“I have to live if I want to be remembered.”
― Suzanne Young, quote from A Need So Beautiful
“You’ll make a sucky father someday,” I tell him with a smile. “I feel sorry for the kid that doesn’t get to burst into light to get out of your house.”
He chokes out a laugh. “Is it my sarcasm?”
“Definitely. And that obnoxious accent.”
― Suzanne Young, quote from A Need So Beautiful
“I'm out, surrounded in dark. But in the distance there is a small glow, a tiny light. Suddenly I'm standing alone, the space starting to brighten as the light grows.”
― Suzanne Young, quote from A Need So Beautiful
“Have you seen my daughter?”
“Daughter?” I’m the worst liar ever. I stare at Sarah’s tall, imposing father and try to smile. “She’s getting us a table?”
He narrows his gray eyes, and then tightens his mouth. “Is that a question or a statement?”
“Statement?” I’m so blowing this.
He exhales and nods. “Well, then. I guess I’ll see you in the banquet room.”
Harlin grins as Sarah’s father walks away. “You are so subtle, Charlotte. Are you a ninja?”
“Shut up.”
“I’m sure he didn’t find that at all suspicious.”
“Harlin!”
He laughs and kisses the top of my head. “I’ll stop,” he says. “But where is Sarah? You might want to find her before we sit down for chicken with that man. What will you say if he asks you to pass the mashed potatoes? Mashed potatoes?” Harlin finishes, imitating my voice.”
― Suzanne Young, quote from A Need So Beautiful
“Jeremy takes the money and heads toward the back bedroom to get dressed.
“Chinese? I’ll come with,” Henry calls, but then pauses to look at us, one eyebrow raised.
Harlin laughs and puts his arm around me. “Don’t even say it,” he warns. “You’ll embarrass her.” But he always says it.
“Charlotte,” Henry begins in a mock parental tone, “when two people love each other, they may have certain urges. Protection is an important—”
“Oh my God!” I cover my ears and laugh. I wait until his lips have stopped moving before I drop my arms.”
― Suzanne Young, quote from A Need So Beautiful
“Margery," I blurted out in a passion of frustration. "I don't know what to make of you!"
Nor I you, Mary. Frankly, I cannot begin to comprehend the motives of a person who dedicates a large portion of her life to the contemplation of a God in whom she only marginally believes."
I felt stunned, as if she had struck me in the diaphragm. She looked down at me, trying to measure the effect of her words.
Mary, you believe in the power that the idea of God has on the human mind. You believe in the way human beings talk about the unknowable, reach for the unattainable, pattern their imperfect lives and offer their paltry best up to the beingless being that created the universe and powers its continuation. What you balk as it believing the evidence of your eyes, that God can reach out and touch a single human life in a concrete way." She smiled a sad, sad smile. "You mustn't be so cold, Mary. If you are, all you will see is a cold God, cold friends, cold love. God is not cold-never cold. God sears with heat, not ice, the heat of a thousand suns, heat that inflames but does not consume. You need warmth, Mary-you, Mary, need it. You fear it, you flirt with it, you imagine that you can stand in its rays and retain your cold intellectual attitude towards it. You imagine that you can love with your brain. Mary, oh my dear Mary, you sit in the hall and listen to me like some wild beast staring at a campfire, unable to leave, fearful of losing your freedom if you come any closer. It won't consume you; I won't capture you. Love does not do either. It only brings life. Please, Mary, don't let yourself be tied up by the bonds of cold academia."
Her words, the power of her conviction, broke over me like a great wave, inundating me, robbing me of breath, and, as they receded in the room, they pulled hard at me to folllow. I struggled to keep my footing against the wash of Margery's vision, and only when it began to lose its strength, dissipated against the silence in the room, was I seized by a sudden terror at the nearness of my escape.”
― Laurie R. King, quote from A Monstrous Regiment of Women
“The natural world creates great beauty every day, yet the only rules of composition it follows are those of function and chance.”
― Scott McCloud, quote from Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
“Perhaps I am the turtle, able to live simply anywhere, even underwater for short periods, with my home on my back.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
“Bees are excellent engineers, better than even you. They are are hard workers...They are as brave as Indian warriors. And they make honey. Far better than humans, my friend.”
― Luis Alberto Urrea, quote from The Hummingbird's Daughter
“How can it surprise any of you that loves could break the curse? You, whose very genetic makeup forces you to love so deeply that you can't even survive without your mate? It's no coincidence that the saying is 'love conquers all'. It's a tale as old as time.”
― Quinn Loftis, quote from Out of the Dark
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.