“Forget the names because names lie but remember me because when you look at me I remember myself.
Remember me because I will never forget you.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“If this were a war year, if this were 1918 or 1944, I wouldn't be the only girl whose dad was never coming home. Think of that: a whole generation of us, daughters and young wives, waiting for a car that will never roll into the driveway. Waiting for a door that will never open again.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“She tell many Cathy story, but I still think your daughter good girl." He nodded reassuringly to Mom. "Except for time start car on fire," he admitted. Then... little worry.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“I pegged him as the kind of jock that has a thing for smart girls. You see these guys, second-stringers on the football team; they stand around the edges of the Jock Huddle listening to raunchy talk about cheerleaders, but they fall for the smart girl with library eyes.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“In that intense stillness, the old man laughed. "You have a good eye," he said. "Someone taught you to see.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Touch with your eyes, Cathy. Handle things with them, so you can tell by looking if they are rough, or slick, or damp and soft, like mushrooms. You have to cry with your hands, and laugh with it, and let it sing, You have to see with your heart. You have to see with your heart.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Cathy, you burn like a candle in the dark." Victor titled up my face with his fingers. "All your life, people are going to see that, even from far away, even in the middle of the night, and they are going to come to you." He touched my damp cheek, still wet with tears. I could feel my skin flushing against his fingers, "They are going to want to add your light to theirs," he said "And every night ends, and then it's morning, and the sun comes up.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Great art is like that. You can think you're a real hard-ass, with no use for artsy-fartsy jazz and then one of the greats hits you like a bullet though the heart. People talk about Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan but if you really want to see a dude playing above the rim, spend half an hour looking at Picasso's from between the wars. The greats don't just want to score they want to dunk in your face.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Maybe you think a lot about the past, when you haven't got much future in front of you.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Without us, the world is just things, Cathy. It's our seeing that fills them with meaning. To pay attention is a painter's scared duty. That's what real prayer is. real meditation: to hold your attention to the world like a match, until it catches with the fire of meaning.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Emma told me once that baking powder was an act of love, invented by a chemist for his wife, who was allergic to yeast.”
― quote from Cathy's Book
“Amazing where your life can deposit you before you know it. One, two, three, and you're on a completely different road than the one you'd always expected to be on at this point in your life. There is no compass when such things happen, no rules and no maps to guide you, and no one who cares if the sun is glaring or if the asphalt is melting beneath your tires.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Blue Diary
“We proclaimed the freedom of the individual, bought and drove millions of cars to prove it, built more roads for the cars to drive on so we could go the everywhere that was nowhere. We watered our lawns, we washed our cars, we gulped plastic bottles of water to stay hydrated in our dehydrated land, we put up water parks.
We built temples to our fantasies--film studios, amusement parks, crystal cathedrals, megachurches--and flocked to them.
We went to the beach, rode the waves, and poured our waste into the water we said we loved.
We reinvented ourselves every day, remade our culture, locked ourselves in gated communities, we ate healthy food, we gave up smoking, we lifted our faces while avoiding the sun, we had our skin peeled, our lines removed, our fat sucked away like our unwanted babies, we defied aging and death.
We made gods of wealth and health.
A religion of narcissism.
In the end, we worshipped only ourselves.
In the end, it wasn't enough.”
― Don Winslow, quote from Savages
“shuffled their way through the cattle shoots in front of each restaurant’s counter.”
― Rachel Vincent, quote from My Soul to Lose
“Growth of the soil was something different, a thing to be procured at any cost; the only source, the origin of all. A dull and desolate existence? Nay, least of all. A man had everything; his powers above, his dreams, his loves, his wealth of superstition.”
― Knut Hamsun, quote from Growth of the Soil
“Now all we have to worry about is all the other books, and, of course, life, which is huge and complicated and will not warn you before it hurts you.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
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.