Quotes from Life in Outer Space

“But why me?

Because, idiot, you... are funny and smart and you have a giant heart that you can't even pretend to hide. And you love your friends and your mum, and you held my hand and made me sing when I was so scared I thought I was going to die. I knew you understood, right from the beginning, this thing inside, the stuff in your head that you need to make real. You get that.... And you wear stupid Superman pyjamas without any irony, and your face lights up when you talk about the movies you love.... And... you protect my dwarf. You always have her back. And you have a dimple when you smile that's so cute I almost died the first time I saw it.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I said that I am in love with you. I've tried not to be, I really have, but it's just useless. I know you don't feel the same way about me, but I had to tell you because... well, you're all I think about. All the time. I miss you every second that you're not with me... and I know you won't want to be around me anymore, but, Camilla... you're one of the best friends I've ever had. You're smart and amazing and weird and probably the most beautiful person I've ever seen... and before I met you, all I wanted was just to fast-forward through everything. But, really, I think my life was just paused, or something. You... made me press play. You made everything move. And no matter where you go, or whatever you feel about me... I will love you forever for that.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“She doesn't follow me.

She doesn't call out my name and chase after me in the rain. It isn't even raining. The sky doesn't even have the decency to provide me with a good movie cliché.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Mum looks like someone has told her that Santa will be shortly arriving with that guy from Pride and Prejudice in tow.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I think I would give up movies for this feeling.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Sam - I liked you from the first moment I met you! I made you invite me to your house for a study group, even though - you know what - I'm pretty good at studying on my own! When I went away, you were the only person I wanted to talk to! You were the first person I needed to see when I got back! I sang in front of you, and I've never let anyone see that part of me before! You are the person... I feel like I've run halfway around the world to find! I thought that was pretty obvious! Apart from throwing myself naked at you while holding a giant sign that says, Samuel, I am completely in love with you too, I don't know what else to do!”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I'm thinking about the top five all-time greatest movie kisses. I can't believe I haven't made that list.
And I'm thinking about a screenplay I want to write. I have a hunch it'll be the first good movie I've ever written.
This one will be about a girl.
I don't know how I ever tried to write my story without her.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I think, because…well, I like the idea of coming up with a story that never existed before, but I don’t really want to be in charge. I don’t want to be famous. I guess I like the idea of sitting in the dark and knowing that I created the thing on screen, that it’s my story, but, like, no-one else has to know it was me. Does that make sense?”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I know I should be able to find a story in anything. Good screenwriters can pull interesting films out of the asinine and mundane. But everything I've read about writing always begins with ‘write what you know.’ What I know is: quiet streets, topiary, moronic high school arsehats, and homework. Has anyone ever made a movie about homework? Probably. I bet it was in French.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I guess some people enter your orbit and get stuck, and there's nothing either of you can do about it.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I realize that Camilla is out very own statistical anomaly, an outlier that no one seems to know where to place.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“And, anyway it's not always about fitting in."

"It's not?"

"Nope. Sometimes, it's about reading your environment real quick, and then finding the bits that fit you.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“My lungs feel like they're imploding. Every part of my body feels like it's trying to run, screaming, from every other part of my body.
And then, apparently, the warm-up is over.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“So. Are we concocting some elaborate scheme where we pretend to be twins to get your parents back together?”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“You're also going to be out of luck with weapons. And weapons are mandatory for zombie apocalypse survival.'
Camilla is silent for a moment. 'You couldn't just beat them to death with Tupperware? That stuff's tough.'
I grin. 'Maybe if it's filled with Adrian's grandma's cupcakes. I think those are a valuable addition to any arsenal.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“He looks me up and down blankly. 'So. No Speedos?'
'I left them in my other bag with my muscle shirts and tanning spray. You?”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Every now and then, if I allow my mental focus to slip, I catch myself looking at her face and forgetting how to breathe. I guess these things take time to fade completely.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“No one calls me Sammy. My mother occasionally throws a “Samuel”, but I am, and have always been, just Sam. Sammy is a name for five-year-olds and game show hosts and Shinny Happy People.
I am, definitely, not a Sammy”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“No-one knows anything. Anyone who tells you they do... is full of bollocks.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“So the person you drag with you - she manages to fit in no matter where she goes?'
'Well - she didn't always. But she's levelled up a lot since she started out. She just upgrades her equipment and hopes that there aren't any evil guilds waiting to shoot her in the back. And anyway, it's not always about fiting in, Dex.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“But I've been kidding myself that this thing I feel for her is just a crush. No matter what I'd heard or read or seen in a movie - no one ever said it was supposed to suck so badly.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Nah. You’d survive at least the first act of any movie. The pretty brunettes rarely get bumped off first.’
‘Aw. You think I’m purr-ty,’ she says in a singsong voice.
‘Well, you know, objectively …’ I clear my throat.
Camilla kicks some sand over my towel. ‘I shall take that as a compliment,’ she says, giggling.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I fall asleep with the sound of her voice echoing in my head, and a feeling in my chest like someone is scooping my heart out with a spoon.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

About the author

Popular quotes

“I love you, Margaret Macy. And there is something I need to ask you. Something I’ve asked twice before and am nearly afraid to ask again. The Scriptures say let our yes be yes and our no be no, but I pray, in your case, your no may have changed . . . ?” Margaret leaned forward and kissed him firmly, warmly, on the lips. Then she smiled at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Yes, it most definitely has.”
― Julie Klassen, quote from The Maid of Fairbourne Hall

“She had always loved him, after all. And perhaps he knew it. Perhaps he saw more than she had suspected. And despite it, he did not look away.”
― Meredith Duran, quote from The Duke of Shadows

“Elm

BY SYLVIA PLATH

I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root:
It is what you fear.
I do not fear it: I have been there.

Is it the sea you hear in me,
Its dissatisfactions?
Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness?

Love is a shadow.
How you lie and cry after it
Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.

All night I shall gallop thus, impetuously,
Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf,
Echoing, echoing.

Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons?
This is rain now, this big hush.
And this is the fruit of it: tin-white, like arsenic.

I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.
Scorched to the root
My red filaments burn and stand, a hand of wires.

Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs.
A wind of such violence
Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek.

The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me
Cruelly, being barren.
Her radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.

I let her go. I let her go
Diminished and flat, as after radical surgery.
How your bad dreams possess and endow me.

I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.

I am terrified by this dark thing
That sleeps in me;
All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.

Clouds pass and disperse.
Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables?
Is it for such I agitate my heart?

I am incapable of more knowledge.
What is this, this face
So murderous in its strangle of branches?——

Its snaky acids kiss.
It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults
That kill, that kill, that kill.”
― Sylvia Plath, quote from The Collected Poems

“Want to know the best part of being a warlord?' came a hoarse whisper.

I bit my lip, puzzled by the question.

Keir’s mouth curled up slowly into a smile. 'I always get what I want.”
― Elizabeth Vaughan, quote from Warprize

“I am not going to change who I am. I am human and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than me. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!”
― Garth Nix, quote from Superior Saturday

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.