“I am a collection of oddities, a circus of neurons and electrons: my heart is the ringmaster, my soul is the trapeze artist, and the world is my audience. It sounds strange because it is, and it is, because I am strange.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Every great character, Iz, be it on page or screen, is multidimensional. The good guys aren't all good, the bad guys aren't all bad, and any character wholly one or the other shouldn't exist at all. Remember this when I describe the antics that follow, for though I am not a villain, I am not immune to villainy.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“When you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“I'm feeling reckless - or honest, maybe. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“I swear the older I get, the more I value bad examples over good ones. It's a good thing too, because most people are egotistical, neurotic, self-absorbed peons, insistent on wearing near-sighted glasses in a far-sighted world. And it's this exact sort of myopic ignorance that has led to my groundbreaking new theory. I call it Mim's Theorem of Monkey See Monkey Don't, and what it boils down to is this: it is my belief that there are some people whose sole purpose of existence is to show the rest of how not to act.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“You spend you life roaming the hillsides, scouring the four corners of the earth, searching desperately for just one persons to fucking get you. And I’m thinking, if you can find that, you’ve found home.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“As simple as it sounds, I think understanding who you are—and who you are not—is not the most important thing of all Important Things.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“You know–I think my best course of action is to just let the ridiculousness of that sentence marinate.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“I swear, the longer I live, the less things make sense.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Life can be a real son of a bitch sometimes, bringing things back around long after you've said good-bye.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Home is hard. Harder than Reasons. It's more a storage unit for your life and its collections. It's more than an address, or even the house you grew up in. People say home is where the heart is, but I think maybe home is the heart. Not a place or a time, but an organ, pumping life into my life. There may be more mosquitos and stepmothers than I imagined, but it's still my heart. My home.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Sometimes, things are more embarrassing when you're alone. I guess when no one's around to hear your stupidity, you're forced to bear the brunt of it.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“I think about how quickly things have changed for me. But that’s the personality of change, isn’t it? When it’s slow, it’s called growth; when it’s fast, it’s change. And God, how things change: some things, nothings, anythings, everything… all the things change.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Life, it seems, delivers the best punch lines only after we've forgotten we were part of a joke.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Sometimes a thing doesn’t seem real until we say it out loud.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“I wish wishing were enough, but it's not. Sometimes you need a thing.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Remember that, Iz. Be a kid of honesty. Wave it like a banner for all to see. Also, while I'm thinking about it - be a kid who loves surprises. Squeal with delight over puppies and cupcakes and birthday parties. Be curious, but content. Be loyal, but independent. Be kind. To everyone. Treat every day like you're making waffles. Don't settle for the first guy (or girl) unless he's the right guy (or girl). Live your effing life. Do so with gusto, because my God, there's nothing sorrier than a gusto-less existence. Know yourself. Love yourself. Be a good friend. Be a kid of hope and substance. Be a kid of appetite, Iz. You know what I mean, don't you? (Of course you do. You're a Malone.) Okay, that's all for now. Catch you on the flip side.
Blimey, get ready.
Signing off,
Mary Iris Malone,
Your Big Sister”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Sometimes you walk into a room one person, and when you come out the other side, you're someone else altogether.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“I have limited experience, but I know this: moments of connection with another human being are patently rare. But rarer still are those who can recognize such a connection when they see one.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“What if … what if … what if … I play the What If? game all the time. But it’s rigged, is the thing. Impossible to win. Asking What If? can only lead to Maybe Things Could Have Been Different, via Was It My Fault?”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“My Reasons may be hard, but my Objectives are quite simple.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“But that’s the personality of change, isn’t it? When it’s slow, it’s called growth; when it’s fast, it’s change.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“He wraps an arm around me, and I swear we were once a single unit, a supercontinent divided millions of years ago - like my fifth grade science project - now reunited into some kaleidoscopic New Pangea. "I'm Madagascar," I say, sleepily. "You're what?" "I'm Madagascar. And you're Africa." He squeezes my shoulder, and - I think he gets it. I bet he does.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Exactly why I don't have a boyfriend," I whisper, turning to the window. Because you've referenced The Lord of the Rings twice before lunch, or because you're talking to yourself? I have to admit, I've got me there.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Pain makes people who they are.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“So I float in silence, watching the final touches of this perfect moonrise, and in a moment of heavenly revelation, it occurs to me that detours are not without purpose. They provide safe passage to a destination, avoiding pitfalls in the process.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Do so with gusto, because my God, there's nothing sorrier than a gusto-less existence.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“Closing his eyes again, Beck repositions his head on the back of his seat, and in one sure movement, reaches over and grabs my hand. Even with his eyes closed, he knew where to find me. I want to cry for a thousand reasons, laugh for a thousand others; this is my anomalous balance, the place where Beck and I can let the ridiculousness of our collective sentences marinate, and other things, too. It’s a singular moment of clarity between two people, and rare or not, I’m not about to let go.
I’m done roaming hillsides.
I’ve scoured the corners of the earth.
And I’ve found my people.
God, I’m almost jealous of myself.
Holding Beck’s hand in my lap, I find a courage I never knew I had and drop my head on his shoulder.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“She never said so out loud, but some things speak loud enough on their own.”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
“You ever have the feeling you lost something important, only to discover it was never there to begin with?”
― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland
David Arnold
Born place: in The United States
See more on GoodReads
“It had not had much effect, but that was beside the point. “Love is like a flame; it burns itself out eventually,” Sabiha had told Selva. “What will you do then?”
― Ayşe Kulin, quote from Last Train to Istanbul
“The 'bad guys' are the ones who are often misunderstood”
― Matt Myklusch, quote from Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation
“Ultimately these battles are about females, which means that the fundamental difference between our two closest relatives is that one resolves sexual issues with power, while the other resolves power issues with sex.”
― Frans de Waal, quote from Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We are Who We Are
“Because the amygdala can become hypersensitive, chronic stress can make you more jumpy and anxious. This is why a war veteran with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will hit the floor and cover his head when he hears the loud blast of fireworks. Before he has a chance to think about it, the blast reminds him of an improvised explosive device (IED) exploding or a gunshot. His amygdala triggers the fight-or-flight response—a false alarm. When you experience severe trauma or excessive chronic stress, the once-cooperative partnership between your hippocampus and your amygdala becomes skewed in favor of the amygdala. This is because the hippocampus is assaulted by excess cortisol and glutamate when the amygdala is pumped up. Cortisol and glutamate act to excite the amygdala, and the more it is excited, the more easily it is triggered.”
― quote from Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life
“What are you lying about now, devil,” she rasped, coughing when the blood filled up her throat again. Dark fury flashed in his eyes and iron fingers dug into her jaw. She screamed and writhed, fighting to escape the point of metal filling her vision. She screamed as he pressed it into her eye, drilling through her eyeball. She clenched her fists and jolted under the straps, her body going into spams of agony. “How”
― Lucian Bane, quote from Desecrating Solomon 3
Rattlesnake
The Line
Walden and other wri...
The Long Goodbye
Rogue Wave
In Lucia's EyesBookQuoters 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.
