Quotes from Breath, Eyes, Memory

Edwidge Danticat ·  234 pages

Rating: (23.9K votes)


“Love is like the rain. It comes in a drizzle sometimes. Then it starts pouring and if you're not careful it will drown you.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“If a woman is worth remembering,' said my grandmother, 'there is no need to have her name carved in letters.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“She told me about a group of people in Guinea who carry the sky on their heads. They are the people of Creation. Strong, tall, and mighty people who can bear anything. Their Maker, she said, gives them the sky to carry because they are strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“...women, brave as stars at dawn”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear a mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: 'Ou libéré?' Are you free, my daughter?"

My grandmother quickly pressed her fingers over my lips.

Now," she said, "you will know how to answer.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory



“The girl she said, I didn’t tell you this because it was a small thing, but little girls, they leave their hearts at home when they walk outside. Hearts are so precious. They don’t want to lose them.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“It is the calm and silent waters that drown you.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“They are the people of creation. Their maker…gives them the sky to carry because they are so strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“Here, though, there is nothing. Nothing at all. The sky seems empty even when I am looking at the moon and stars.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“Tante Atie once said that love is like rain. It comes in a drizzle sometimes. Then it starts pouring and if you’re not careful it will drown you.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory



“That night, I slept hugging my secret.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“Then what do you want with me?'...
'The pursuit of happiness.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


“She cannot stay out of duty. The things one does, one should do out of love.”
― Edwidge Danticat, quote from Breath, Eyes, Memory


About the author

Edwidge Danticat
Born place: in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Born date January 19, 1969
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“She would die, Claire realized, before she would give up the love she felt for her son.”
― Lois Lowry, quote from Son


“Nerrissa? You believe her? Well, you at least have to credit her with a certain instability! Remember when she told you that I was going to take over the Fount with and army of Lobsters?" said Ripred.

You did try to take over the Fount with an army of Lobsters." said Vikus.

Yes, yes, but it was years before she was born. My point is, she flip-flops in and out of time like a fish in shallow waters." answered Ripred.”
― Suzanne Collins, quote from Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods


“I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality. It can never by conquered. The more stupid, the more senseless, the more helpless it may seem, the vaster it is. Evil is impotent before it. The prophets, religious teachers, reformers, social and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind love is man’s meaning. Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil, struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.”
― Vasily Grossman, quote from Life and Fate


“The plot thickens,” he said, and wished he hadn’t said that because it sounded like something from a bad detective novel. “I think we have a suspect.” That didn’t sound much better. “My house has just exploded, by the way.” At least that was novel.”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from Case Histories


“I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.
Algernon. I thought you had come up for pleasure? . . . I call that business.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays


Interesting books

Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles
(4.5K)
Weight: The Myth of...
by Jeanette Winterson
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
(2K)
The Beautyful Ones A...
by Ayi Kwei Armah
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
(10.8K)
In My Hands: Memorie...
by Irene Gut Opdyke
The Garden of Evening Mists
(14.3K)
The Garden of Evenin...
by Tan Twan Eng
The Vow
(23.7K)
Biting Cold
(19.8K)
Biting Cold
by Chloe Neill

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.