“The wind sounds like people crying.”
― Lindsey Barraclough, quote from Long Lankin
“Pete and me are pretty sure she's a witch, like old Gussie Jetherell, just down from us-- through she definitely is. She's got lots of cats, and that's a sign.”
― Lindsey Barraclough, quote from Long Lankin
“Water is dripping onto the floor somewhere near the cupboard, like the tick of a clock. It’s annoying because sometimes it comes when I’m expecting it and at other times it waits on purpose to irritate me.”
― Lindsey Barraclough, quote from Long Lankin
“And if you ask Sister Camillus at school why, she says it's a mystery and you'll find out when you die.”
― Lindsey Barraclough, quote from Long Lankin
“Your mother's always going on about how her and Uncle Ben being told the church was spooky when they were kids. That sort of thing doesn't scare me, you know. I fought Hitler.”
― Lindsey Barraclough, quote from Long Lankin
“Some things can be both real and imaginary at the same time, . . . some lies can be true, . . . broken faith may be restored.”
― Joanne Harris, quote from Blackberry Wine
“Thus she returned to the theme of ‘before,’ but in a different way than she had at first. She said that we didn’t know anything, either as children or now, that we were therefore not in a position to understand anything, that everything in the neighborhood, every stone or piece of wood, everything, anything you could name, was already there before us, but we had grown up without realizing it, without ever even thinking about it. Not just us. Her father pretended that there had been nothing before. Her mother did the same, my mother, my father, even Rino… <…> They didn’t know anything, they wouldn’t talk about anything. Not Fascism, not the king. No injustice, no oppression, no exploitation … And they thought that what had happened before was past and, in order to live quietly, they placed a stone on top of it, and so, without knowing it, they continued it, they were immersed in the things of before, and we kept them inside us, too.”
― quote from My Brilliant Friend
“...the truth is, we never know for sure about ourselves. Who we'll sleep with if given the opportunity, who we'll betray in the right circumstance, whose faith and love we will reward with our own. Only after we've done a thing do we know what we'll do...Which is why we have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than we know ourselves.”
― Richard Russo, quote from Straight Man
“Raphael continued to stare at me, in no hurry to get started. "You know the best way to get rid of a demon, right?" He asked with a serious face. I caught Ivy rolling her eyes as I shook my head.
"Exorcise alot!"
Ivy caught my expression of dismay. "It's okay, Beth. He's famous for his bad jokes. We're still waiting for him to grow up."
"And like Peter Pan, I hope to avoid that at all costs.”
― Alexandra Adornetto, quote from Heaven
“I wasn’t reading poetry because my aim was to work my way through English Literature in Prose A–Z.
But this was different.
I read [in, Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot]: This is one moment, / But know that another / Shall pierce you with a sudden painful joy.
I started to cry.
(…)The unfamiliar and beautiful play made things bearable that day, and the things it made bearable were another failed family—the first one was not my fault, but all adopted children blame themselves. The second failure was definitely my fault.
I was confused about sex and sexuality, and upset about the straightforward practical problems of where to live, what to eat, and how to do my A levels.
I had no one to help me, but the T.S. Eliot helped me.
So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language—and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers—a language powerful enough to say how it is.
It isn’t a hiding place. It is a finding place.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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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