Quotes from City of Saints and Madmen

Jeff VanderMeer ·  704 pages

Rating: (4.4K votes)


“Ten years ago, we would have been writing perfect stories, but people's attention spans have become more limited in these, the last days of literacy.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from City of Saints and Madmen


“Perhaps [he had] persevered for too long, in the face of too many obstacles, his hair proof of his tenacity - the stark black streaked with white or, in certain light, stark white shot through with black, each strand of white attributable to the jungle fever (so cold it burned, his skin glacial), each strand of black a testament to being alive afterwards.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from City of Saints and Madmen


“If people were not by nature insane and resistant to self-improvement or therapy,”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from City of Saints and Madmen


“No doubt the detour to deliver Lake had made the sheep late for an appointment.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from City of Saints and Madmen


“Take two pictures representing the same subject; one may be dismissed as illustration if it is dominated by the subject and has no other justification but the subject, the other may be called painting if the subject is completely absorbed in the style, which is its own justification, whatever the subject, and has an intrinsic value.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from City of Saints and Madmen



“When Dradin stopped running he found himself on the fringe of the religious quarter, next to an emaciated macadamia salesman who cracked jokes like nuts.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, quote from City of Saints and Madmen


About the author

Jeff VanderMeer
Born place: in The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“As Jesus put it, “Even the least among you can do all that I have done and even greater things,” and, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” (John 10:34).”
― Wayne W. Dyer, quote from The Shift: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning


“She looked at Max, grinning for a moment. "Wow, I can't even look at you."
She closed her eyes tightly.
"Why?" Max asked.
Her eyes remained closed, a wide smile on her face.
"I don't know. I guess you just seem good."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
She opened one eye, just a sliver.
"Yeah, wow. It's almost unbearable.”
― Dave Eggers, quote from The Wild Things


“Being a nanny is nothing like being a mother!” Sydney exploded. “You worry all the fucking time! Vigilance, intelligence, all your best intentions, none of that matters! It doesn’t stop when you go to sleep, it never stops! You are going to be so swamped if you take on Harry. You won’t sleep at night, you won’t know what to do when he gets sick, hell, you can’t even take him on a fucking carousel! It’s hard work, sometimes it’s hopeless and heartbreaking! You feel like you never get anything right! But look at you, you think you know how to be a mother!”
― Nancy Thayer, quote from Beachcombers


“Sometimes I feel as though the real things are passing me by. As though I've been pushed to the margins of life.”
― Margaret Leroy, quote from The Soldier's Wife


“oh. It's an E.E. Cummings quote: 'It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are”
― Laura Kaye, quote from One Night with a Hero


Interesting books

Leviathan
(30.9K)
Leviathan
by Thomas Hobbes
number9dream
(17.5K)
number9dream
by David Mitchell
Rival
(24.4K)
Rival
by Penelope Douglas
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
(17.7K)
What Do You Care Wha...
by Richard Feynman
Whose Body?
(33.9K)
Whose Body?
by Dorothy L. Sayers
Sixty Stories
(5.1K)
Sixty Stories
by Donald Barthelme

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.