“Choose whatever box you like, Mike. Just don't put me in one, son. Believe me, I won't fit.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“You have to take people one at a time, check out what's in their head and heart before you judge.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“At the edge of heartbreak, we both take a leap into the unknown...That's when we see it, a buoy callled friendship.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Love is not me being who you want. Your definition is a whirlpool trying to suck me in and I'm drowning. Don't you see?...It's time...Time you stop telling me who to be, how to live. This is my portrait. You chose your canvas. Let me choose mine.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Only the wind shatters the silence. I have been here before choking in solitude.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“If a dream is in your heart, you never lose it.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“The fact is that you are more comfortable with myth than man.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“So don't tell me that I can't fit in. My heart beats like a talking drum.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Forget who I really am, who I really want to be.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Jealousy is a waste of energy...focus on what I have, not what I don't.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“I'd pretend their words were water and let them roll off my back. Now, I'm nobody's duck, and their words stung a whole lot more than water.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“You laugh, rap my woody shell with wicked whispers shaped like knuckles, then toss me aside. Lucky for me, I don't bruise easily. Besides, you loss is someone else's gain for I am coconut, and the heart of me is sweeter than you know.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“I woke up this morning exhausted from hiding the me of me. So I stand here confiding there's more to Devon than jump shot and rim. I'm more than tall and lengthy of limb. I dare you to peep behind these eyes, discover the poet in tough-guy disguise. Don't call me Jump Shot. My name is surprise.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“He'll never do it again,' she swears, but he will because she'll let him. Now me? I've got no use for imitation love that packs a punch.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Look around. Take the tour. Fear hangs on the wall and shame sometimes. Emotional dislocation too. But I am brave in my admission. Are you? When no one is looking, I check to see if anyone seems as scared as me, or lonely, or shy, or insecure. Is it just me? I'm not so sure. Is your heart an onion too? Show me yours, I'll show you mine we used to say. Your turn. Peel away.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Do something about it, or shut up.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“The crashing sound of years lost shattered in her ears, and new fears emerged from the looking glass. Sometimes I wonder if she'll ever sing again.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“I'm an artist...The difference is that I don't tell anybody. I refuse to give them new reasons to laugh at me.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“The day she clips her way out of her cocoon, the only sound she plans to hear is a deafening cheer.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“The lack of goodness in the young gun's heart was oxygen to the fire, and so he burned for a good long while before I woke. The dream stoked my faith in the judgment and justice that will come someday or this afternoon soon. I turn up the collar of my white robe, relieved to know that God's got me covered 'cause I'm good, but not that good.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“Ready or not, I peer into your soul and dive deep... Your eyes don't like what I see. You don't want to be me. So you curse and smash the mirror which gets you what? A bit of blood , a handful of glass splinters, another source of pain.”
― Nikki Grimes, quote from Bronx Masquerade
“As I trailed dumbly up the next flight it seemed strange that we had never said goodbye. We didn’t know when, if ever, we would see each other again yet neither of us had said a word. I don’t know if Siegfried wanted to say anything but there was a lot try trying to burst from me.
I wanted to thank him for being a friend as well as a boss, for teaching me so much, for never letting me down. There were other things, too, but I never said them.
Come to think of it, I’ve never even thanked him for that fifty pounds…until now.”
― James Herriot, quote from All Things Bright and Beautiful
“Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches.”
― Italo Calvino, quote from Invisible Cities
“They wouldn't tell Scipio how much of the counterfeit cash was left since, as Riccio put it, 'You're a detective now, after all.”
― Cornelia Funke, quote from The Thief Lord
“But what you learn, as you get older, is that there are a few billion other people in the world all trying to be clever at the same time, and whatever you do with your life will certainly be lost—swallowed up in the ocean—unless you are doing it along with like-minded people who will remember your contributions and carry them forward.”
― Neal Stephenson, quote from The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
“My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love.”
― Graham Greene, quote from The End of the Affair
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.