“The library was my only blessing. Every time I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted. All day, I looked forward to the happy hours I spent in that beautiful room. My guilt over appa's fate was too heavy to carry up there, and I learned to leave it below, somewhere on the ground floor. I left the house far behind as I walked on the path paved by the books, and every evening, baby Mangalam slept soundly on the bed I made for her on the window seat.”
― Padma Venkatraman, quote from Climbing the Stairs
“Everytime I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted.”
― Padma Venkatraman, quote from Climbing the Stairs
“In my mind's eye, my chess pieces had grown into lines of dark-skinned men marching forward, being beaten by a white army and crumpling one by one into my father's waiting arms, bloodstains blossoming across their shoulders. (32)”
― Padma Venkatraman, quote from Climbing the Stairs
“If a dog barks at the sun, it does not dim the sun's brightness. (44)”
― Padma Venkatraman, quote from Climbing the Stairs
“The joyous clamor in my mind drowned out the strange sound outside the car: a humming noise that was gathering speed and growing louder, a roar that was not the waves curling up the beach.”
― Padma Venkatraman, quote from Climbing the Stairs
Padma Venkatraman
Born place: Chennai, India
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“Alone, I often fall down into nothingness. I must push my foot stealthily lest I should fall off the edge of the world into nothingness. I have to bang my head against some hard door to call myself back to the body.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from The Waves
“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig. (150)”
― Malcolm Gladwell, quote from Outliers: The Story of Success
“Love means holding on to someone just as hard as you can because if you don't, one blink and they might disappear...forever.”
― Ellen Hopkins, quote from Impulse
“I would not be you for a kingdom.'
The remark was too naïve to rouse anger; I merely said -
'Very good.'
'And what would you give to be ME?' she inquired.
'Not a bad sixpence - strange as it may sound', I replied. 'You are but a poor creature.'
'You don't think so in your heart.'
'No; for in my heart you have not the outline of a place: I only occasionally turn you over in my brain.”
― Charlotte Brontë, quote from Villette
“You'd expect her to see reason,' he muttered.
I don't see why. Most of us don't - we see habit. She'll oppose any modification, reasonable or not, that conflicts with her previously trained feelings of what is right and polite - and be quite honestly convinced that she's showing steadfast strength of character. . .”
― John Wyndham, quote from The Day of the Triffids
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Stuck in NeutralBookQuoters 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.
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