Quotes from Open House

Elizabeth Berg ·  272 pages

Rating: (50.9K votes)


“I made cranberry sauce, and when it was done put it into a dark blue bowl for the beautiful contrast. I was thinking, doing this, about the old ways of gratitude: Indians thanking the deer they'd slain, grace before supper, kneeling before bed. I was thinking that gratitude is too much absent in our lives now, and we need it back, even if it only takes the form of acknowledging the blue of a bowl against the red of cranberries.”
― Elizabeth Berg, quote from Open House


“I remove my wedding rings and put them in the jewelry box. So many others have done this. I am not the only one. I am not the only one. But here, I am the only one.”
― Elizabeth Berg, quote from Open House


“It's amazing how smart the body is. Though maybe we could do without loving. I think it's overrated, and I think it's too hard. You should only love your children; that is necessary, because otherwise you might kill them. But to love a man? It's overrated, and it's too hard and I will never, ever do it again.”
― Elizabeth Berg, quote from Open House


“My mother lost too much and repaired herself in the only way she was able to repair herself. That in fact she is repairing herself, hour by hour.”
― Elizabeth Berg, quote from Open House


“I once read that Martha Stewart never wears a bathrobe. Not that I like Martha Stewart, nobody likes Martha Stewart, I don’t think even Martha Stewart likes Martha Stewart.”
― Elizabeth Berg, quote from Open House



“When did After start? I don't remember it starting. I only remember it having arrived. Things were bad for such a long time before he left. But I miss him. I can feel loneliness in my like circulation; as constant and as irrefutable.”
― Elizabeth Berg, quote from Open House


About the author

Elizabeth Berg
Born place: in St. Paul, Minnesota, The United States
Born date December 2, 1948
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“All this long human story, most passionate and tragic in the living, was but an unimportant, a seemingly barren and negligible effort, lasting only for a few moments in the life of the galaxy. When it was over, the host of the planetary systems still lived on, with here and there a casualty, and here and there among the stars a new planetary birth, and here and there a fresh disaster.”
― Olaf Stapledon, quote from Star Maker


“Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing.”
― Karen Cushman, quote from The Midwife's Apprentice


“Ramona could not understand why grown-ups always talked about how quickly children grew up. Ramona thought growing up was the slowest thing there was, slower even than waiting for Christmas to come.
She had been waiting years just to get to kindergarten, and the last half hour was the slowest part of all.”
― Beverly Cleary, quote from Ramona the Pest


“Strange, Andras thought, that war could lead you to involuntarily forgive a person who didn't deserve forgiveness, just as it might make you kill a man you didn't hate.”
― Julie Orringer, quote from The Invisible Bridge


“Izzy -I don't know why you'd wait for me, but if you do, I promise to make myself worth that wait. Or I'll try. I can promise I am going to try.”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy


Interesting books

Reconstructing Amelia
(105.8K)
Reconstructing Ameli...
by Kimberly McCreight
The Crown of Embers
(38.6K)
The Crown of Embers
by Rae Carson
Azincourt
(19.1K)
Azincourt
by Bernard Cornwell
The Castle of Llyr
(30K)
The Castle of Llyr
by Lloyd Alexander
Vita Nuova
(4.1K)
Vita Nuova
by Dante Alighieri
The Recognitions
(4K)
The Recognitions
by William Gaddis

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.