“We often confuse what we wish for with what is.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“You can't run away from home without destroying somebody's world.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“Careful lads," said the beetle at the front. "She's dangerous all right. Look at that changeable expression."
"I'm not dangerous," I told them.
"Dangerous. Not dangerous. Same thing," said the beetle.
"And what I say," said the next beetle along, "is, it's the dangerous ones you have to watch out for.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“Sometimes, "I told him, as the darkness swirled closer and closer, "you just have to say you're sorry."
It's more than that, and I think by then I knew it. It's more than saying sorry.
It's meaning it. It's letting the apology change things. But an apology is where it has to begin.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“A plop of rain hit me on the face, one of those early raindrops that turns up five minutes ahead of all the others to let you know it's time to get indoors.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“The juggler seemed worried. "Throw it a book," he said.
I threw it a book, and it tore into it, like a cat ripping a small animal apart; and while the creature ate its book the juggler pushed the door open. He nearly fell into a deep chasm on the other side. "Not a disaster," he said, as if he was trying to convince himself. "We need more books. Big books."
It didn't seem like a good time for reading, but I pulled two huge old books off the shelf in the corner and carried them over to him. He took one, but didn't read it. He told it what a bad book it was and threw it on the ground. The book bounced in the air and hung there quivering, and the juggler man jumped onto it and began to float away. "As long as they think you don't like them," said the juggler, "they migrate back to the library. And we get a free ride."
I rode next to him on my book, and we crossed the chasm safely. The books floated away and I waved them good-bye.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“There was a grumpy librarian in the library. I could tell that he was the librarian because he seemed to be made of books. I told him that we needed information, and he got us some butterfly nets and sent us up to the top floor of the library.
I wondered why we were carrying nets. Valentine didn't know.
The book I wanted was pretty obvious. It was called A History of Everything.
Finding it was easy. Catching it, however, was not. The moment I reached for it, the whole shelfful of books took off into the air, fluttering like pigeons, and suddenly I knew what the butterfly nets were for.
I waved the net about and eventually I caught A History of Everything. As soon as I'd got it, all the rest of the books flapped back to their shelf, all except one, a little red-covered book, which fluttered over my head happily.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“Valentine preened, "Oh, I'm a panther," he said. "I shall slip unnoticed through the darkness like a dark unnoticeable slippy thing.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“Valentine," I said, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Absolutely," he said. "If we put little wheels on our feet we could just roll around everywhere.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“It's not hard to mess things up.
It's a lot harder to try and put the world back together again.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“We've had our ups and downs since then, but that's what families have, ups and downs.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“You don't choose what to believe. Belief chooses you.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“We Own It’ by Wiz Khalifa.”
― Skyla Madi, quote from Consumed
“What are you doing now?” Al questioned, listing heavily as he tucked another one of those bottles under his arm and staggered for the cot half hidden behind a curtain. “Seeing if your circumcision is gone? It is.”
― Kim Harrison, quote from Ever After
“His sadness was of the kind that is patient and without hope.”
― William Maxwell, quote from So Long, See You Tomorrow
“Dear Anyone: This is a letter from one anyone to another anyone, no names required, because nobody really knows anyway. Names don't make a hell of a lot of difference. The world is made up entirely of strangers. Millions and millions of them. Everyone is a stranger to everyone else. Sometimes we think we know other people, especially those we supposedly are close to, but if we really knew them, why are we so often surprised by the shit they do? Like, parents are always surprised by what their kids will do. They raise them from the time they are babies, spend each and every day with them, think they're these goddamn fucking angels, and then one day the cops come to the door and say hey, guess what parents? Your kid just bashed some other kid's head in with a baseball bat. Or you're the kid, and you think things are pretty fucking OK, and then one day this guy who's supposed to be your dad says so long, have a nice life. And you think, what the fuck is this? So years later, your mom ends up living with another guy, and he seems OK, but you think, when's it coming? That's what life is. Life is always asking yourself, when's it coming? Because if it hasn't come for a long time, you know you're fucking due. All the best, Anyone.”
― Linwood Barclay, quote from No Time for Goodbye
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.