“Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“Maybe crazy is just the word we use for feelings that will not be contained.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“There's something undeniable about the posture of a person trying not to acknowledge your existance”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“This is how I learn most of what I know about my children and their friends: by sitting in the driver's seat and keeping quiet.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“It's only before realities set in that we can treasure our delusions.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“In the aftermath of death Small talk feels too small, big talk too enormous.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“We've made hyper motherhood a measure of female success.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“there is still a kind of unique loneliness to child rearing for women. We so often do it in isolation. Add to the fact that in our competitive, perfectionist culture, in which the price woman are required to pay for freedom still seems to be martyrdom, almost everyone lies about motherhood. Part of that lying is loyalty - I can't let on that my kid is the only one on the playground who can't read or play the piano - and part of it is self-protection, since we've made hyper-motherhood a measure of female success. The preferred answer to the question "How are you?" is always "Fine," and the answer to the question "How are the kids?" is supposed to be "Great!" That's true even if the accurate answers would be "terrible" and "a mess." I think it produces its own kind of desperation, especially for women, who yearn to be emotionally open.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“A loose end - that's what we woman call it, when we are overwhelmed by the care of small children, the weight of small tasks, a life in which we fall into bed at the end of the day exhausted from being all things to all people.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“How many times in the past three months have I been reminded of Ruby's two selves, the careful courteous young woman who spoke so sweetly to strangers and the person she let loose at home, where she was safe, where she could be spiky and harsh and uncertain and at sea? I have two selves now, too, the one that goes out in the world and says what sound like the right things and nods and listens and sometimes even smiles, and the real woman, who watches her in wonder, who is nothing but a wound, a wound that will not stop throbbing except when it is anesthetized. I know what the world wants: It wants me to heal. But to heal I would have to forget, and if I forget my family truly dies.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“Out lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“She say guilt is a useless emotion."
"Oh, please," says Nancy. "Guilt is what separates humans from animals.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“She is not what I envied in high school, the popular girl. She is something I'm not even sure existed then, the sure-footed girl. She gives the impression of being completely herself, and only a part of that impression is false.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“it is the only time I can rest without sleeping, think without deciding, speak and hear my own voice. It is the only time I can be alone. Slightly less than an hour each weekday when no one makes demands.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“My friendships have a certain symmetry at the moment: Alice is always asking me what she should do, and Nancy is always telling me what I should do.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“This is what it is like to be married: conversations in which no one actually speaks.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell,”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“Here is what I know about dressing like your teenage daughter: She will always look better than you”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“I Remember how we put in a security system to keep intruders out of the house, and how we only used it when we went on vacations. It didn't matter: OUr intruder had a place at our table, kew where we hid the Easter eggs and where we'd buried the pet guinea pigs, was so familiar that when I saw him in the bedroom doorway that last time I thought he was my own son, come to kill me.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
“So much of friendship is about being in the right place at the right time.”
― Anna Quindlen, quote from Every Last One
Anna Quindlen
Born place: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The United States
Born date July 8, 1952
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“I liked it all, but most of all I liked the fact that although the play was entirely focused on Quintana there were, five evenings and two afternoons a week, these ninety full minutes, the run time of the play, during which she did not need to be dead.
During which the question remained open.
During which the denouement had yet to play out.
During which the last scene played did not necessarily need to be played in the ICU overlooking the East River.
During which the bells would not necessarily sound and the doors would not necessarily be locked at six.
During which the last dialogue heard did not necessarily need to concern the vent.
Like when someone dies, don't dwell on it.”
― Joan Didion, quote from Blue Nights
“Great minds defend values—like justice in the case of Victor Hugo, and equality for Emile Zola.”
― quote from The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir
“Harry, si tuviera que quedarme con una sola de todas sus lecciones, ¿cuál sería?
-Le devuelvo la pregunta.
-Para mi sería la importancia de saber caer.
-Estoy completamente de acuerdo con usted. La vida es una larga caida, Marcus. Lo más importante es saber caer.”
― Joël Dicker, quote from La verdad sobre el caso Harry Quebert
“Sometimes, even if you know the answer, you’ve got to let the other person take a shot. If they feel wrong all the time, they never get the chance to feel right.”
― Karin Slaughter, quote from The Good Daughter
“I fell asleep in a river, I woke in a river,
of my mysterious
failure to die I can tell you
nothing, neither
who saved me nor for what cause—”
― Louise Glück, quote from Averno
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Congo: The Epic Hist...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.
