“Let's make sure it's really raining before we worry about floods.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“The problem was the liars. They said she could do anything she set her mind to, they told her she should shoot for the moon because if she missed she’d be among the stars, they made movies tricking her into thinking she could achieve heroic things. All lies. Because she was born to answer phones in call centers, to carry bags to customers’ cars, to punch a clock, to measure her life in smoke breaks. To think otherwise was insane.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“Something I learned from the Serbian tribes. Churches are built where saints were martyred. A bridge requires a child in its foundations if it is to hold. All great works must begin with a sacrifice.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“There are enough people running around in here. It’s starting to feel like an episode of Scooby-Doo.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“The more Amy struggled, the faster she sank. Every month she shuffled around less and less money to cover the same number of bills. The hamster wheel kept spinning and spinning and spinning. Sometimes she wanted to let go and find out exactly how far she’d fall if she just stopped fighting. She didn’t expect life to be fair, but did it have to be so relentless?”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“The walls of her stall were covered with graffiti. If it had been funny (“Pull here for MFA Degree” right below the toilet paper dispenser) she would’ve stayed longer, but it was mostly weird random names and dates.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“They said she could do anything she set her mind to, they told her she should shoot for the moon because if she missed she’d be among the stars, they made movies tricking her into thinking she could achieve heroic things. All lies. Because she was born to answer phones in call centers, to carry bags to customers’ cars, to punch a clock, to measure her life in smoke breaks.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“It was the voice of a preacher, a voice of the past, a voice for cathedrals, a voice from a time before microphones. It was a voice that denounced witches and flogged sinners. It was a voice that sang Latin while women burned at the stake and men were crushed beneath stones.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“We’re getting out of here,” she said. “The store will try to stop us. It’ll disorient you, get inside your head, try to confuse you and control you. But if you stay focused, you can block it out. You have to fight, do you understand?”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“For her, the world was divided into two kinds of jobs: those where you had to stand up, and those where you could sit down. If you were standing up, you were paid hourly. If you were sitting down, you were salaried.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“She didn’t expect life to be fair, but did it have to be so relentless?”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“Here was the other option: the tranquilizing chair. It was always waiting for her. It always wanted her back. It always wanted her to quit again, to sit down and never get back up.
In the end, Amy thought, everything always comes down to those two choices: stay down or stand up.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“Life doesn’t care what you want, other people don’t care what you want. All that matters is what you do.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“The car buzzed at her, as if a door ajar was the most important problem in her life right now.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“For toil is the great grinding stone to make keen the blade of your spirit. Toil is the ladder by which your putrid flesh ascends into health.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“There’s nothing waiting inside but retail slavery, endless exploitation, and personal subjugation to the whims of our corporate overlords.” If”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“That was her nature. Fail and quit. If you cut her open, it was fail and quit right down to her bones.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“She promised herself that she was not going to cry. They could take her job, but they would not take her dignity.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“Work gives you a goal. It lets you build something that lives on after you’re gone. Work has a purpose beyond making money.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“All great works must begin with a sacrifice.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“The problem was the liars. They said she could do anything she set her mind to, they told her she should shoot for the moon because if she missed she’d be among the stars, they made movies tricking her into thinking she could achieve heroic things.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“It’s complicated. But pain and fear have a way of simplifying things.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“Amy would honor the first commandment of keeping her job: Do not look like an idiot in front of anyone who can fire you.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“Life doesn't care what you want, other people don't care what you want. All that matters is what you do.”
― Grady Hendrix, quote from Horrorstör
“I felt I was drawing close to that age, that place in life, where you realize one day what you'd told yourself was a Zen detachment turns out to be naked fear. You'd had one serious love relationship in your life and it had ended in tragedy, and the tragedy had broken something inside you. But instead of trying to repair the broken place, or at least really stop and look at it, you skated and joked. You had friends, you were a decent citizen. You hurt no one. And your life was somehow just about half of what it could be.”
― Roland Merullo, quote from A Little Love Story
“For many thousands of years people had looked at expensive heads of hair and thought of how much food and warmth they represented, so obviously it was a thought of no use at all, so why bother to have it? But thoughts of this sort did go ticking on, useless or not.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from The Summer Before the Dark
“Ishmael was looking at him through narrowed eyes. “This is very important to you, this box.”
“It’s important to the world.”
Ishmael said: “The sun rises, and the sun sets. Sometimes it rains. We live, then we die.” He shrugged.
He would never understand, Wolff thought; but others would.”
― Ken Follett, quote from The Key to Rebecca
“First, stop talking like that droid Peabody's reactivating. Second, you're not responsible for the flight of this suspect. That's on me."
"Lieutenant, I appreciate you taking my inexperience into consideration in my failure to perform my duty and complete this assignment in a satisfactory manner -- "
"Shut up, Trueheart." Jesus God, spare her from rookies. "Peabody! Come in here."
"I've nearly got the droid up and running, Dallas."
"Peabody, tell Officer Trueheart here how I deal with cops who botch assignments or fail to complete same in what I deem a satisfactory manner."
"Sir, you bust their balls, mercilessly. It can be very entertaining to watch. From a discreet and safe distance."
"Thank you, Peabody. You make me proud. Trueheart, am I busting your balls?"
His flush spread. "Ah, no, sir. Lieutenant."
"Then it follows that in my opinion, you didn't botch this assignment. If my opinion was otherwise, you'd be curled on the floor, clutching said balls and begging for mercy, which Officer Peabody has succinctly pointed out I do not have. Are we clear?"
He hesitated. "Yes, sir?”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Witness in Death
“Et que j'aime ô saison que j'aime tes rumeurs
Les fruits tombant sans qu'on les cueille
Le vent et la forêt qui pleurent
Toutes leurs larmes en automne feuille à feuille
Les feuilles
Qu'on foule
Un train
Qui roule
La vie
S'écoule”
― Guillaume Apollinaire, quote from Alcools
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.
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