“There are so many stories, she thinks, and most of them end up lost.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“We are not gods. We make mistakes. We do not live very long.
Sometimes someone grinds ink, mixes it with water, arranges paper, takes up a brush to record our time, our days, and we are given another life in those words.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“Some writers later, describing the events of that night and day, wrote that Wan'yen of the Altai had seen a spirit-dragon of the river and become afraid. Writers do that sort of thing. They like dragons in their tales.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“Lazy poets try to elicit a reader's response with words designed to tug at the heart.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“He wasn't a poet, not everyone is.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“A writer’s brush is a warrior’s bow, the letters it shapes are arrows that must hit the mark on the page. The calligrapher is an archer, or a general on a battlefield. Someone wrote that long ago. She feels that way this morning. She is at war.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“He didn't look back but he knew his wife and his brother's wife, all the women of the house, would be flying, as if into battle, to make East Slope as ready as it could ever be for what had arrived.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“You're too clever to be a soldier." Then she shook her head. "Don't say it. I know. We need our soldiers to be clever. I do know."
"Thank you," he murmured. "You can do all of the conversation. Make it easier for me.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“It had taken skill, tact, an ability to choose friends well, and a great deal of luck”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“Ambitions and dreams put you at a drinking table with unexpected companions. Cups were filled and refilled, making you drunk with the illusion of changing the world.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“You’d never killed anyone. Then you had.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“I cannot speak for those who come after, or what the world will be. We are not made that way.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“It is not easy, she thinks, to make your way in the world while insisting on a new path.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“It was different, though, knowing something in your thoughts and then hearing it confirmed, made real, planted in the world like a tree”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“Not every man or woman sailing down the river will be a figure of force or significance. Some are merely in the boat with all of us.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“It had taken skill, tact, an ability to choose friends well, and a great deal of luck... Luck was always part of it, one way or another”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“Lin Kuo himself would have said that his legacy was his daughter. Or no. He’d have believed that, but never voiced the thought, for fear of putting a burden of such weight upon her shoulders, which would be an improper thing to do to anyone, let alone a child so dearly loved from the beginning of her days to the end of his.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, quote from River of Stars
“He saw on the paper a picture of a man, white-skinned, who hung upon a crosspiece of wood. The man was without clothes except for a bit about his loins, and to all appearences he was dead, since his head drooped upon his shoulder and his eyes were closed above his bearded lips. Wang Lung looked at the pictured man in horror and with increasing interest.”
― Pearl S. Buck, quote from The Good Earth
“So each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, or at least some remote and distant hope....”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Tess of the D'Urbervilles
“إن ما تشعرون به من الألم هو انكسار القشرة التي تغلف إدراككم . وكما أن القشرة الصلدة التي تحجب الثمرة يجب أن تتحطم حتى يبرز قلبها من ظلمة الأرض إلى نور الشمس .. هكذا أنتم أيضاً .. يجب أن تحطم الآلام قشوركم قبل أن تعرفوا معنى الحياة .. لأنكم لو استطعتم أن تعيروا عجائب حياتكم اليومية حقها من التأمل والدهشة لما كنتم ترون ألامكم أقل غرابة من أفراحكم .. أنتم مخيرون في الكثير من آلامكم .. وهذا الكثير من آلامكم هو الجرعة الشديدة المرارة التي بواسطتها يَشفي الطبيب الحكيم الساهر في أعماقكم أسقام نفوسكم البشرية ..”
― Kahlil Gibran, quote from The Prophet
“Oh why rebuke you him that loves you so? / Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Morgaine laughed and mocked, but when it was a real trouble, no one could be kinder.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, quote from The Mists of Avalon
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.