Quotes from A List of Cages

Robin Roe ·  310 pages

Rating: (9.6K votes)


“Hate ricochets, but kindness does too.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“It's strange how many ways there are to miss someone. You miss the things they did and who they were, but you also miss who you were to them. The way everything you said and did was beautiful or entertaining or important. How much you mattered”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“Why is time like that? Why does it slow down in the places you don’t want it to, but it speeds away when you’re happy?”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“Because people heal a whole lot faster when they're with someone who loves them”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“Getting smacked in the face with a Harry Potter book does not qualify as a fight," Charlie says.
"First of all, it wasn't just any Harry Potter book. It was Order of the Phoenix."
Matt gasps. He knows that Order of the Phoenix is the longest and most potentially dangerous of all the Harry Potter books when used as a weapon.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages



“If I really had powers, I could turn off pain the way I can shut my eyes. But I can’t. I feel it. Skin doesn’t get thicker. Instead, it remembers.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“when you’re between two shores and no one can see you, you don’t really exist at all.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“And when you smile…my grandmother calls them big-soul smiles. She says some people have souls so big that they spread out, touching everyone they pass.” Emerald wipes her wet face again. “There are different ways to help people, Adam. There are different ways to do good.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“I know what I think, but people don't want you to say what you think. They want you to say what they think. And knowing what that is isn't easy.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“It's strange how many ways there are to miss someone. You miss the things they did and who they were, but you also miss who you were to them. The way everything you said and did was beautiful or entertaining or important. How much you mattered.... When you know you're going to tell someone everything, you see your day through your eyes and theirs, as if they're living it alongside you. But when you don't, it isn't only not seeing double--it's not seeing at all. Because if they aren't there, you aren't either.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages



“I used to think struggle was what aged you, but if that were the case, Julian should have been a hundred years old. Now I wonder if the opposite is true. Maybe instead of accelerating your age, pain won't let you grow.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“It's strange how many ways there are to miss someone. You miss the things they did and who they were, but you also miss who you were to them. The way everything you said and did was beautiful or entertaining or important. How much you mattered.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“She said no one is evil, only unhappy, and unhappiness festers inside like sores.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“I'm dizzy. I'm here. I'm alive.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“When you know you’re going to tell someone everything, you see your day through your eyes and theirs, as if they’re living it alongside you. But when you don’t, it isn’t only not seeing double—it’s not seeing at all. Because if they aren’t there, you aren’t either.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages



“Their eyes like safety nets, I can’t fall.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“You don’t really know people when your back is turned.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“There was nowhere to go that me and the pain didn’t follow.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“This part is hardest. A billion years of evolution tells your cells to run. But you can’t run. You have to turn around and face the desert wall.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“Monday is like all Mondays. Like I’m sitting at the bottom of a pool, listening underwater to people living up above.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages



“And when you smile…my grandmother calls them big-soul smiles. She says some people have souls so big that they spread out, touching everyone they pass.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“I want my body to be mine again.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“Next time you have to hand something in, just tell me. I can proofread it or whatever." I nod, but I know I won't. If he's being nice enough to offer, I should be nice enough to never do it.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“What keeps you trapped?...What keeps you from living the life you want? What keeps you from being free?”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“But wanting isn't the same as having.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages



“Because when you’re between two shores and no one can see you, you don’t really exist at all.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“My mother once said that the planet was like an enormous womb, and every single one of us was a fetus. Death was nothing to be afraid of. It was just birth to another world, and someone would be waiting for us there. Sometimes I try to see this, my mother and father as two newborns holding hands and ejected into this other world. There they are just beginning.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“But whenever I would imagine leaving, I’d see the blue sky like the ocean—no walls or shore or end in sight. And I’d see myself disappear.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“I should be afraid, but I feel empty. I remember my father’s hands. My mother’s hands. What hands are meant to do.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages


“When someone says something, they automatically know what to say back. But for me it's as if the pathway between my brain and mouth is damaged, like a rare form of paralysis.”
― Robin Roe, quote from A List of Cages



About the author

Popular quotes

“dusty light invaded the pitch-black core of him. He felt a dull ache in his ankles. Rising up like a ballet dancer on the balls of his feet, he stretched his Achilles tendons and calf muscles. The pain and the music stopped, and then the sliver of light disappeared. The elevator gate rattled. “Geiger?” Harry said. The word came to Geiger as if called to him across a canyon. He turned to find Harry standing in the doorway, bafflement breaking across his face. “Jesus Christ. What the hell happened?” Geiger glanced back at Hall. “We’re leaving,” he said, as if he were informing the body instead of Harry. Harry put the attaché case down at his feet. “Oh fuck. What’d you do to him? Is—is he dead?” “No. We have to go now.” Geiger moved for the door, and Harry put his hands up like a traffic cop. Geiger stopped, staring at Harry’s raised palms. “Wait a second,” Harry said. “Just wait, okay? Jesus Christ.” He put his palms to his cheeks. “What the hell is going on with you?” “We have to go.” “Can we talk about this for a minute?” “Right now, Harry, it’s more important that we leave.” “I disagree, man. This is crazy. This is truly nuts,”
― Mark Allen Smith, quote from The Inquisitor


“The thing looked like an especially unsavory cross between a mangy hound-dog, a Tasmanian devil, and a scruffy, drug-addled, middle-aged British rock star.”
― Mark McLaughlin, quote from Best Little Witch-House in Arkham


“As I write these words I’m noisily chomping away on not one, but two Murray Mints. I’ve a powerful suck and soon they’ll be whittled away to nothing. But for the time being at least they have each other. For the time being, they are brothers. Which is more than could be said for me, for I was an only child. I”
― Alan Partridge, quote from I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan


“A is for Asshole.
It's part of a series, Jennifer said”
― Morgan Parker, quote from Non Friction


“Hey, if you're going to say what I think you're going to say…wait, are you going to say it?” he asked, smiling down at me.
“Yes, yes I think so.” I grinned shyly back.
“Well, then I think we should say it at the same time, yes?” he suggested.
“Count of three?” I asked. He nodded.
“One…” I started.
“Two…” he said, eyes twinkling.
“Three,” we said together. We both paused, smiling hugely, and then I took a deep breath.
“Jack, I love you.”
“I know,” he said at the same time.
Ass…
“Ass!” I said, smacking him on the arm.
“That was great!” he laughed.”
― Alice Clayton, quote from The Unidentified Redhead


Interesting books

Invisibility
(8.2K)
Invisibility
by Andrea Cremer
Leaf Storm and Other Stories
(2.5K)
Leaf Storm and Other...
by Gabriel García Márquez
Beezus and Ramona
(83.8K)
Beezus and Ramona
by Beverly Cleary
The Anatomy of Being
(3.5K)
The Anatomy of Being
by Shinji Moon
Hardpressed
(22.1K)
Hardpressed
by Meredith Wild
Eusebius: The Church History
(3K)
Eusebius: The Church...
by Paul L. Maier

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.