“He's at ease, his body sculpted to the music, his shoulder searching the other shoulder, his right toe knowing the left knee, the height, the depth, the form, the control, the twist of his wrist, the bend of his elbow, the tilt of his neck, notes digging into arteries, and he is in the air now, forcing the legs up beyond muscular memory, one last press of the thighs, an elongation of form, a loosening of human contour, he goes higher and is skyheld.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“I suppose one finally learns, after much searching, that we really only belong to ourselves.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“I could tell from Anna's face that she had already told him about dancing in Saint Petersburg and that the memory weighed on her heavily. What monstrous things, our pasts, especially when they have been lovely. She had told a secret and now had the sadness of wondering how much deeper she might dig in order to keep the first secret fed.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“What monstrous things, our pasts, especially when they have been lovely.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“Watching them together slipped a knife between my ribs and hit my heart exactly.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“Once we had filled each other with desire, not remembrance.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“So you want to be a dancer? I asked. I want to dance better than I already do, he said.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“You are a dancer for only a part of your life. The rest of the time you are walking around, thinking about it!”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“We have always absorbed our own disintegration.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“Outside, the dark brushed the city and the wind unleashed the snow”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“My father had once told me the story of how, when he was in the work camp, a truckload of giant logs was brought in to be chopped. He was on ax duty with a gang of twelve. It was a dreadfully hot summer and each swing of the blade was torture. He hacked at a log and there was the unmistakable sound of metal hitting metal. He bent down and found a mushroom-shaped chunk of lead embedded in the trunk. A bullet. He counted the rings from the perimeter to the bullet and found they matched his age exactly.
We never escape ourselves, he said to me years later.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“If you are wise you step through the darkness only one foot at a time.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“How long ago it was and how strange, but all dead friends come to life again sometimes.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“Truth: When criticized you go berserk, but in your defense remember that it is those who calmly listen who never change.”
― Colum McCann, quote from Dancer
“You don't deserve it, he said aloud. Don't ever begin to think that you do.”
― Kent Haruf, quote from Plainsong
“É mais duro ver outro sofrer do que suportarmos nós o sofrimento.”
― Jacqueline Carey, quote from Kushiel's Mercy
“The gods have been kicking us around for a long time. When do we say enough?'
'And in their absence, High Fist, will we manage things any better?'
'No,' Paran said, walking past him 'but at least then we won't have the option of blaming someone else.”
― Steven Erikson, quote from The Crippled God
“When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
― quote from Holy Bible: The New King James Version
“He came after Homer and before Gertrude Stein, a difficult interval for a poet.”
― Anne Carson, quote from Autobiography of Red
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.