“To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“If you could hold your nose to avoid a stink, or close your eyes to cut out a sight, why not shut off your brain to avoid a thought?”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“But then, oh, my blessed, he smiled. I guess from that moment I knew I was going to marry Joseph Wojtkiewicz--God, pope, three motherless children, unspellable name and all. For when he smiled, he looked like the kind of man who would sing to the oysters.”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“All my dreams of leaving, but beneath them I was afraid to go. I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my fingers an iota, I would find myself once more cold and clean in a forgotten basket.”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“I was quite sure I was crazy, and it was amazing that as soon as I admitted it, I became quite calm. There was nothing I could do about it. I seemed relatively harmless. After”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“suppose if alcohol had been available to me that November, I would have become a drunk. As it was, the only thing I could lose my miserable self in was books. We”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“Don't tell me no one ever gave you a chance. You don't need anything given to you. You can make your own chances. But first you have to know what you're after, my dear.”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“I was not happy in any way that would make sense to most people, but I was, for the first time in my life, deeply content with what life was giving me. Part”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“Crazy people who are judged to be harmless are allowed an enormous amount of freedom ordinary people are denied”
― Katherine Paterson, quote from Jacob Have I Loved
“Shy burst out laughing. When he quit, he saw she was smiling up at him.
and it hit him.
All of it.
Waking up to her. Going to bed with her. Making love to her. Eating with her. Laughing with her. Kissing her. Going shopping with her, and when she was in a store and wandering away, he saw her looking over the racks, looking for him, and when he came to her at her back, she'd turned to him, looking lost, and leaned into him the second he got there, suddenly found.
Jesus, he had it.
All of it.
"I never dreamed any fuckin' dream," he whispered, and the smile faded from her face as tears filled her eyes.
She understood him.
"Shy-"
"Didn't dream it, saw it, waited my time, and then you gave it to me."
"Shy," her voice broke on his name.
He looked into her blue eyes swimming with tears, feeling her fingers digging into his shoulders, her weight in his lap, the smell of her hair, the taste of her still on his tongue.
Yes, he fucking had it.
When he was twelve he lost it.
Now he had it again.
All of it.
Everything.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Own the Wind
“that was her edge. her secret weapon. she didnt give a shit.”
― Janet Fitch, quote from Paint it Black
“coffeepot, Glenna gave Blair’s arm an absent stroke. “Give you a”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Dance of the Gods
“It is a bad idea to live too long. Few carry it off well.”
― Charles Frazier, quote from Thirteen Moons
“The student thought again that if Vasilisa wept and her daughter was troubled, then obviously what he had just told them, something that had taken place nineteen centuries ago, had a relation to the present––to both women, and probably to this desolate village, to himself, to all people. . .The past, he thought, is connected with the present in an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of the other. And it seemed to him that he had just seen both ends of that chain: he touched one end, and the other moved.
- The Student”
― Anton Chekhov, quote from Selected Stories
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.