Quotes from Averno

“I think I can remember
being dead. Many times, in winter,
I approached Zeus. Tell me, I would ask him,
how can I endure the earth?”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“Doesn’t everyone want to feel in the night
the beloved body, compass, polestar,
to hear the quiet breathing that says
I am alive, that means also
you are alive, because you hear me,
you are here with me”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“I am tired of having hands
she said
I want wings —

But what will you do without your hands
to be human?

I am tired of human
she said
I want to live on the sun —”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“It is true that there is not enough beauty in the world.
It is also true that I am not competent to restore it.
Neither is there candor, and here I may be of some use.”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“The assignment was to fall in love.
The details were up to you.
The second part was
to include in the poem certain words,
words drawn from a specific text
on another subject altogether.”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“The sound of the sea— just memory now.”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“You get on a train, you disappear.

You write your name on the window, you disappear.

There are places like this everywhere,
places you enter as a young girl
from which you never return.”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

“I fell asleep in a river, I woke in a river,
of my mysterious
failure to die I can tell you
nothing, neither
who saved me nor for what cause—”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno

About the author

Popular quotes

“Neću se ispričavati. Oduvijek sam bio grešno stvorenje, čovjek mučen proturječjima i nestalnošću, kojeg je povuklo previše nagona. S jedne strane: čisto srce, dobrota, odani pomoćnik Djeda Božićnjaka. S druge: lajava protuha, nihilist, poblesavjeli klaun. Gdje je pjesnik? Negdje između, pretpostavljam, u međuvremenu između najboljeg i najgoreg u meni. Ni svetac, ali ni pijana budala. Čovjek s glasovima u glavi, onaj koji je ponekad uspijevao prisluškivati razgovore kamenja i stabala, koji je svako toliko glazbu oblaka uspijevao pretočiti u riječi. Šteta što češće nisam bio on. No nikad nisam bio u Italiji, rodnom mjestu samilosti, pa ako ne možeš platiti kartu, onda ostaješ doma”
― Paul Auster, quote from Timbuktu

“O God, make me worthy of this calling, that the name of Jesus may be glorified in me and I in him.”
― quote from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

“I promise I'll stay as safe as I can. And since Zay refuses to leave me alone, I figure if things get bad, I can always shove him into the line of fire while I run like hell.”
― Devon Monk, quote from Magic to the Bone

“Teadmised hingamise kontrollimisest aitasid mul vastu seista jaapanlaste piinamistele ja veelgi suurematele piinamistele kommunistide vangina. Ka kõige hullemad jaapanlased on kommunistidega võrreldes härrasmehed! Ma õppisin neid mõlemaid tundma nende kõige halvemast küljest.”
― quote from The Third Eye

“The fact is, I can’t put together the sort of feelings that I get when I’m having a dirty big wank together with the kind of feelings I get when I’m having a nice friendly chat with someone. It just doesn’t work.”
― Melvin Burgess, quote from Doing It

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.