Quotes from Broken April

Ismail Kadare ·  216 pages

Rating: (2.8K votes)


“It was only a phrase that went from mouth to mouth and was never quite swallowed.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“And everything would be different, different.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“To tell the truth, this was one of the few cases in which she had not told him just what she was thinking. Usually, she let him know whatever thoughts happened to come to her, and indeed he never took it amiss if she let slip a word that might pain him, because when all was said and done that was the price one paid for sincerity.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“His suspicion that he was not going in the right direction tortmented him more and more. At last he had the conviction that he would never go anywhere but in the wrong direction, to the very end of the handful of days that was left to him, unhappy moonstruck pilgrim, whose April was to be cut off short.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“An Albanian’s house is the dwelling of God and the guest.’ Of God and the guest, you see. So before it is the house of its master, it is the house of one’s guest. The guest, in an Albanian’s life, represents the supreme ethical category, more important than blood relations. One may pardon the man who spills the blood of one’s father or of one’s son, but never the blood of a guest.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April



“Having left, for various reasons, the homeland of epic, they were uprooted like trees overthrown, they had lost their heroic character and deep-seated virtue.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“A mountaineer’s house, before being his home and the home of his family, is the home of God and of guests.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“Two or three times it occurred to Gjorg that all these men had killed, and that each had his story. But those stories were locked deep within them. It was not just chance that in the glow of the fire their mouths, and even more their jaws, looked as if they had the shape of certain antique locks.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


“Why the Albanians had created the institution of the guest, exalting it above all other human relations, even those of kinship. “Perhaps the answer lies in the democratic character of this institution,” he said, setting himself to think his way through the matter. “Any ordinary man, on any day, can be raised to the lofty station of a guest. The path to that temporary deification is open to anybody at any time.[...] Given that anyone at all can grasp the sceptre of the guest,” he went on, “and since that sceptre, for every Albanian, surpasses even the king’s sceptre, may we not assume that in the Albanian’s life of danger and want, that to be a guest if only for four hours or twenty-four hours, is a kind of respite, a moment of oblivion, a truce, a reprieve, and—why not?—an escape from everyday life into some divine reality?”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from Broken April


About the author

Ismail Kadare
Born place: in Gjirokastër, Albania
Born date January 28, 1936
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Everybody always knows something," said Adam, "even if it's something they don't know they know.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from Cat Among the Pigeons


“She’d always imagined life would get better as she grew older.  She would get wiser, discover things, make friends, find the way to her own happiness and out of the misery. Now she realized it wouldn’t happen.  She’d been born cursed and would die cursed and never understand why.  There was nothing to hope for, no happiness ahead. ”
― J.L. Bryan, quote from Jenny Pox


“Then he started fucking, his hips pistoning in a relentless tempo, his long thick cock plunging and withdrawing from root to tip in rapid-fire thrusts. Supporting his weight entirely with his arms and the tips of his toes, he powered into me, his rigid penis nailing me straight into the mattress. I came so hard my vision went black, my body seized with pleasure so intense I was locked in it, suspended in the powerful waves of erotic sensation. I was inundated by the ferocious surge of my climax. My skin tingled from head to toe. Gideon paused on a downstroke, grinding into me, giving my body the steely length of his penis to grasp. My sex spasmed ecstatically around that delicious hardness, gripping him hungrily. “Fuck,” Gideon bit out, “you’re milking my dick so hard.” I shook violently, fighting to breathe. The moment I sagged into the mattress, replete, Gideon pulled his cock out of my trembling slit and left the bed. Bereft, I lifted a hand to him. “Where are you going?” “Hang on.” He shoved his boxer briefs all the way off. He was still hard, his cock rising high and proud, slick from my orgasm—but I wasn’t wet with his. “You didn’t come.” I was too languid to help when he stripped me of my underwear. Sliding a hand beneath my back, he lifted me and whipped my shirt over my head. His”
― Sylvia Day, quote from One with You


“Said to Mairin;
"There's little decency to good loving" Maddie said. "If 'tis decent, it isn't much fun"!”
― Maya Banks, quote from In Bed with a Highlander


“Clearly, their application had been rejected, or merely ignored, on the longstanding principle that anyone who applies to join an espionage service should be rejected.”
― Ben Macintyre, quote from Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal


Interesting books

Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays
(47K)
Barrel Fever: Storie...
by David Sedaris
Prentice Alvin
(16.2K)
Prentice Alvin
by Orson Scott Card
Seeds of Yesterday
(30.8K)
Seeds of Yesterday
by V.C. Andrews
The Autograph Man
(9.9K)
The Autograph Man
by Zadie Smith
The Good Guy
(29.5K)
The Good Guy
by Dean Koontz
Heaven and Hell
(17.9K)
Heaven and Hell
by Kristen Ashley

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.