“There never was a story that was happy through and through.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“He had learned something already in the course of his journey. If you carried a closed wooden box, people want to know what is in it.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“Stories twist and turn and grow and meet and give birth to other stories. Here and there, one story touches another, and a familiar character, sometimes the hero, walks over the bridge from one story into another.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“She risked her life to put your mind at rest,' Evgenia said. 'How great is love!”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“You have life written all over you. Some people bear tragedy on their faces; loss, death, whatever it might be. But you have life.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“Slowly he had learned that there is a world beneath the visible one, and that people, some people at least, have a different life, that they carry inside them.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“Love, he decided, is not about how much someone else cares for you, it's about how much you care for someone else.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“The time for princes and tsars and holy madmen was gone.
In its place came a world of war and revolution, of tanks and
telephones, murder and assassination.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“Why were there some people who seemed so sure of themselves that it made him feel small and ignorant by comparison, as if they had a script to life with all the answers on it? He felt he didn't even know the questions.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“And that was how the young writer found love, just when he had stopped looking for it.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“The bear, which by now was as large as the cathedral on Catherine’s canal, rose on its hind legs like a dancing bear in a street market. For a moment the sun was blotted out by its size, and then it fell. As it fell, it came apart. It disintegrated. It fell like brown snow, but each flake was a person. The bear had been one hundred thousand people, and now the people came to earth, tumbling into the snowy streets of the city and picking themselves up, laughing at it all. Far from being hurt, they realised that they felt strong. But, like the bear, they felt hungry. They ran through the streets, swarming like bees, joining others who had emerged when the sun had. It was chaos.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“The time for princes and tsars and grand duchesses and especially holy madmen was gone. In its place came a world of war and revolution, of tanks and telephones, of murder and assassination. The bear had already become what it had been waiting to be, and the men who set it on its journey changed too. Lev became Trotsky, Vladimir took the name Lenin, and they stepped into a bright and furious modern world; blood red, and snow white.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, quote from Blood Red, Snow White
“Have you ever played chess, Kitty?”
I eyed her. What did a board game have to do with this? “Not really.”
“You and I should play sometime. I think you would like it,” she said. “It’s a game of strategy, mostly. The strong pieces are in the back row, while the weak pieces—the pawns—are all in the front, ready to take the brunt of the attack. Because of their limited movement and vulnerability, most people underestimate them and only use them to protect the more powerful pieces. But when I play, I protect my pawns.”
“Why?” I said, not entirely sure where this conversation was going. “If they’re weak, then what’s the point?”
“They may be weak when the game begins, but their potential is remarkable. Most of the time, they’ll be taken by the other side and held captive until the end of the game. But if you’re careful—if you keep your eyes open and pay attention to what your opponent is doing, if you protect your pawns and they reach the other side of the board, do you know what happens then?”
I shook my head, and she smiled.
“Your pawn becomes a queen.” She touched my cheek, her fingers cold as ice. “Because they kept moving forward and triumphed against impossible odds, they become the most powerful piece in the game. Never forget that, all right? Never forget the potential one solitary pawn has to change the entire game.”
― Aimee Carter, quote from Pawn
“Well, the natives seemed fairly friendly, so I decided to stay the night." I made a mental note never to seem fairly friendly to an explorer. If you do, he always decides to stay the night.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, quote from Works of P. G. Wodehouse
“No sabemos mucho del amor. Con el amor es como con la pera. La pera es dulce y tiene forma. Intentad definir la forma de la pera.”
Jaskier en "Tiempo de Odio".”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, quote from The Time of Contempt
“It’s hard to see what’s good, what’s right, when you’re in the middle of it”
― Elizabeth Brundage, quote from All Things Cease to Appear
“What I know for sure is that reading opens you up. It exposes you and gives you access to anything your mind can hold. What I love most about reading: It gives you the ability to reach higher ground. And keep climbing.”
― Oprah Winfrey, quote from What I Know for Sure
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.