Quotes from Flight

“What kind of life can you have in a house without books?”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I learned how to stop crying.
I learned how to hide inside of myself.
I learned how to be somebody else.
I learned how to be cold and numb.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“Yes, I am Irish and Indian, which would be the coolest blend in the world if my parents were around to teach me how to be Irish and Indian. But they're not here and haven't been for years, so I'm not really Irish or Indian. I am a blank sky, a human solar eclipse.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I hate my country. There are so many rich people who don't share their shit. They're like spoiled little ten-year-old bullies on the playground. They hog the monkey bars and the slide and the seesaw. And if you complain even a little bit, if you try to get just one spin on the merry-go-round, the bullies beat the shit out of you.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“They put me in a holding cell with a black kid and a white kid and a Chinese kid. We're the United Nations of juvenile delinquents.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“Funny how a little politeness can change people's minds.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“Then I remember that God is really, really old. So maybe God has God arthritis. And maybe that's why the world sucks. Maybe God's hands and fingers don't work as well as they used to.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“But I'm also addicted to books. And I know there has never been a human being or a television show, no matter how great, that could measure up to a great book.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“Is there really a difference between that killing and this killing? Does God approve of some killing and not other killing? If I kill these soldiers so that Small Saint and Bow Boy can escape, does that make me a hero?”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I bet you a million dollars there are less than five books in this whole house. What kind of life can you have in a house without books?”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“How can you tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys when they say the same things?”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“But now I want it to pour. I want it to storm. I want to be clean.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I am surrounded by people who trust me to be a respectful stranger”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I measure men by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, and I find all of them are assholes.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“If you can catch crazy, I'm a walking epidemic.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“They're not starving to death, but they look hollow-eyed and barren, like they've been fed just enough food but never enough happiness.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“My heart is beating a punk rock song against my chest.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I am surrounded by people who trust me to be a respectful stranger. Am I trustworthy? Are any of us trustworthy? I hope so.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“People smell different, too. Sometimes you meet people and you think they're nice and decent, and it seems like you might be friends. But you get closer to them and they stink. They smell like rotten fish or dead racoons or something. And you just have to run away.
Later, you mention the bad smell to your other friends and they say they didn't smell anything different. That stink is reserved especially for you.
But, hey, it works the other way, too. Sometimes you meet a person, and you catch the scent and it's like you've smelled a garden in Heaven, because all you want to do is follow that person around and breathe in for the rest of your life.
And later you mention this great scent to your other friends, and they say they didn't smell anything different.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I'm dying from about ninety-nine kinds of shame”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“And anger is never added to anger. It multiplies.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“My memory is strange that way. I often remember people I've never met and events and places I've never seen.

I don't think I'm some mystical bastard. I just think I pay attention to the details.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

“I know there has never been a human being or a television show, no matter how great, that could measure up to a great book.”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Flight

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Popular quotes

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“For Robert the experience was another step in education. He was learning in particular that patriotic declarations did not make due process of law superfluous and that he owed a debt to his own inner standards.”
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“Is it not late? A late time to be living? Are not our generations the crucial ones? For we have changed the world. Are not our heightened times the important ones? For we have nuclear bombs. Are we not especially significant because our century is? - our century and its unique Holocaust, its refugee populations, its serial totalitarian exterminations; our century and its antibiotics, silicon chips, men on the moon, and spliced genes? No, we are not and it is not. These times of ours are ordinary times, a slice of life like any other. Who can bear to hear this, or who will consider it?...

Take away the bomb threat and what are we? Ordinary beads on a never-ending string. Our time is a routine twist of an improbable yarn...There must be something heroic about our time, something that lifts it above all those other times. Plague? Funny weather? Dire things are happening...
Why are we watching the news, reading the news, keeping up with the news? Only to enforce our fancy - probably a necessary lie - that these are crucial times, and we are in on them. Newly revealed, and we are in the know: crazy people, bunches of them. New diseases, shifts in power, floods! Can the news from dynastic Egypt have been any different?”
― Annie Dillard, quote from For the Time Being

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About BookQuoters

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.