Quotes from Inside Out & Back Again

“Oh, my daughter,
at times you have to fight,
but preferably
not with your fists.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“This year I hope
I truly learn
to fly-kick
not to kick anyone
so much as
to fly.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Mother says,
People share
when they know they have escaped hunger.

Shouldn't people share
because there is hunger?”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Whoever invented English
should have learned
to spell.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“People living on others' goodwill cannot afford political opinions.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Mother tells me,
They tease you
because they adore you.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Paperwork, paperwork with a woman who pats my head while shaking her own. I step back, hating pity, having learned from Mother that the pity giver feels better, never the pity receiver.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“How can we scramble away like rats, without honor, without dignity, when everyone must help rebuild the country?”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Everyone knows the ship could sink, unable to hold the piles of bodies that keep crawling on like raging ants from a disrupted nest. But no one is heartless enough to say stop because what if they had been stopped before their turn?”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Why no s for two deer,
but an s for two monkeys?

Brother Quang says
no one knows.

So much for rules!

Whoever invented English should be bitten by a snake.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Black seeds spill like clusters of eyes, wet and crying.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“No, Mr. Johnston doesn't have a horse, nor has he ever ridden one. What kind of a cowboy is he?”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Mostly, I wish I were still smart.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“We glide and I feel as if I'm floating.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Our lives
will twist and twist,
intermingling the old and the new
until it doesn't matter
which is which.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“She was promised to Father at five. They married at sixteen, earlier than expected. Everyone’s future changed upon learning the name H Chí Minh.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“I step back,
hating pity,

having learned
from Mother that
the pity giver
feels better,
never the pity receiver.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“People share when they know they have escaped hunger. Shouldn’t people share because there is hunger?”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“I wish
our cowboy could be persuaded
to buy a horse,

that I could be invisible
until I can talk back”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“I need the lessons.
I’m hiding in class
by staring at my shoes.
I’m hiding during lunch
in the bathroom,
eating hard rolls
saved from dinner.
I’m hiding during outside time
in the same bathroom.
I’m hiding after school
until Brother Khôi
rides up to
our secret corner.
With Vu Lee
I squat in
weight on legs,
back straight
arms at my sides,
fingers relaxed,
eyes everywhere at once

I’m practicing to be seen.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“MiSSS SScott
points to the numbers
along the wall.
I count up to twenty.
The class claps
on its own.
I’m furious,
unable to explain
I already learned
fractions and how to purify water.
So this is what dumb feels like. I hate, hate,
hate it.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Oh, my daughter, at times you have to fight, but preferably not with your fists.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“I can't make my brothers
go live elsehwere,
but I can
hide their sandals.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

“Some verbs
switch all over
just because.

I am
She is
They are
He was
They were

Would be simpler
if English
and live
were logical.”
― Thanhha Lai, quote from Inside Out & Back Again

About the author

Popular quotes

“Gabriel.
This has to be his fault, somehow. I'm going to track him down, pluck out his angel feathers, and stuff a pillow with them.”
― Lisa Desrochers, quote from Personal Demons

“Vera said: “Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story?”
So I told her why.
Because if I tell the story, I control the version.
Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me.
Because if I tell the story, it doesn't hurt as much.
Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.”
― Nora Ephron, quote from Heartburn

“She remembered that once, when she was a little girl, she had seen a pretty young woman with golden hair down to her knees in a long flowered dress, and had said to her, without thinking, "Are you a princess?" The girl had laughed very kindly at her and asked her what her name was. Blanche remembered going away from her, led by her mother's hand, thinking to herself that the girl really was a princess, but in disguise. And she had resolved that someday, she would dress as though she were a princess in disguise.”
― Regina Doman, quote from The Shadow of the Bear

“I have begged and she hasn't answered. The whales are swimming deep inside me and she doesn't help. I need help. All the monsters in the world are inside me instead of outside me. I've been tricked and trapped and they are inside my walls not outside my walls inside with me and she won't help me. When I stop thinking about a muscle it shakes. When I stop thinking about a fear it leaps at me. I'm drowning but the lake keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper and I don't know how to get out the walls go up forever and I can't climb over and I can't break through and she won't talk to me.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from Songmaster

“If I fall asleep, it is because I am overloaded. I sleep because one hour with Henry contains five years of my life, and one phrase, one caress answers the expectations of a hundred nights. When I hear him laugh, I say, "I have heard Rabelais.". And I swallow his laughter like bread and wine.”
― Anaïs Nin, quote from Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

Interesting books

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.