“Why can’t there be just one place for gay kids, where we don’t have to hide who we are? Hell, straight people have the whole rest of the world! They go around holding hands and kissing and talking about ‘my-girlfriend-this’ and ‘my-boyfriend-that.’ And they say we shove our lifestyle in their faces? That’s a laugh!”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“Are you?" I said. "Gay, I mean?"
-
I hoped he wasn't offended by my asking, but after everything that had happened, I really wanted to know.
"No," he said. "I thought I was for about a w-w-week once. But now I know I'm not."
If there was ever an answer that sounded like the truth, that was it.”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“The fact is, there's a difference between being alone and being lonely; I may not of been completely alone in life, but I was definitely lonely.”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“people make mistakes. If there was no such thing as forgiveness, there wouldn’t be any friendships left in the world.”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“I got to third base. At baseball practice the following Monday, that is. As for what happened that night with Kevin at the stinky picnic gazebo, that's none of your damn business.”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“even the ugliest place in the world can be wonderful if you’re there with good friends—just like the most fabulous destination on earth is pretty boring when you’re all alone.”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“In spite of everything, he still felt wonderful, like I was embracing a mountain. But I now knew that as solid as he seemed, he was no mountain.”
― Brent Hartinger, quote from Geography Club
“the fundamental question Juvenile Court was designed to ask - What's the best way to deal with this individual kid? - is often lost in the process, replaced by a point system that opens the door, or locks it, depending on the qualities of the crime, not the child.”
― Edward Humes, quote from No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court
“He lets the door fall shut on its own behind him, and when I hear that awful click, it hits me even harden at that exact moment that Tyler just gave up. And I still don't rally know why.”
― Estelle Maskame, quote from Did I Mention I Need You? (Did I Mention I Love You
“The crowd laughs at the parody. Weep, ladies, over your own fate, when you see the misery of imprisoned matter, of tortured matter which does not know what it is and why it is, nor where the gesture may lead that has been imposed on it forever.
The crowd laughs. Do you understand the terrible sadism, the exhilarating, demiurgical cruelty of that laughter? Yet we should weep, ladies, at our own fate, when we see that misery of violated matter, against which a terrible wrong had been committed.”
― Bruno Schulz, quote from The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories
“You know what? Forget what I just said. You’re already a part of this. You will eat, you will laugh at stupid things, you will stay up all night just to see what it feels like, you will fall painfully in love, you will have babies of your own, you will doubt and regret and yearn and keep a secret. You will get old and decrepit, and you will die, exhausted from all that living. That is when you get to die. Not now.”
― Miranda July, quote from The First Bad Man
“Instead, the lesson is that false beliefs, once they’ve become culturally entrenched—once they’ve become tribal badges of honor—are very difficult to change, and changing them is no longer simply a matter of educating people.”
― Joshua D. Greene, quote from Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them
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.