“The conversation of kisses. Subtle, engrossing, fearless, transforming.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“This is what happens. You put it away for a little while, and now and again you look in the closet for something else and you remember, and you think, soon. Then it becomes something that is just there, in the closet, and other things get crowded in front of it and on top of it and finally you don't think about it at all.
The thing that was your bright treasure. You don't think about it. A loss you could not contemplate at one time, and now it becomes something you can barely remember.
This is what happens.
...
Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“She could not explain or quite understand that it wasn't altogether jealousy she felt, it was rage. And not because she couldn't shop like that or dress like that. It was because that was what girls were supposed to be like. That was what men - people, everybody - thought they should be like. Beautiful, treasured, spoiled, selfish, pea-brained. That was what a girl should be, to be fallen in love with. Then she would become a mother and she'd be all mushily devoted to her babies. Not selfish anymore, but just as pea-brained. Forever.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“What she wants to do if she can get the time to do it, is not so much to live in the past as to open it up and get one good look at it".”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“She keeps on hoping from a word from Penelope, but not in any strenuous way. She hopes as people who know better hope for undeserved blessings, spontaneous remissions, things of that sort.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“As a matter of fact she does not know to this day if those words were spoken, or if he only caught her, wound his arms around her, held her so tightly, with such continual, changing pressures that it seemed more than two arms were needed, that she was surrounded by him, his body strong and light, demanding and renouncing all at once, as if he was telling her she was wrong to give up on him, everything was possible, but then again that she was not wrong, he meant to stamp himself on her and go."
"Passion”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“....Lived in curious but not unhappy isolation…subscribing to magazines nobody around them read, listening to programs on the national radio network which nobody around them listened to…”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“A certain kind of seriousness in a girl could cancel out looks”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“يكي دوبار كارلا يكدفعه شروع كرده بود به حرف زدن و كار خيلي احمقانه اي كرده بود، فقط براي آنكه فضا را عوض كند. از آن كارهايي كه كه وقتي سواركارهاي دست و پاچلفتي و وحشتزده تازه كار احساس حقارت مي كردند، از او سر مي زد.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“When two human beings divided by hostility are both, at the same time, mystified—no, frightened—by the same apparition, there is a bond that springs up between them, and they find themselves united in the most unexpected way. United in their humanity—that is the only way I can describe it. We parted almost as friends.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“I have been incredibly lucky," he said. "Lucky in my life. Oh, I know some people would not say so. They'd say I hadn't stuck with anything, or that I hadn't made any money. They'd say I wasted that time when I was down-and-out. But that's not true.
"I heard the call," he said, raising his eyebrows, half smiling at himself. "Seriously. I did. I heard the call to get out of the box. Out of the got-to-do-something-big box. Out of the ego box.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang on to it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“انگار یک جایی توی ریه های کارلا سوزن
مرگباری بود، و اگر با احتیاط نفس می کشید, شاید آن را حس نمی کرد. ولی هر از گاه باید نفس عمیق می کشید، و سوزن هنوز همان جا بود.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“She could not picture it. Herself riding on the subway or streetcar, caring for new horses, talking to new people, living among hordes of people every day who were not Clark.
A life, a place, chosen for that specific reason––that it would not contain Clark.
The strange and terrible thing coming clear to her about that world of the future, as she now pictured it, was that she would not exist there. She would only walk around, and open her mouth and speak, and do this and do that. She would not really be there. And what was strange about it was that she was doing all this, she was riding on this bus in the hope of recovering herself. As Mrs. Jamieson might say––and as she herself might with satisfaction have said––taking charge of her own life. With nobody glowering over her, nobody's mood infecting her with misery.
But what would she care about? How would she know that she was alive?
