“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
Colum McCann
Born place: in Ireland
See more on GoodReads
“Maybe my steps were slow. Maybe it was because I was relishing each one, like each represented an obstacle we'd had to climb, the trials we'd had to overcome. Maybe each one was a triumph, each a celebration.
Even though each step was measured, in reality, I was running toward him.
Running toward my forever.
Because I realized I didn't have one without Christian.
He was my all.”
― A.L. Jackson, quote from If Forever Comes
“He wondered if perhaps, subconsciously, he was trying to sabotage her efforts by setting the bar too high, trying to keep her with him longer; but surely his subconscious wasn't that stupid?”
― Dianne Sylvan, quote from Queen of Shadows
“apático y de la timidez que era el resultado”
― Benito Pérez Galdós, quote from Fortunata and Jacinta
“First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.
There is a ladder.
The ladder is always there
hanging innocently
close to the side of the schooner.
We know what it is for,
we who have used it.
Otherwise
it is a piece of maritime floss
some sundry equipment.
I go down.
Rung after rung and still
the oxygen immerses me
the blue light
the clear atoms
of our human air.
I go down.
My flippers cripple me,
I crawl like an insect down the ladder
and there is no one
to tell me when the ocean
will begin.
First the air is blue and then
it is bluer and then green and then
black I am blacking out and yet
my mask is powerful
it pumps my blood with power
the sea is another story
the sea is not a question of power
I have to learn alone
to turn my body without force
in the deep element.
And now: it is easy to forget
what I came for
among so many who have always
lived here
swaying their crenellated fans
between the reefs
and besides
you breathe differently down here.
I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed
the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving their assertion
among the tentative haunters.
This is the place.
And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body.
We circle silently
about the wreck
we dive into the hold.
I am she: I am he
whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes
whose breasts still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies
obscurely inside barrels
half-wedged and left to rot
we are the half-destroyed instruments
that once held to a course
the water-eaten log
the fouled compass
We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from Diving Into the Wreck
“ye kill before midnight, be silent, and wake not the woods with”
― Rudyard Kipling, quote from The Second Jungle Book
Fiesta
A Guide to the Good...
Chasing the Scream:...
Story: Substance, St...
Packing for Mars: Th...
La Divina ComediaBookQuoters 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.
