“There were many times when logic was of no comfort.”
― Patricia Highsmith, quote from Deep Water
“There was something demoniacal and insuperable about typographical errors, as if they were part of the natural evil that permeated man's existence, as if they had a life of their own and were determined to manifest themselves no matter what, as surely as weeds in the best-tended gardens.”
― Patricia Highsmith, quote from Deep Water
“Vic kept looking at Wilson's wagging jaw and thinking of the multitude of people like him on earth, perhaps half the people on earth were of his type, or potentially his type, and thinking that it was not bad at all to be leaving them. The ugly birds without wings. The mediocre who perpetuated mediocrity, who really fought and died for it. He smiled at Wilson's grim, resentful, the-world-owes-me-a-living face, which was the reflection of the small mind behind it, and Vic cursed it and all it stood for. Silently, and with a smile, and with all that was left of him, he cursed it.”
― Patricia Highsmith, quote from Deep Water
“He did look like an Italian of the worse type, though Vic didn't think he was, and it was an insult to the Italian race to assume that he was. He resembled no particular race, only an amalgamation of the worst elements of various Latin peoples. He looked as if he had spent all his life dodging blows that were probably aimed at him for good reason.”
― Patricia Highsmith, quote from Deep Water
“Vic didn’t mind at all being considered odd. In fact, he was proud of it in a country in which most people aimed at being exactly like everybody else.”
― Patricia Highsmith, quote from Deep Water
“Just remember, a dark shadow need light to exist but light doesn't need darkness to be luminous.”
― Gwen Hayes, quote from Dreaming Awake
“All life was finally judged by this degree of irritation: abuse of things that were not natural, the sedentary life of cities, novel reading, theatergoing, immoderate thirst for knowledge,”
― Michel Foucault, quote from Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
“من عرفوني وأنا في الرّابعة من عمري، يقولون إنني كنت شاحباً ومستغرقاً في التأمل، وإنني لم أكن أتكلم إلا لأروي هذيانات. ولكن حكاياتي، في معظمها، كانت أحداثاً بسيطة من الحياة اليومية، أجعلها أنا أكثر جاذبية بتفاصيل متخيلة، لكي يصغي إليّ الكبار. وكانت أفضل مصادر إلهامي هي الأحاديث التي يتبادلها الكبار أمامي لأنهم يظنون أنني لا أفهمها. أو التي يشفّرونها عمداً، كيلا أفهمها. لكن الأمر كان خلاف ذلك؛ فقد كنت امتصها مثل إسفنجة، وأفككها إلى أجزاء، وأقلبها لكي أخفي الأصل؛ وعندما أرويها للأشخاص أنفسهم الذين رووها تتملكهم الحيرة للتوافق الغريب بين ما أقوله، وما يفكرون فيه.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Living to Tell the Tale
“I don’t think I can be without you. I want you with me. I don’t want space. I want you here. With me. All the fucking time. I want to be able to hold you when and where I want. I want to go to sleep and wake up with you in my arms.”
― Abbi Glines, quote from You Were Mine
“Not if we kill them—” I began, only to cut off when a sudden rushing noise filled the air. And Ray grabbed my gun and went ballistic on something on the wall over our heads.
“Die! Die! Die!” he screamed, emptying the clip and causing spent shells to rain down all around us. And okay, maybe I’d been wrong about the calm thing. Because he was just standing there, trembling and panting and staring—
At the air-conditioning vent that he’d just shot the crap out of.
“—first.” I took my smoking gun out of his limp fingers and patted him on the back. “See? That’s the spirit.”
― Karen Chance, quote from Fury's Kiss
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.