Quotes from Narrow Rooms

“I don’t think of people as queer or straight,” the Doc said. “Not when you’re as old as I. And I don’t think God does either.”
“I didn’t know you believed in God, Doc,” Vance said.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“For imagine having somebody beside you day and night loving you and forgiving you and petting you forever and ever, that must be a better description of hell than being put into a boiling lake or cauldron of ice that burnt your black.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“Nobody can cause another man evil unless the second party involved allows him to.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“Behind this story so far is another story, as behind the girders of an ancient bridge is the skeleton of a child which superstition says keeps the bridge standing.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“Don’t shoot me, Sidney, I love you.”
He had shot him right through the words that still haunted him today, the most perfect words ever said to him.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“My idea of heaven is to be hunting with you in some beautiful park with mountains like here at home but where we won’t need guns or prey but we will just walk together arm in arm in this good world and be by ourselves always together forever and a day.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“I have wrote my name in hell,” Brian McFee had said as he was dying on the sawdust of the floor in the Bent Ridge Tavern.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

“Not all princes he had read about in books of legends are beautiful and noble and carry their heads high.”
― James Purdy, quote from Narrow Rooms

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Popular quotes

“What shall I do?" she asked in a small voice.
"Forget your own self," he said.
"But all these years," she urged, "I have so carefully fulfilled my duty."
"Always with the thought of your own freedom in your mind," he said.
She could not deny it. She sat motionless, her hands folded on the pearl-gray satin of her robe. "Direct me," she said at last.
"Instead of your own freedom, think how you can free others," he said gently.
She lifted her head.
"From yourself," he said still gently.”
― Pearl S. Buck, quote from Pavilion of Women: A Novel of Life in the Women's Quarters

“When a man has learned to live without money, he thought, a few rubles can go a long way.”
― Dan Millman, quote from The Journeys of Socrates

“Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, quote from David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“I almost regret having to tell him this. No one should be confronted with the depths of darkness they're capable of all at once.”
― Cristin Terrill, quote from All Our Yesterdays

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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.