Quotes from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

“It is a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures. Once you leave your birthplace nothing is ever the same.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

“Such is the nature of an expatriate life. Stripped of romance, perhaps that's what being an expat is all about: a sense of not wholly belonging. [...] The insider-outsider dichotomy gives life a degree of tension. Not of a needling, negative variety but rather a keep-on-your-toes sort of tension that can plunge or peak with sudden rushes of love or anger. Learning to recognise and interpret cultural behaviour is a vital step forward for expats anywhere, but it doesn't mean that you grow to appreciate all the differences.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

“The trail of lime trees outside our building is still a public loo. …where else are they supposed to go to the toilet in a city where public toilets are about as common as UFO sightings?” (pp.281-82)”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

“I know of no other place that is so fascinating yet so frustrating, so aware of the world and its own place within it but at the same time utterly insular. A country touched by nostalgia, with a past so great - so marked by brilliance and achievement - that French people today seem both enriched and burdened by it. France is like a maddening, moody lover who inspires emotional highs and lows. One minute it fills you with a rush of passion, the next you're full of fury, itching to smack the mouth of some sneering shopkeeper or smug civil servant. Yes, it's a love-hate relationship.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

“You'd think the sight of beautiful Place Vendôme would lift my spirits but oddly the arc of jewellery - so obviously beyond the means of a jobless person like me - only depresses me more. I plod on feeling confused, guilty even, that I should feel unhappy in a place that looks like paradise.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

Popular quotes

“If im lucky, i will never have to see you again. Because if i do, that means we are at war, and id have to hurt you”
― Amanda Hocking, quote from Torn

“Take care, Friars!” he cried. “If the yearning is broken off for even an instant, the wings become chains again. Stay vigilant, fight, keep the torch of your soul burning day and night. Strike! Forge the wings! I’m going-I am in a hurry to speak to God. I’m going… These are my final words: Strike! Forge the wings!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from The Last Temptation of Christ

“This was the first of the sorrows of Turin.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, quote from The Children of Húrin

“Why were these people seeking a new home coming to Israel and not to America? Where had the American dream faltered? And he saw that Israel was right; it was taking people—any people—as America had once done; so that in fifty years the bright new ideas of the world would come probably from Israel and no longer from a tired America.”
― James A. Michener, quote from The Source

“Нищо няма начало.
Няма първи миг, няма една дума или едно място, които да поставят началото на тази, или която и да е история.
Винаги може да се проследят нишките назад, до някоя предишна приказка, и до още по-ранни приказки — макар че колкото по-далечен става гласът на разказвача, толкова по-слаби изглеждат връзките — всяка епоха изисква приказката да се разказва така, сякаш е създадена през нея.
Така езичниците стават светци, трагичното — смешно, влюбените стават сантиментални, а демоните — механични играчки.
Нищо не е неизменно. Совалката влиза и излиза, факти и измислици, дух и материя, втъкани в мотиви, а общото помежду им е може би само това: сред тях е скрит филигран, който с времето ще се превърне в един свят.

В такъв случай мястото, което ще изберем за начало, трябва да бъде произволно.
Някъде между полузабравено минало и бъдеще, което засега сме зърнали само за миг.”
― Clive Barker, quote from Weaveworld

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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.

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