Quotes from All These Things I've Done

“...lies can sound awfully pretty when a girl is in love with the person telling them.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“I did learn something about insanity while I was down there. People go crazy, not because they are crazy, but because it's the best available option at the time.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“I let myself feel good and sorry for myself, but only for a second. Daddy always said that the most useless of all human emotions was self-pity.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Daddy always said you only explained things to the people that actually mattered.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Should have. Would have. Could have. Didn't.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Tragedy is when someone ends up dead. Everything else is just a bump in the road. For the record, that was something Daddy used to say.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Let's stay young forever. Young, stupid, and pretty. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Daddy always said the only thing worth begging for was your life, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe sometimes your love is a little bit worth begging for, too.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Eye contact made people think you were being truthful even if you weren't.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“I shouldn't have done that," I said.

That was when I kissed him again.

May God forgive me for this and all these things I've done.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Life used to move much more quickly when I was a girl. We needed to abbreviate just to keep up.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Chocolate doesn't solve everything, Nana."
"It solves a whole heck of a lot, though.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Maybe if I'd been braver in that moment, I would have cried.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“My brain said no.

But my heart!”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Stop saying that! You sound absurd, and I don't even think you mean it. Besides, I'd never marry you," I told him. "I'm sixteen, and you're a slut, and you can't stop saying preposterous things!"
"True," he admitted. He kissed me on the lips and then I closed the door.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Dance with me,' Win said. 'I know I'm probably making a fool of myself. You're probably thinking, how many times do I have to reject this guy? Can't he take a hint?'

I shook my head.

'But somehow I don't even care. I see you in your red dress, standing by the punch table, and something in me wants to keep trying. I think, she is a person worth knowing.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“I know you did, lass. You're the toughest girl I know."

"'Lass'? Where did that come from?"

"I don't know. I just felt the urge to call you that.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“The theme of the dance was "Great Romances," or some such nonsense. There were projections of supposedly great couples from the past on the walls of the gym. Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Hermione and Ron, Bonnie and Clyde, etc.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“It's sad when you think about it, but also kind of beautiful.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“I told him I didn't want to have sex until I got married. Without missing a beat, he nodded and said, "So let's get married.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“He told me that love was the only thing that really mattered in the world.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Daddy once said, "If you don't know what you believe, Annie, you'll be a lost soul.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“It's a weakness to apologize before hearing what the other person's grievances are. You don't want to end up creating new grievances where there were none to begin with. Another Daddy-ism, if you hadn't already guessed.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“I don't think I would have minded you being the keeper of my secrets.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Daddy always said that an option that you know to have a bad outcome is only a fool's option, i.e., not an option at all. And I liked to think that Daddy hadn't raised a fool.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“It wasn't even 8:00 yet. Pretty early for such deep thoughts.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“You can't avoid orphan stories, child. Every story is an orphan story. We are all orphaned sooner or later.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“You can either be a bystander who lives his life in reaction to the decisions that others make, or you can be the leader who is making those decisions.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Daddy used to say that calling a person a romantic was just another way of saying he or she acted without regard for conseqences.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

“Violence should not always beget more violence.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from All These Things I've Done

Video

About the author

Popular quotes

“We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.”
― Douglas Adams, quote from The Salmon of Doubt

“It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s how you play the game.”
― Margaret Peterson Haddix, quote from Into the Gauntlet

“How many men can say, as I must, 'I am a man whose only friend is the King of England'? I have everything, you would think. And yet take Henry away, and I have nothing.”
― Hilary Mantel, quote from Bring Up the Bodies

“Misir’s first story was about a man who had been out of work for months and was starving. His five children were starving; his wife was having another baby. It was December and the shops were full of food and toys. On Christmas eve the man got a job. Going home that evening, he was knocked down and killed by a motorcar that didn’t stop.

'Helluva thing," Mr Biswas said. ‘I like the part about the car not stopping.”
― V.S. Naipaul, quote from A House for Mr Biswas

“The end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live....”
― Anne Brontë, quote from Agnes Grey

Interesting books

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.