Quotes from Serena

“It's a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming in to it. Tears from the start”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“Don't love anything that can be taken away.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“She realized that being starved for words was the same as being starved for food, because both left a hollow place inside you, a place you needed filled to make it through another day. Rachel remembered how growing up she’d thought living on a farm with just a father was as lonely as you could be. (130)”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“What made losing someone you loved bearable was not remembering but forgetting. Forgetting small things first... it's amazing how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree's heartwood.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“You got one choice at the beginning but if you didn't choose right, things got narrow real quick.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“Nothing is but what is now”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“It’s ever been the way of the man of science or philosophy. Most folks stay in the dark and then complain they can’t see nothing.” – Snipes (185)”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“It struck her how eating was a comfort during a hard time because it reminded you that there had been other days, good days, when you’d eaten the same thing. Reminded you there were good days in life, when precious little else did. (268)”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“And darkness. You can’t see it no more than you can see air, but when it’s all around you sure enough know it.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“One thing's sure and nothing surer. The rich get richer and the poor get- children”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“Others can make us vulnerable and the sooner such vulnerabilities are dealt with the better”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“We want what's in this world but we also want what ain't.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“A small profit it better than a big loss”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“I don’t even have a choice. Rachel thought how that was pretty much true of everything now, that you got one choice at the beginning but if you didn’t choose right, and she hadn’t, things got narrow real quick. Like trying to wade a river, she thought. You take a wrong step and set your foot on a wobbly rock or in a drop-off and you’re swept away, and all you can do then is try to survive. (83)”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“We had some good times at school. I didn't know how good those times was till I left, but I guess that's the way of it”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“You men notice so little, Pemberton. Physical strength is your gender's sole advantage.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“A kind of annihilation, was what Serena called their coupling, and though Pemberton would never have thought to describe it that way, he knew her words had named the thing exactly.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“She’d never known fear had a taste, but it did.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“It struck her how eating was a comfort during a hard time because it reminded you that there had been other days, good days, when you’d eaten the same thing.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“I missed that one,' Henryson said. 'The war, I mean.'

'Don't worry,' Snipes said. 'Another one's always coming down the pike. That's something all your historians and philosophers agree on. A feller over in Germany looks to be ready to set a match to Europe soon enough, and quick as they snuff him out there'll be another to take his place.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“Rachel felt the grief grow so wide and deep it felt like a dark fathomless pool she'd never emerge from. Because there was nothing left to do now, nothing except endure it.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“But as Rachel watched the sheriff enter the front door, it was hard to believe the farmhouse itself was still there, because a place where something so terrible had happened shouldn't continue to exist in the world. The earth itself shouldn't be able to abide it.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“It amazed Rachel how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree's heartwood. And now this brown-eyed child. Don't love it, Rachel told herself. Don't love anything that can be taken away.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“The world lies all before us.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“A great business investment, religion. I’ll take it over government bonds anytime.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“You Men notice so little Pemberton, Physical strength is your genders sole advantage" - Serena”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

“It’s a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming into it. Tears from the very start.”
― Ron Rash, quote from Serena

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Popular quotes

“I could not hold my breath for seven minutes. I couldn’t even make it to one. I once tried to run a mile in seven minutes after hearing some athletes could do it in four but failed spectacularly when a side stitch crippled me about halfway in.
However, there was one thing I managed to do in seven minutes that most would say is quite impressive: I became queen.
By seven tiny minutes I beat my brother, Ahren, into the world, so the throne that ought to have been his was mine. Had I been born a generation earlier, it wouldn’t have mattered. Ahren was the male, so Ahren would have been the heir.
Alas, Mom and Dad couldn’t stand to watch their firstborn be stripped of a title by an unfortunate but rather lovely set of breasts. So they changed the law, and the people rejoiced, and I was trained day by day to become the next ruler of Illéa.”
― Kiera Cass, quote from The Heir

“They had been brought up in a tradition that told them in one way or another that the life of the mind and the life of the senses were separate and, indeed, inimical; they had believed, without ever having really thought about it, that one had to be chosen at some expense of the other.”
― John Williams, quote from Stoner

“Richard, might I ask you something? We've talked tonight of what you must do, of what you can do, of what you ought to do.But we've said nothing of what you want to do.Richard, do you want to be King?"
At first, she thought he wasn't going to answer her. But as she studied his face, she saw he was turning her question over in his mind, seeking to answer it as honestly as he could.
"Yes," he said at last. "Yes...I do.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“You are all alike, you people. You never learn the truth--that God knows nothing.”
― Graham Greene, quote from The Power and the Glory

“Moonlight turns even the most civilised man into a primitive.”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Day of the Jackal

Interesting books

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.