“I remember when the houses used to whiz by as I walked—nearly running—to and from home. Ma would ask me afterwards about what I’d seen, whether certain neighbours were out, what I thought about someone’s new garden wall. I’d never noticed; it had all gone past in a flash. Now I have plenty of time to look at everything, and no one to tell what I’ve seen.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“But it’s not true. I forget things—I know that—but I’m not mad. Not yet. And I’m sick of being treated as if I am. I’m tired of the sympathetic smiles and the little pats people give you when you get things confused, and I’m bloody fed up with everyone deferring to Helen rather than listening to what I have to say.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“I don’t look up. It’s such a little thing—knowing where to put cutlery—but I feel like I’ve failed an important test. A little piece of me is gone.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“Oh, Helen,” I say. “I’ve been meaning to tell you. That girl you’ve hired, she doesn’t do any work. None. I’ve watched her.” “Who are you talking about now? What girl?” “The girl,” I say. “She leaves plates by the sink and there are clothes all over the floor of her room.” Helen grins and bites her lip. “Pretty good description. Mum, that’s Katy.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“An ancient noise, like a fox bark, makes an attempt at the edges of my brain.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“Lost,” I say, dropping the photo on to the counter. “I’ve lost Elizabeth.” She pauses a moment and straightens to look at the photo. “Oh, was it an advert you wanted?” Breath floods into my lungs. “Yes. Yes, that’s it. I wanted to place an advert.” “I’ll get you a form. Awful, cats, aren’t they?” I nod, feeling as though I’ve missed some part of the conversation. I nod, but I quite like cats, and I wonder what this woman has against them. “I remember when my auntie lost her Oscar. She was frantic. Missing for weeks, he was. Found him in a beach hut in the end. Have you asked your neighbours to look in their sheds?” I stare at the woman. I can’t imagine finding Elizabeth in a shed. But perhaps it is a good suggestion. Perhaps it’s just me it doesn’t make sense to. I borrow a pen and write beach hut on a scrap of paper.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“The sun’s in my eyes and it’s difficult to see. The shape of her is distorted by the light, circles of her silhouette removed as if by a pastry cutter.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“I have an awful feeling I’m supposed to know, and that this is some kind of treat. I don’t think it’s my birthday, but perhaps an anniversary. Patrick’s death? It would be just like Helen to remember and make it a “special occasion.” But I can see from the bare trees out on the street that it’s the wrong time of year. Patrick died in the spring.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“Although it’s just as likely to be a son,” Carla says. I’ve missed some earlier part of her speech, and I don’t know what she’s talking about. “You’re lucky you have a daughter. They say sons steal from their old mothers. It was in a report I saw on the news.” “But I do have a son,” I say. “Millions of pounds, stolen every year.” “I don’t have millions of pounds,” I say. “And all kinds of antiques. Georgian, Victorian.” “I don’t have any antiques, either.” Oh, this is no good. What sort of a conversation”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“grass is slightly frosty and I enjoy hearing it crunch”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“I feel rather drab and shy for a few minutes. But then I remember that I am old and nobody is looking at me.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“My reflection always gives me a shock. I never really believed I would age, and certainly not like this.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
“My fault for being a young girl, I thought.”
― Emma Healey, quote from Elizabeth Is Missing
Emma Healey
Born place: in London, The United Kingdom
See more on GoodReads
“He gave them what they demanded of him, he obeyed the command, but not sullenly or diffidently, and not in shame. Rooted in the land of his fathers, standing before the home of his family he looked towards the sun and let a name burst forth from his soul.
'Tigana!' he cried that all should hear. All of them, everyone in the square. And again, louder yet: 'Tigana!' And then a third, a last time, at the very summit of his voice, with pride, with love, with a lasting, unredeemed defiance of the heart.
'TIGANA!'
Through the square that cry rang, along the streets, up to the windows where people watched, over the roofs of houses running westward to the sea or eastward to the temples, and far beyond all of these-- a sound, a name, a hurled sorrow in the brightness of the air.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from Tigana
“We each have a special something we can get only at a special time of our life. like a small flame. A careful, fortunate few cherish that flame, nurture it, hold it as a torch to light their way. But once that flame goes out, it’s gone forever.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from Sputnik Sweetheart
“Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart.”
― Melodie Ramone, quote from After Forever Ends
“Rebellion flamed up in her soul as the dark hours passed by – not because she had no future but because she had no past.”
― L.M. Montgomery, quote from The Blue Castle
“The Sweat and the Furrow was Silas Weekley being earthly and spade-conscious all over seven hundred pages. The situation, to judge from the first paragraph, had not materially changed since Silas's last book: mother lying-in with her eleventh upstairs, father laid-out after his ninth downstairs, eldest son lying to the Government in the cow-shed, eldest daughter lying with her lover in the the hayloft, everyone else lying low in the barn. The rain dripped from the thatch, and the manure steamed in the midden. Silas never omitted the manure. It was not Silas's fault that its steam provided the only uprising element in the picture. If Silas could have discovered a brand of steam that steamed downwards, Silas would have introduced it.”
― Josephine Tey, quote from The Daughter of Time
The Solitaire Myster...
The Andromeda Strain
Fool's Fate
Night Pleasures
The Mysterious Islan...
The Ersatz ElevatorBookQuoters 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.
