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

“Something inside me squeezes up tight like a sponge that is being wrung out”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Light on Snow

“If you really want to know something about me, you should know this: I like my music loud. I mean loud. I'm not talking about the kind of loud where your parents knock on your bedroom door and ask you to turn it down. Please. That's amateur hour. When I say loud, I mean you-can't-hear-your-parents-knocking-and-the-neighbors-are-putting-a-FOR-SALE-sign-on-their-house-and-moving-to-another-block-because-they-can't-handle-the-constant-noise-anymore loud. You have to turn it up so that your chest shakes and the drums get in between your ribs like a heartbeat and the bass goes up your spine and frizzles your brain and all you can do is dance or spin in a circle or just scream along because you know that however this music makes you feel, it's exactly right. If you are not this kind of person, then I don't think we'll be great friends.”
― Robin Benway, quote from Audrey, Wait!

“Woman and children behind the lines!' he yelled, and all the girls jumped. Henry froze with his mouth open. 'Bang the drum slowly and ask not for whom the bell's ringing, for the answer's unfriendly!' He threw a fist in the air. 'Two years have my black ships sat before Troy, and today its gate shall open before the strength of my arm.' Dotty was laughing from the kitchen. Frank looked at his nephew. 'Henry, we play baseball tomorrow. Today we sack cities. Dots! Fetch me my tools! Down with the French! Once more into the breach, and fill the wall with our coward dead! Half a league! Half a league! Hey, batter, batter!'
Frank brought his fist down onto the table, spilling Anastasia's milk, and then he struck a pose with both arms above his head and his chin on his chest. The girls cheered and applauded. Aunt Dotty stepped back into the dining room carrying a red metal toolbox.”
― N.D. Wilson, quote from 100 Cupboards

“In life man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from Existentialism Is a Humanism

“He wouldn't just be facing her, he thought with genuine, back-sweating fear, but all of them. The four of them, with Mrs. Grady for backup.
They'd roast his balls.”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Bed of Roses

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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.

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.

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