Quotes from A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry ·  304 pages

Rating: (4.5K votes)


“And all those boys of Europe born in those times, and thereabouts those times, Russian, French, Belgian, Serbian, Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh, Italian, Prussian, German, Austrian, Turkish – and Canadian, Australian, American, Zulu, Gurkha, Cossack, and all the rest – their fate was written in a ferocious chapter in the book of life, certainly. Those millions of mothers and their million gallons of mother’s milk, millions of instances of small talk and baby talk, beatings and kisses, ganseys and shoes, piled up in history in great ruined heaps, with a loud and broken music, human stories told for nothing, for ashes, for death’s amusement, flung on the mighty scrapheap of souls, all those million boys in all their humours to be milled by the millstones of a coming war.”
― Sebastian Barry, quote from A Long Long Way


“I thought it would be a good thing to follow John Redmond’s words. I thought for my mother’s sake, her gentle soul, for the sake of my own children, I might go out and fight for to save Europe so that we might have the Home Rule in Ireland in the upshot. I came out to fight for a country that doesn’t exist, and now, Willie, mark my words, it never will.”
― Sebastian Barry, quote from A Long Long Way


“I am cold, even though the heat of early summer is adequate. I am cold because I cannot find my heart.”
― Sebastian Barry, quote from A Long Long Way


“He was shivering like a Wicklow sheepdog in a snowy yard, though the weather was officially 'clement'.

The first layer of clothing was his jacket, the second his shirt, the third his long-johns, the fourth his share of lice, the fifth his share of fear.”
― Sebastian Barry, quote from A Long Long Way


About the author

Sebastian Barry
Born place: in Dublin, Ireland
Born date July 5, 1955
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You got dealt some crappy cards. But you're the one who has to decide how to play them.”
― Diane Chamberlain, quote from The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes


“I didn't want us to abnormal. I didn't want all this chaos and underworld crap... but that's where we'd come from. The choas was part of us. Part of what we were. And I was afraid if we lost it completely, we might lose part of ourselves...”
― Kevin Brooks, quote from Candy


“But if I could choose how and when I wanted to die, I would want to be an eighty-year-old man shot by a jealous young husband who had caught me in bed with his teenage wife.”
― Nelson DeMille, quote from Gold Coast


“You think sex is dirty. You have a dirty mind.”
― Christopher Pike, quote from Remember Me


“The ashes of your existence will fertilize the soil for the universe to follow.”
― Richard Kadrey, quote from Sandman Slim


Interesting books

Release Me
(68.1K)
Release Me
by J. Kenner
The Face of Another
(2.5K)
The Face of Another
by Kōbō Abe
My Unexpected Forever
(16.5K)
My Unexpected Foreve...
by Heidi McLaughlin
Sixteenth Summer
(8.8K)
Dying to Know You
(2.1K)
Dying to Know You
by Aidan Chambers
Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive
(6K)
Waking the Dead: The...
by John Eldredge

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.