Quotes from Bel Canto

“It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. … It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be the artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Love was action. It came to you. It was not a choice.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“There was such an incredible logic to kissing, such a metal-to-magnet pull between two people that it was a wonder that they found the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. Rightfully, the world should be a whirlpool of kissing into which we sank and never found the strength to rise up again.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“It was never the right time or it was always the right time, depending on how you looked at it.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“There was no time for kissing but she wanted him to know that in the future there would be. A kiss in so much loneliness was like a hand pulling you up out of the water, scooping you up from a place of drowning and into the reckless abundance of air. A kiss, another kiss.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“He believed that life, true life, was something that was stored in music. True life was kept safe in the lines of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin while you went out in the world and met the obligations required of you. Certainly he knew (though did not completely understand) that opera wasn't for everyone, but for everyone he hoped there was something. The records he cherished, the rare opportunities to see a live performance, those were the marks by which he gauged his ability to love.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“She sang as if she was saving the life of every person in the room.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“He doesn’t know to want for more because nothing in his life has been as much as this...on that night he thinks that no one has ever had so much and only later will he know he should have asked for more.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“It was too much work to remember things you might not have again, and so one by one they opened up their hands and let them go.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“For a man to know what he has when he had it, that is what makes him a fortunate man.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to seem secure, one feels the freedom to complain.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Maybe the private life wasn't forever. Maybe everyone got it for a little while and then spent the rest of their lives remembering.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one's heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained!”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“The kind of love that offers its life so easily, so stupidly, is always the love that is not returned.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Most of the time, we're loved for what we can do rather than for who we are. It's not such a bad thing, being loved for what you can do.'
'But the other is better.'
'Better. I hate to say better, but it is. If someone loves you for what you can do then it's flattering, but why do you love them? If someone loves you for who you are then they have to know you, which means you have to know them.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“The quality of gifts depends on the sincerity of the giver.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Maybe there would be a bad outcome for some of the others, but no one was going to shoot a soprano.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“The timing of the electrical failure seemed dramatic and perfectly correct, as if the lights had said, "You have no need for sight. Listen.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“But together they moved through the world quite easily, two small halves of courage making a brave whole.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“It's easier to love a woman when you can't understand a word she's saying.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Sleep was a country for which he could not obtain a visa.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“The light was cut to lace by the trees that had grown so thick with leaves in the last few months.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“If someone loves you for what you can do then it's flattering, but why do you love them? If someone loves you for who you are then they have to know you, which means you have to know them.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“When you think of love you think as an American. You must think like a Russian. It is a more expansive view.'

'Americans havea bad habbit of thinking like Americans,' Roxane said kindly.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“Wearing shoes in the house was barbaric. There was almost as much indignity in wearing shoes in the house as there was in being kidnapped.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“...as if the world had become a giant train station in which everything was delayed until further notice.”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

“...it was a miraculous thing to be able to watch the person you love undetected,”
― Ann Patchett, quote from Bel Canto

About the author

Popular quotes

“You know if you walked around the world, your hat would travel thirty-one feet farther than your shoes?”
― David Wong, quote from John Dies at the End

“Oh, good grief," said Vimes. "Look, it's quite simple, man. I was expected to go "At last, alcohol!", and chugalug the lot without thinking. Then some respectable pillars of the community" - he removed the cigar from his mouth and spat - "were going to find me, in your presence, too - which was a nice touch - with the evidence of my crime neatly hidden but not so well hidden that they couldn't find it." He shook his head sadly. "The trouble is, you know, that once the taste's got you it never lets go."

"But you've been very good, sir," said Carrot. "I've not seen you touch a drop for -"

"Oh, that," said Vimes. "I was talking about policing, not alcohol. There's lots of people will help you with the alcohol business, but there's no one out there arranging little meetings where you can stand up and say, "My name is Sam and I'm a really suspicious bastard.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Feet of Clay

“I was standing in the most absolute aloneness that I had ever been given.”
― James Dickey, quote from Deliverance

“We’ve made a beautiful mess of things lately, haven’t we?” He flashed that sexycrooked smile at me, which made my heart flutter.I nodded, agreeing with him.“But it’s our crazy story,” he stated. “It’s been ours, only ours. There’s been a lot of romance, sometimes way too much drama…” He raised his eyebrows and smirked. “Verymemorable comedy, a few pulse-racing action scenes...”He shrugged and sighed.“We’ve also had our fair share of suspense and raw terror, and unfortunately gut-wrenching heartache too.“I think we’ve covered it all, everything except for being captured by aliens!”I couldn’t help but chuckle.“But through it all you’ve loved me, unconditionally, and I know how fortunate I amto have your love.“I don’t want to live without you, not for one more minute, not for one more second.I want to spend the rest of my days living my story with you… only you.”He walked to the edge and jumped off the table, landing in front of me.“It is here that I fell in love with you,” Ryan whispered, taking my hands in his.He dropped down on one knee.“And as fate would have it, it is
here
that I humbly kneel before you and ask you to be my wife.“Taryn Lynn Mitchell, will you marry me?” His glistening eyes, so blue, so full of emotion, gazed up at me… waiting patiently for my reply.Only one word rang through my heart.“Yes!” I nodded emphatically. My salted tears dripped across my lips. I said yes over and over again.”
― Tina Reber, quote from Love Unscripted

“I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty bats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them...”
― Annie Dillard, quote from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

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.