Quotes from A Letter of Mary

Laurie R. King ·  339 pages

Rating: (14.8K votes)


“The hand of bone and sinew and flesh achieves its immortality in taking up a pen. The hand on a page wields a greater power than the fleshly hand ever could in life.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“The dead have a claim on us even heavier than that of the living, for they cannot hear our explanations, and we cannot ask their forgiveness.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“Moments of pure relaxation were rare for me. There was always the nagging of books unread, work undone, time a-wasting.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“Everyone is allowed a weakness, even women of the twentieth century.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“I am getting old, Russell. Gone are the days when I could scramble about on the moors all day and curl up happily at night with a thin blanket and a stone for a pillow. Three nights on floorboards and one night without sleep following three days at strenuous labour make me aware that I am no longer a callow youth.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary



“Suddenly, it occurred to me that my feelings towards the little man were distinctly maternal. Good God, I thought, how utterly revolting, and I turned my mind firmly to the problem at hand.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“You see why I married her, Mycroft? The exquisite juxtaposition of ladylike threads and backhanded compliments proved irresistible.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


“You translate it, please. I have worked hard to forget what Greek I once knew.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Letter of Mary


About the author

Laurie R. King
Born place: in Oakland, California, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“From the front row of the balcony, I look out over the Uptown Cinema. The red velvet seats are emptying, the credits scrolling up the screen. Ginger Rogers married a Nazi, but Cary Grant got her out of it. Their ship is sailing to America; sun burns away the fog and the wind blows free. Now they are gone and I am coming back to reality, breathing a harsher air. It is how I always feel when a movie ends.”
― Kermit Roosevelt III, quote from Allegiance


“What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, criscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be.”
― Margaret Atwood, quote from The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary Classics)


“Spare me the goddamn ellipses.” He hissed.”
― Whitney G., quote from Turbulence


“Looks?” the skull said. “Who cares about that? It’s superficial. Outward appearance doesn’t interest me at all. Why do you think I hang around with you?” It chuckled. “Insult aside, that’s just one way in which I’m superior to every one of you, except for Cubbins.”

I blinked. “What? Why? What’s George got to do with anything?”

“What a person looks like doesn’t bother him much, or hadn’t you noticed?”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Empty Grave


“The necessity of saying something, the perplexity of having nothing to say, and a desire of being witty, are three circumstances which alone are capable of making even the greatest writer ridiculous. ”
― Voltaire, quote from Letters on England


Interesting books

Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
(142.7K)
Scott Pilgrim, Volum...
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
I Too Had a Love Story
(31.3K)
I Too Had a Love Sto...
by Ravinder Singh
In the Night Garden
(5.7K)
In the Night Garden
by Catherynne M. Valente
The Intelligent Investor
(41.1K)
The Intelligent Inve...
by Benjamin Graham
Empire of the Sun
(13.8K)
Empire of the Sun
by J.G. Ballard
The Art of Fielding
(93K)
The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.