“It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don't know half as much as I think I do.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“Bodies count, of course - they count more than we're willing to admit - but we don't fall in love with bodies, we fall in love with each other. We all know that, but the moment we go beyond a catalogue of surface qualities and appearances, words begin to fail us, to crumble apart in mystical confusions and cloudy, unsubstantial metaphors.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“Thoughts are real', he said. 'Words are real. Everything human is real, and sometimes we know things before they happen, even if we aren't aware of it. We live in the present, but the future is inside us at every moment. Maybe that's what writing is all about, Sid. Not recording events from the past, but making things happen in the future'.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“As long as you are dreaming, there is always a way out”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“Bildiğim bir şey varsa oda karşılığını vermeden bir şey alamayacağınızdır, istediğiniz şey ne kadar büyükse karşılığında ödemeniz gereken bedel de o kadar büyük olur.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“Bluntly and quietly, in a series of simple, forthright sentences, she dismantled the architecture of unhappiness that had been growing up around us for the past several days. She was calling from the office she said, and had to talk in a low voice, 'but if you can hear me, Sid' she began, 'there are four things I want you to know. First, I haven't stopped thinking about you since I left the house this morning. Second, I've decided to have the baby, and we're never going to use the word "abortion" again. Third, don't bother to make dinner. [...] Fourth, make sure Mr. Johnson's ready for action. I'm going to attack you the minute I walk in the door, my love, so be prepared.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“Quand on me demande pourquoi je fume, je réponds que c'est parce que j'aime tousser.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“As long as you're dreaming, there's always a way out.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“Eds atbildot kaut ko noņurd un piedāvā Bovenam apsēsties, negaidīti pieminēdams fragmentu no "Voldenas", kad ar žestu norāda uz vienīgo krēslu istabā. Toro teica, ka viņa mājā esot trīs krēsli, Eds ieminas. Viens vientulībai, otrs draudzībai un trešais sabiedrībai. Man ir tikai viens krēsls vientulībai. Ja vēl piemer klāt gultu, varbūt sanāk divi draudzībai.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
“—Los pensamientos son reales —sentenció—. las palabras son reales. Todo lo humano es real, y aveces conocemos las cosas antes de que ocurran, aun cuando no seamos consientes de ello. Vivimos en el presente, pero el futuro está siempre en nosotros. Puede que el escribir se reduzca a eso, Sid. No a consignar los hechos del pasado, sino a hacer que ocurran cosas en el futuro.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Oracle Night
Paul Auster
Born place: in Newark, New Jersey, The United States
Born date February 3, 1947
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“If you must eat a banana in public, never make eye contact.”
― Darynda Jones, quote from Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet
“If you make something your life's work, make sure it's something you can feel proud of when you're an old relic like me.”
― Patrick Carman, quote from The Dark Hills Divide
“They will not let you have peace, they don't want you to have anything they don't have themselves.”
― Margaret Atwood, quote from Surfacing
“To-day the spirit of religious asceticism—whether finally, who knows?—has escaped from the cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations, needs its support no longer. The rosy blush of its laughing heir, the Enlightenment, seems also to be irretrievably fading, and the idea of duty in one’s calling prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious beliefs. Where the fulfillment of the calling cannot directly be related to the highest spiritual and cultural values, or when, on the other hand, it need not be felt simply as economic compulsion, the individual generally abandons the attempt to justify it at all. In the field of its highest development, in the United States, the pursuit of wealth, stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become associated with purely mundane passions, which often actually give it the character of sport.
No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or, if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. For of the last stage of this cultural development, it might well be truly said: “Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.”
― Max Weber, quote from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
“Bo widzisz, najgorszą samotnością nie jest ta, która otacza człowieka, ale ta pustka w nim samym.”
― Bolesław Prus, quote from The Doll
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A River Runs Through...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.
