“The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It’s the only free gift the universe has to offer. The past doesn’t belong to us anymore, and the future is just a fantasy, never guaranteed. But the present is ours to own. The only way we can realize that fantasy is if we embrace the now.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“You can’t re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice. You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life. It doesn’t mean you can’t love another or move on; it just means that the one spontaneous moment, the split second that you took the leap, when your heart was racing and your mind was muddled with What ifs?—that moment—will never happen the same way again. It will never feel as intense as the first time. At least, that’s the way I remember it. That’s why my mother always said we memorialize our past. Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“And in that moment, you realize how little control you have over your own destiny. From the time you're born, you have no control; you can't choose your parents, and, unless you're suicidal, you can't choose your death. The only thing you can do is choose the person you love, be kind to others, and make your brutally short stint on earth as pleasant as possible.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“It was like the universe was teasing us; we saw each other just a second too late.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Once there was you and me
We were lovers
We were friends
Before life changed
Before we were strangers
Do you still think of me?”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Poetry is just evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Maybe that’s what growing up was really all about. Adults always say how complicated life gets as we age, but really, I think we just look for bigger challenges to overcome. Our biggest fears stretch from sleeping without our beloved teddy bear to finding out that we have no purpose in life. Did time, maturity, and overcoming obstacles offer the kind of contentment so evident in Orvin? Or did we just simply give up and surrender to the life we were already living?”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“We were victims of bad timing. But here we are again.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Weren’t we though? Timeless? Nothing could change what we’d had all those years before, even if the idea of what might’ve been lingered between us.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“You have to learn to fly before you can soar.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“You can’t re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice. You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It’s the only free gift the universe has to offer.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“I felt it for Grace before I even had a name for it. I might have said the word a million times, but it sounded different now that I meant it. When I thought about what we had, it didn’t matter that it was just friendship. I loved her.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Like nothing else in life, sex is perfectly selfless and selfish all at once. Hot and cold, yin and yang, black and white, and all of the shades in between.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“You were always with me, Grace. I never found a way to let you go.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“We memorialize our past. Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“From the time you’re born, you have no control; you can’t choose your parents, and, unless you’re suicidal, you can’t choose your death. The only thing you can do is choose the person you love, be kind to others, and make your brutally short stint on earth as pleasant as possible.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Isn’t there a word for friends that mess around?”
“Yeah, it’s called girlfriend and boyfriend.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“I was static, standing on the platform, watching train after train go by, wishing I knew which one to be on.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“And then his lips were on mine and we were in it, pulling away from the past and rushing fast into the future.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Life was passing me by at high speed as I sat back with my feet up, rejecting change, ignoring the world, shrugging off anything that threatened to have meaning of relevance.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Fifteen years is too long to be holding on to a few heart-pounding moments from college.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“That’s why my mother always said we memorialize our past. Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.’ ”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Thank you.” Isn’t that all we need to hear sometimes—that you’re a good mom or friend or daughter or wife?”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“I’m really into girls with big platelets.”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
“Isn’t that all we need to hear sometimes—that you’re a good mom or friend or daughter or wife?”
― Renee Carlino, quote from Before We Were Strangers
Renee Carlino
Born date May 11, 2018
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“I love L.A. It's a great, sprawling, spread-to-hell city that protects us by its sheer size. Four hundred sixty-five square miles. Eleven million beating hearts in Los Angeles County, documented and not. Eleven million. What are the odds? The girl raped beneath the Hollywood sign isn't your sister, the boy back-stroking in a red pool isn't your son, the splatter patterns on the ATM machine are sourceless urban art. We're safe that way. When it happens it's going to happen to someone else.”
― Robert Crais, quote from L.A. Requiem
“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live.”
― Thomas Merton, quote from New Seeds of Contemplation
“يقول إلكسندر كوجيف في تفسيره لهيجل :
"-إن كانت السيادة الخاملة طريقاً مسدوداً، فإن العبودية النشيطة هي مصدر كل تقدم إنساني و اجتماعي و تاريخي، و ما التاريخ إلا تاريخ العبد النشيط”
― Francis Fukuyama, quote from The End of History and the Last Man
“[Community gardens] were oases in the urban landscape of fear, places where people could safely offer trust, helpfulness, charity, without need of an earthquake or hurricane...Community gardens are places where people rediscover not only generosity, but the pleasure of coming together. I salute all those who give their time and talents to rebuilding that sense of belonging.”
― Paul Fleischman, quote from Seedfolks
“Li Gui called out, "Sir, if you kill me you will kill two persons."
"How do you make that out?" asked Li Kui, staying the blow.
"At home I support my mother who is ninety years of age, and this is my only means of helping her in her old age," said Li Gui. "I never injure people, but only make them afraid. If you kill me, my old mother will die of starvation."
Li Kui who never twinkled his eyes in chopping off people's heads, paused and thought when he heard this. "Here am I trying to succour my old mother, and yet killing a man who supports his old mother. Heaven will not allow me to live if I do this. No! No! I will forgive this man.
(J.H. Jackson translation)”
― Shi Nai'an, quote from Outlaws of the Marsh
A Feast for Crows
Blood Meridian, or t...
The Age of Innocence
Wonder
Lover Awakened
NeuromancerBookQuoters 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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