While she was running away from him––now––Clark still kept his place in her life. But when she was finished running away, when she just went on, what would she put in his place? What else––who else––could ever be so vivid a challenge?”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“گريس نمي توانست توضيح بدهد يا درست بفهمد كه آنچه احساس مي كرد دو هم رفته حسادت نبود، خشم بود٠ دليلش هم اين نبود كه نمي توانست آن طوري خريد كند يا لباس بپوشد٠ اين بود كه از دخترها توقع داشتند اين جوري باشند٠ مردها، مردم، همه آدم ها، فكر مي كردند دختر بايد اين جوري باشد٠ خوشگل، عزيزدردانه، ننر، خودخواه، با مغزي به اندازه نخود٠ دختر بايد اين جوري باشد تا بشود عاشقش شد. بعد مادر مي شد و خودش را با سوز و گداز وقف بچه هايش مي كرد٠ ديگر خودخواه نبود، فقط مغزش همچنان به قد نخود بود٠ تا ابد٠”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“But when she was finished running away, when she just went on, what would she put in his place?”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“...they lived in a curious but not unhappy isolation, though her father was a popular schoolteacher. Partly they were cut off by Sara’s heart trouble, but also by their subscribing to magazines nobody around them read, listening to programs on the national radio network, which nobody around them listened to. By Sara’s making her own clothes—sometimes ineptly— from Vogue patterns, instead of Butterick. Even by the way they preserved some impression of youth instead of thickening and slouching like the parents of Juliet’s schoolfellows.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“Getting and spending we lay waste our powers. Why do we let ourselves be so busy and miss doing things we should have, or would have, liked to do? Remember”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“Odd choices were simply easier for men, most of whom would find women glad to marry them. Not so the other way around.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“I think that this is minor. Things will happen in your life—things will probably happen in your life—that will make this seem minor. Other things you’ll be able to feel guilty about.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“He described to her the house he had built for himself, in outside appearance a shack, but delightful inside, at least to him. A sleeping loft with a little round window. Everything he needed right where he could put his hand to it, out in the open, nothing in cupboards. A short walk from the house he had a bathtub sunk in the earth, in the middle of a bed of sweet herbs. He would carry hot water to it by the pailful and lounge there under the stars, even in the winter. He grew vegetables, and shared them with the deer.
(From the story "Powers")”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“گريس خودش نمي دانست چقدر سرد است، فكر مي كرد اشتياقي كه نشان مي دهد بايد منجر به لذت هايي شود كه، در خلوت و خيال، با آنها آشنا بود، و احساس مي كرد از آن به بعدش را موري بايد به عهده بگيرد. كه نمي گرفت.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang on to it. You must not let yourself be waylaid and have it taken from you.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“براي همين حالا دارم راه و روشم را عوض مي كنم و دستكم فعلا خداحافظ دفتر خاطرات. هميشه احساس مي كردم ماجراي واقعاعجيب و غريب در زندگي ام اتفاق مي افتد، و خيلي مهم است كه همه چيز را ثبت كرده باشم. يعني اين فقط يك احساس بود؟”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“They were a pair of people with no middle ground, nothing between polite formalities and an engulfing intimacy”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“The thing about life, Harry had told Lauren, was to live in the world with interest. To keep your eyes open and see the possibilities - see the humanity - in everybody you met. To be aware. If he had anything at all to teach her it was that. Be aware.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“هری به لارن گفته بود در زندگی مهم این است که حواست جمع باشد. چشم هایت را باز کنی و امکانات بالقوه را-انسانیت را- در هر کسی ببینی. توجه کنی. اگر می توانست چیزی به لارن یاد بدهد، همین بود. توجه کردن.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
“The thing that was your bright treasure. You don’t think about it. A loss you could not contemplate at one time, and now it becomes something you can barely remember”
― Alice Munro, quote from Runaway
Alice Munro
Born place: in Wingham, Ontario, Canada
Born date July 10, 1931
See more on GoodReads
“Firearms are also good for you. Ask Charlton Heston, who once played Moses. Gunpowder has zero fat and zero cholesterol.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
“What did I want?
I wanted a Roc's egg. I wanted a harem loaded with lovely odalisques less than the dust beneath my chariot wheels, the rust that never stained my sword,. I wanted raw red gold in nuggets the size of your fist and feed that lousy claim jumper to the huskies! I wanted to get u feeling brisk and go out and break some lances, then pick a like wench for my droit du seigneur--I wanted to stand up to the Baron and dare him to touch my wench! I wanted to hear the purple water chuckling against the skin of the Nancy Lee in the cool of the morning watch and not another sound, nor any movement save the slow tilting of the wings of the albatross that had been pacing us the last thousand miles.
I wanted the hurtling moons of Barsoom. I wanted Storisende and Poictesme, and Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, "The game's afoot!" I wanted to float down the Mississippi on a raft and elude a mob in company with the Duke of Bilgewater and the Lost Dauphin.
I wanted Prestor John, and Excalibur held by a moon-white arm out of a silent lake. I wanted to sail with Ulysses and with Tros of Samothrace and eat the lotus in a land that seemed always afternoon. I wanted the feeling of romance and the sense of wonder I had known as a kid. I wanted the world to be what they had promised me it was going to be--instead of the tawdry, lousy, fouled-up mess it is.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from Glory Road
“Better to face the devil than have him at your back.”
― Jade Parker, quote from To Catch a Pirate
“If there is one question I dread, to which I have never been able to invent a satisfactory reply, it is the question what am I doing.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Molloy
“How white is an Irishman's ass?" Eve wondered out loud.
"You should know, darling.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from New York to Dallas
The Sea
Blue-Eyed Devil
Pan
Forget You
Justice
Rashōmon and Sevente...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.
