark, night after night, he raised his mangled fist to the sky and said things that frightened him.
Rose. People are… who they are.
Then they should change! People should do things for themselves, not wait for everyone else to change things for em!
You can’t beat your luck, love.
No, you have to be your luck. There’s nothin else, there’s just you.
Chapter 9
Quotes
They’re gonna come looking for him. The police, the screaming, hurting family, the whole defeated city. You have to be a winner. Even the short and ugly and deformed, they have to win sometimes. He’s winning, beating them all. A little truckdriving bloke with no schooling, he’s killing them in their beds and they’re losing at last.
