“...a butterfly is like the soul of a person, it dries out in captivity.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“Everything is important. To the smallest insect, even the mouldering tree, the deepest stone in the drift.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“First smile!! An unseasonal little shower of rain fell here, and a lot of butterflies drowned, so we put them in the sun and they came back to life, and flew up and then Agaat SMILED!”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“Does a mirror preserve everything that has been reflected in it? Is there a record of light, thin membranes compressed layer upon layer that one has to ease apart with the finger-tips so that the colors don't dissipate, so that the moments don't blot and the hours don't run together into inconsequential splotches? So that a song of preserved years lies in your palm, a miniature of your life and times, with every detail meticulous in clear, chanting angel-fine enamel, as on the old manuscripts, at which you can peer through a magnifying glass and marvel at so much effort? So many tears for nothing? For light? For bygone moments?”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“In a state of pseudo-death you restore your substance.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“..did i think i was god that i had to lie and take it did i think then i was a mountain or a hill or a ridge and who told me that and who decided stones had no rights for stones can waste away from being denied from being abused and who decided who is the ploughed and who ploughs and why did i not get up and why not go away and what would have happened if i had resisted..”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“Well, I am something, Ma, you hissed, I am not nothing, I am somebody and I know what I want from life and I know what to do to get it. I will provide for myself.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“And I will close my eyes and prepare myself so that they can unscrew my head and allow the map to slip into my lacunae. So that I can be filled and braced from the inside and fortified for the voyage. Because without my world inside me I will contract and congeal, more even than I am now, without speech and without actions and without any purchase upon time.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“After all the years, after everything that you'd had to endure, after everything that you'd undertaken, however good or bad, long after you'd given up all hope, the reward.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“Nobody can be so beautiful from the outside and so hollow from inside. Not even in a third-rate novel.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“Marriage is holy and it's private.”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
“..we all have to do things in this life that we don't like..”
― Marlene van Niekerk, quote from Agaat
Marlene van Niekerk
Born place: in Caledon, South Africa
Born date November 10, 1954
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“Kat had her arms folded and her hair was tied in what girls call a topknot. Her skinny, bony face jutted out. With her tilted chin and dark eyebrows she seemed sharper, somehow, as if she was more in focus than other people round her, or more real. You couldn't help noticing her, whether you were looking for her or not.
Maybe that's what being pretty meant, I thought. ”
― Siobhan Dowd, quote from The London Eye Mystery
“am a Negro, and what had happened to me at that interview constituted, to my mind, a betrayal of faith. I had believed in freedom, in the freedom to live in the kind of dwelling I wanted, providing I was able and willing to pay the price; and in the freedom to work at the kind of profession for which I was qualified, without reference to my racial or religious origins.”
― E.R. Braithwaite, quote from To Sir, With Love
“For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but i feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from Annabel Lee
“The Fat Girl Code of Conduct:
1. Any sexual activity is a secret. No public displays of affection.
2. Don’t discuss your weight with him.
3. Go further than skinny girls. If you can’t sell him on your body, you’d better overcompensate with sexual perks.
4. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever push the relationship thing. ”
― Carolyn Mackler, quote from The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
“he didn't like Nan. Neither did the rest of the world. I was pretty damn sure there was a Twitter hashtag that said #NanHater.”
― Abbi Glines, quote from Simple Perfection
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How Music WorksBookQuoters 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.
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