Quotes from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“The hardest choices in life aren't between what's right and what's wrong but between what's right and what's best.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“I had my chance.' He said it, retiring from a lifetime of wanting. 'I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“He'd do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“I try not to live in the past...but...sometimes the past lives in me”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Henry was learning that time apart has a way of creating distance- more than mountains and time zone separating them. Real distance, the kind that makes you ache and stop wondering. Longing so bad that it begins to hurt to care so much.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Hope can get you through anything.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“He'd learned long ago: perfection isn't what families are all about.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“But choosing to lovingly care for her was like steering a plane into a mountain as gently as possible. The crash is imminent; it's how you spend your time on the way down that counts.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“I think I get it now. It doesn't matter how nice home is--it just matters that it feels like home.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“It reminded him that time was short, but that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Like so many things Henry had wanted in life -- like his father, his marriage, his life -- it had arrived a little damaged. Imperfect. But he didn't care, this was all he'd wanted. Something to hope for, and he'd found it. It didn't matter what condition it was in.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Henry, this isn't about us. I mean it is, but they don't define you by the button you wear. They define you by what you do, by what your actions say about you. And coming here, despite your parents, says a lot to them- and me. And they're Americans first. They don't see you as the enemy. They see you as a person.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“A young nurse, someone new whom he didn't recognise, came up to Henry and patted him on the arm. "Are you a friend or a family member?" She whispered the question in his ear, trying not to disturb Sheldon.

The question hung there like a beautiful chord, ringing in the air. Henry was Chinese, Sheldon obviously wasn't. They looked nothing alike. Nothing at all. "I'm distant family," Henry said.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“So Henry found himself stepping off the bus three stops early and wandering over to the Panama Hotel, a place between worlds when he was a child, a place between times now that he was a grown man.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Loyalty. We're still loyal to the United States of America. Why? Because we too are Americans. We don't agree, but we will show our loyalty by our obedience.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“The more Henry though about the shabby old knickknacks, the forgotten treasures, the more he wondered if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time. Boarded up in the basement of a condemned hotel. Lost, but never forgotten.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Good Morning, Henry. How's it feel to be a prisoner for a day?' Henry looked at Keiko. 'Best day of my life.' Keiko found her smile all over again.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“I am what you made me, Father.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Henry looked up and down the empty avenue—no cars or trucks anywhere. No bicycles. No paperboys. No fruit sellers or fish buyers. No flower carts or noodle stands. The streets were vacant, empty—the way he felt inside. There was no one left.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“It didn’t matter. He’d learned long ago: perfection isn’t what families are all about.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Henry handed the record to his old friend, who draped it across his chest. His eyes closed as if he were listening to the music play somewhere,sometime long ago.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Talking to strangers sounded like talking to no one, which Henry had some firsthand experience in- in real life. It was lonely. Almost as lonely as Lake View Cemetery, where he'd buried Ethel.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“The waitress brought a fresh pot of tea, and Marty refilled his father’s cup and poured a cup for Samantha. Henry in turn filled Marty’s. It was a tradition Henry cherished—never filling your own cup, always filling that of someone else, who would return the favor.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“People relations is hard business. Hard to keep that going.”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“-Kuinka kauan sinä odotat minua?
-Niin kauan kuin on tarvis. En välitä siitä mitä isäni sanoo.
-Entä jos joudun olemaan täällä, kunnes tulen vanhaksi ja hiukseni harmaantuvat?
-Sitten tuon sinulle kävelykepin”
― Jamie Ford, quote from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

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* * *

Roma: . . . Eh? What I’m saying, what is our life? (Pause.) It’s looking forward or it’s looking back. And that’s our life. That’s it. Where is the moment? (Pause.) And what is it that we’re afraid of? Loss. What else? (Pause.) The bank,/i> closes. We get sick, my wife died on a plane, the stock market collapsed . . . the house burnt down . . . what of these happen . . . ? None of ’em. We worry anyway. What does this mean? I’m not secure. How can I be secure? (Pause.) Through amassing wealth beyond all measure? No. And what’s beyond all measure? That’s a sickness. That’s a trap. There is no measure. Only greed. How can we act? The right way, we would say, to deal with this: “There is a one-in-a million chance that so and so will happen. . . . Fuck it, it won’t happen to me. . . .” No. We know that’s not the right way I think. (Pause.) We say the correct way to deal with this is “There is a one-in-so-and-so chance that this will happen . . . God protect me. I am powerless, let it not happen to me. . . .” But no to that. I say. There’s something else. What is it? “If it happens, AS IT MAY for that is not within our powers, I will deal with it, just as I do today with what draws my concern today.” I say this is how we must act. I do those things which seem correct to me today. I trust myself. And if security concerns me, I do that which today I think will make me secure. And every day I do that, when that day arrives that I need a reserve, (a) odds are that I have it, and (b) the true reserve that I have is the strength that I have of acting each day without fear. (Pause.) According to the dictates of my mind. (Pause.)”
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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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