“I wanted the whole world or nothing.”
“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.”
“Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?”
“I wasn't much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.”
“But now and then, a woman walks up, full blossom, a woman just bursting out of her dress…a sex creature, a curse, the end of it all.”
“After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.”
“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.
Maybe I'll write a novel, I thought.
And then I did.”
“Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly – all else is desperation.”
“Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.”
“It was sad, it was sad, it was sad. When Betty came back we didn't sing or laugh, or even argue. We sat drinking in the dark, smoking cigarettes, and when we went to sleep, I didn't put my feet on her body or she on mine like we used to. We slept without touching.
We had both been robbed.”
“The blankets had fallen off and I stared down at her white back, the shoulder blades sticking out as if they wanted to grow into wings, poke through that skin. Little blades. She was helpless.”
“Fay had a spot of blood on the left side of her mouth and I took a wet cloth and wiped it off. Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.”
“WHAT'S WRONG WITH ASSHOLES, BABY? YOU'VE GOT AN ASSHOLE, I'VE GOT AN ASSHOLE! YOU GO TO THE STORE AND BUY A PORTERHOUSE STEAK, THAT HAD AN ASSHOLE! ASSHOLES COVER THE EARTH! IN A WAY TREES HAVE ASSHOLES BUT YOU CAN'T FIND THEM, THEY JUST DROP THEIR LEAVES. YOUR ASSHOLE, MY ASSHOLE, THE WORLD IS FULL OF BILLIONS OF ASSHOLES. THE PRESIDENT HAS AN ASSHOLE, THE CARWASH BOY HAS AN ASSHOLE, THE JUDGE AND THE MURDERER HAVE ASSHOLES . . . EVEN THE PURPLE STICKINPIN HAS AN ASSHOLE!”
“…He was always high on drugs. I was not a drug man, but in case I wanted to hide from myself for a few days, I knew I could get anything I wanted from him.”
“Let' em learn or let' em die”
“Look, you're small-town. I've had over 50 jobs, maybe a hundred. I've never stayed anywhere long. What I am trying to say is, there is a certain game played in offices all over America. The people are bored, they don't know what to do, so they play the office-romance game. Most of the time it means nothing but the passing of time. Sometimes they do manage to work off a screw or two on the side. But even then, it is just an offhand pasttime, like bowling or t.v. or a New Year's Eve party. You've got to understand that it doesn't mean anything and then you won't get hurt. Do you understand what I mean?"
I think that Mr. Partisan is sincere."
You're going to get stuck with that pin, babe, don't forget what I told you. Watch those slicks. They are as phony as a lead dime.”
“God or somebody keeps creating women and tossing them out on the streets, and this one’s ass is too big and that one’s tits are too small, and this one is mad and that one is crazy and that one is a religionist and that one reads tea leaves and this one can’t control her farts, and that one has this big nose, and that one has boney legs … But now and then, a woman walks up, full blossom, a woman just bursting out of her dress … a sex creature, a curse, the end of it all.”
“The ocean," I said, "look at it out there, battering, crawling up and down. And underneath all that, the fish, the poor fish fighting each other, eating each other. We're like those fish, only we're up here. One bad move and you're finished. It's nice to be a champion. It's nice to know your moves.”
“Courage comes from the belly - all else is desperation.”
“I met Betty on the street.
"I saw you with that bitch a while back. She's not your kind of woman."
"None of them are.”
“I went to the bathroom and threw some water on my face, combed my hair. If I could only comb that face, I thought, but I can't.”
“يواصل الله خلق المرأة والقذف بها الى الشوارع , تلك بمؤخرة ضخمة جداً واخرى بنهدين صغيرين جداً , والمهووسة والمجنونة , والمتدينة , ومن تقرأ الفنجان , ومن لا تتحكم في ضراطها , ومن لها انف كبير , ومن لها سيقان نحيلة …
لكن بين الحين والاخر , تطل امرأة بكامل نورها , امرأة تتفتح من ثيابها ..مخلوق جذّاب , هي اللعنة ! ونهاية العالم .
نظرتُ الى اعلى ورأيتها , في الطرف المقابل للحانة . كانت مخمورة ورفض النادل ان يقدم لها مشروباً اخر, بدأت تشتُم وقاموا باستدعاء أحد رجال الشرطة , فأمسك بها الشرطي من ذراعها , وقادها الى الخارج , فيما كانوا هم يلغطون .
أنهيت شرابي وخرجتُ وراءهم .
((ايها الشرطيّ ! ايها الشرطيّ ! ))
توقّف ونظر اليّ .
((هل فعلت زوجتي سوءًا؟)) سالته .
((نعتقد انها مخمورة , يا سيدي . كنت سأرافقها الى البوابة)) .
((بوابة الانطلاق؟))
ضحك . ((لا يا سيدي . بوابة الخروج)).
((سأعتني بالامر , يا حضرة الشرطي)) .
((حسناً يا سيدي , ولكن اهتم بأن لا تشرب بعد الان )) .
لم ارّد . أمسكتها من ذراعها وعدت بها الى الداخل .
قالت : (( الحمد لله ,لقد انقذت حياتي )) .
اصطدم صدرها بي .
((لا بأس اسمي هانك))
قالت : ((انا ماري لو)) .
قلت : ((ماري لو , أنا احبك)) . ص 177”
“She seemed a bit crazy but I kept looking at her body and I didn't care.”
“Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.”
“I went home each night dizzy and sick. He was murdering me with the sound of his voice.”
“I broke that town in half like a wooden match.”
“The first place smelled like work, so I took the second.”
“God damn the geraniums! ...It was like trying to screw during an aerial attack.”
“MAILMAN CAUGHT DRINKING THE BLOOD OF GOD AND TAKING A SHOWER, NAKED, IN ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.”
“Sleep is a little slice of death.”
“So eager, Ms. Weaver. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you like the taste of me.”
“My Kisa-Anna… my solnyshko… God put a piece of your blue eyes in mine so we would always know we matched…”
“With regard to the work itself, I dare not venture a judgment, for I do not understand it.”
“My grandfather used to like the word 'mitigate,'" Harry said. "He liked the sound of it, and he used it whenever he could. When he was a very old man, he often got on the subject of dying. 'You cant talk your way out,' he'd often say, 'and you can't buy your way out, and you can't shoot your way out, and the only thing that mitigates the matter in the slightest is the fact that nobody else is going to escape. Nobody-no, not one.'"
"I know, I know," said Mr. Hewitt, "but what's the purpose of it?"
"You supported your wife, didn't you?" asked Harry. "You raised a family, didn't you? That's the purpose of it."
'That's no purpose," said Mr. Hewitt. "The same thing that's going to happen to me is going to happen to them."
"The generations have to keep coming along," said Harry. "That's all I know."
"You're put here, " said Mr. Hewitt, "and you're allowed to eat and draw breath and go back and forth a few short years, and about the time you get things in shape where you can sit down and enjoy them you wind up in a box in a hole in the ground, and as far as I can see, there's no purpose to it whatsoever.”
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