“Too much positive is either scared or stupid or both. Reality is uncertain.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The urban renewers had struck again. They'd evicted me, a fortune-teller, and a bookie from the corner of Mass. Ave. and Boylston, moved in with sandblasters and bleached oak and plant hangers, and last I looked appeared to be turning the place into a Marin County whorehouse.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“In the bank they did the same kind of stuff the fortune-teller and the bookie had done. But they dressed better.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“Businessmen learn the way businessmen are supposed to be. Professors learn the way professors are supposed to be. Construction workers learn how construction workers are supposed to be. They spend their lives trying to be what they’re supposed to be and being scared they aren’t. Quiet desperation.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The Mass. Ave. Bridge is open... Some MIT students once measured it by repeatedly placing an undergraduate named Smoot on the ground and marking off his length. Every six feet or so there is still the indication of one smoot, two smoots, painted on the pavement. I could never remember how many smoots long the bridge was.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“Her toenails were painted. It didn’t help much. Never saw a toenail I liked.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“if you lay back and let oblivion roll over you, it will be your fault.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“We’re not ordinary. No one else is like us.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“A way of living better is to make the decisions you need to make based on what you can control. When you can.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“I could not love thee, dear, so much,’ ” I said, “ ‘loved I not honor more.’ ”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“tape on and the car trembled with percussion all the way to Saugus, where Hawk pulled into a Martignetti’s off Route 1 and bought three”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The point is not to get hung up on being what you’re supposed to be. If you can, it’s good to do what pleases you.”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“Then why don’t you get married?” “I’m not sure. Mostly it’s a question of how we’d affect each other, I suppose. Would”
― Robert B. Parker, quote from Early Autumn
“The only sustenance that matters is the love in my dog’s eyes and the hope of meeting people who dare to truly live.”
― quote from The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir
“Escribir dio un sentido a mi vida. Por si no se ha dado cuenta todavía, la vida, en términos generales, no tiene sentido. Salvo si se esfuerza usted en dárselo y lucha cada día que Dios nos da para llegar a ese fin. Tiene usted talento, Marcus: dele sentido a su vida, que el viento de la victoria haga ondear su nombre. Ser escritor es estar vivo. —¿Y si no lo consigo? —Lo conseguirá. Será difícil, pero lo conseguirá. El día en el que escribir dé un sentido a su vida, será un verdadero escritor. Hasta entonces, sobre todo, no tenga miedo de caer.”
― Joël Dicker, quote from La verdad sobre el caso Harry Quebert
“What a rapist takes from a woman is her future. The person she is going to become, who she is supposed to be, is gone. In many ways, it's worse than murder, because he has killed that potential person, eradicated that potential life, yet she still lives and breathes, and has to figure out another way to thrive.”
― Karin Slaughter, quote from The Good Daughter
“The sound of the sea— just memory now.”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno
“If you're going to bury the past, bury it deep, girl. Shallow Graves always give up their dead.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, quote from These Shallow Graves
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.