“All those people who are chained here thinking that their reputations matter and this little shit matters are so freaking shortsighted. Dude, what matters is that you're happy. What matters is your future. What matters is that we get out of here in one piece. What matters is finding the truth of our own lives, not caring about what other people think is the truth of us.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I am equal to a baby and to a hundred year old lady. I am equal to an airline pilot and a car mechanic. I am equal to you. You are equal to me. It's that universal.
Except that it's not.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“Look, this is a loan. I don't know if love is something I will run out of one day. I don't know if I should be giving it all to you guys or not. Today, I feel like maybe I should have kept some for myself for days when no one else loves me.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“But it feels good to love a thing and not expect anything back. It feels good to not get an argument or any pushiness or any rumors or any bullshit. It's love without strings. It's ideal.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“How can we say nobody's perfect if there is no perfect to compare to? Perfection implies that there really is a right and wrong way to be. And what type of perfection is the best type? Moral perfection? Aesthetic? Physiological? Mental?”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I want my life to be easier than this. I mean, I know I'm not some starving kid who has to wash clothes in the Ganges for a nickel, but today just sucks.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“How many things do I have to invent in my head to survive this?”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“You know that saying about how you don’t know what you have until it’s gone? I already did know what I had, and now that she’s gone, I know even more.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“Everybody's always looking for the person they're better than”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I'm not questioning *my* sexuality as much as I'm questioning the strict definitions and boxes of all *sexualities* and why we care so much about other people's intimate business.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“Some of you have it ingrained in you. You weren't born with it. No baby has hate for anything. We were all babies once, right? This little guy doesn't care what country you were born in or what religion you might practice or how much you weigh or who you might love.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“She smiled at me, and I never forgot it. Or more accurately, I always remembered it.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I don’t have enough gross words in my gross vocabulary to describe how gross that gross thought is. Gross.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“Dude, what matters is if you're happy. What matters is your future. What matters is that we get out of here in one piece. What matters is finding the truth of our own lives, not caring about what other people think is the truth of us.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I place us where we are a happy couple who are madly in love, and we are kissing the way people kiss on their wedding day. With joy and relief and love. Without guilt. Without Shame.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I only hope that for right now, you remember that there is no place for hate in a happy life. I don’t care who you are, where you come from or what God you believe in. I can guarantee you that if you hate, you will never achieve true happiness.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“maybe if people weren't so careless, then nothing would need to be caged.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I realized too late that gossip can’t kill you unless you let it.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“If only you’d stop thinking there’s such a thing as perfect, then you’d feel a lot better about yourself.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“No. Frank Socrates doesn’t have conditions, because he’s dead. He loves me unconditionally.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“Can I admit I’m a little freaked out that Socrates only has one name? I know that’s how it was done in those days, but it bugs me. I can’t tell if it’s his last name or his first name or what. And it can’t be shortened—except to Sock, which is completely stupid. I want him to have a more familiar name—something laid back and modern, so I can relate to him better. So I stare at the picture in my book of the curly-bearded guy with the pug nose, and by the end of study hall, I name him Frank. Frank Socrates. Makes him more huggable.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I stare out the window and smile because just dreaming it is nice… even if it doesn't happen. Just dreaming it is nice.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“Look at our culture. Look at the computer-enhanced people we compare ourselves to. Look at the expensive cars and trinkets we're all supposed to have. Look at how many people are wrapped up in that! Imagine how much money and worry we'd save ourselves if we stopped caring what kind of car we drove! and why do we care? perfection. But there is no such thing, is there? And if there is, then everyone is perfect in their own way, right?”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“And i wish I didn't have to lie so much. I don't think Frank Socrates would approve of all this lying.
I think Frank would want me to cause a lot more trouble than that.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“And if any of you has a problem with any of it, then it's *your* problem. Being gay is hard enough without having to worry about your family being weird about it.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“I think today is already sucky enough without splinters in my ass.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“You're not being dramatic. This hurts.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“It's a question. And I'm answering it. But I don't know the answer yet, and I'm sorry.”
― A.S. King, quote from Ask the Passengers
“It would impress him!"
"Do you think so?" Lord Howley brightened.
"Oh,yes,he loves it when people tell him how to run the country.”
― Heather Dixon, quote from Entwined
“She didn't understand that. "How can anyone be afraid of love?"
"How can they not?" His face was completely aghast. "When you love someone... truly love them, friend or lover, you lay your heart open to them. You give them a part of yourself that you give to no one else, and you let them inside a part of you that only they can hurt—you literally hand them the razor with a map of where to cut deepest and most painfully on your heart and soul. And when they do strike, it's crippling—like having your heart carved out. It leaves you naked and exposed, wondering what you did to make them want to hurt you so badly when all you did was love them. What is so wrong with you that no one can keep faith with you? That no one can love you? To have it happen once is bad enough... but to have it repeated? Who in their right mind would not be terrified of that?”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Devil May Cry
“Life is a balance. We tend to forget that as we go blithely from day to day. We eat and drink and sleep and assume that we will always rise up the next day, that meals and rest will always replenish us. Injuries we expect to heal, and pain to lessen as times goes by. Even when we are faced with wounds that heal more slowly, with pain that lessens by day only to return in full force at nightfall, even when sleep does not leave us rested, we still expect that somehow tomorrow all will come back into balance and that we will go on. At some point, the exquisite balance has tipped, and despite all our flailing efforts, we begin the slow fall from the body that maintains itself to the body that struggles, nails clawing, to cling to what it used to be.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from Fool's Errand
“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not 'real'. No. But what was 'real'? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“Someday,” I told Jan, “when they demonstrate that the world has four dimensions instead of just three, a man will be able to go for a walk and just disappear. No burial, no tears, no illusions, no heaven or hell. People will be sitting around and they’ll say, ‘What happened to George?’ And somebody will say, ‘Well, I don’t know. He said he was going out for a pack of cigarettes.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Factotum
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.