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

“I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said that you can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.)”
― Anne Lamott, quote from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“Mercy," said my mother thoughtfully, "you never told me your werewolf neighbor was quite that hot.”
― Patricia Briggs, quote from Bone Crossed

“Then in October, Indian Summer, the air turned so soft, the sunlight so fragile, and each day's loveliness so poignantly doomed that even self-ignorance and restlessness felt like profound states of being, and he just wandered the empty beaches and misty headlands in a state of serene confusion and awe.”
― David James Duncan, quote from The Brothers K

“Immortals are, by definition, immortal. End of story.”
― Richelle Mead, quote from Succubus Blues

“Don't never participate in no bad scenes, he reminded himself; that was his motto in life.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from A Scanner Darkly

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.