“We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“Children are nothing but a problem people create and then congratulate themselves on solving.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“you know what her punishment is for tormenting you way back when?" he said.
I looked at him.
He said, "her punishment is being her,”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“Maybe my homesickness was a form of prescience because when I look back, it's the circumstances of this very car ride that I recognize as irretrievable: the experience of driving nowhere in particular with my sister, both of us seventeen years old, the open windows causing our hair to blow wildly; that feeling of being unencumbered; that confidence that our futures would inform the way we wanted them to and our real lives were just beginning.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“My own preferences had little bearing on the outcome of events.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“She would say that we create our own reality-that the truth, ultimately, is what we choose to believe.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“Our windows were open, and the radio had been playing continuously--not one but two Billy Joel songs had come on during our drive--and the air was dense with the humidity of a midwestern summer, weather that even then made me homesick, though it was hard to say for what. Maybe my homesickness was a form of prescience because when I look back, it's the circumstances of this very car ride that I recognize as irretrievable: the experience of driving nowhere in particular with my sister, both of us seventeen years old, the open windows causing our hair to blow wildly; that feeling of being unencumbered; that confidence that our futures would unfold the way we wanted them to and our real lives were just beginning.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“I want to open myself up, I want to experience other dimensions, I don’t want to be bound by the rules of this world. Does that make me a freak?”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“Maybe I have always been, as Vi would subsequently accuse me, someone who creates obstacles for myself than looks around in surprise, wondering where they came from.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“Rudolph Walsh, you are my fierce advocate, and your wit and wisdom”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
“we create our own reality—that the truth, ultimately, is what we choose to believe.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, quote from Sisterland
Curtis Sittenfeld
Born place: in Cincinnati, The United States
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“But it is difficult for a child to realise that a school is primarily a commercial venture. A child believes that the school exists to educate and that the schoolmaster disciplines him either for his own good, or from a love of bullying. Sim and Bingo had chosen to befriend me, and their friendship included canings, reproaches and humiliations, which were good for me and saved me from an office stool. That was their version, and I believed in it. It was therefore clear that I owed them a vast debt of gratitude. But I was not grateful, as I very well knew. On the contrary, I hated both of them. I could not control my subjective feelings, and I could not conceal them from myself. But it is wicked, is it not, to hate your benefactors? So I was taught, and so I believed. A child accepts the codes of behaviour that are presented to it, even when it breaks them. From the age of eight, or even earlier, the consciousness of sin was never far away from me. If I contrived to seem callous and defiant, it was only a thin cover over a mass of shame and dismay. All through my boyhood I had a profound conviction that I was no good, that I was wasting my time, wrecking my talents, behaving with monstrous folly and wickedness and ingratitude—and all this, it seemed, was inescapable, because I lived among laws which were absolute, like the law of gravity, but which it was not possible for me to keep.”
― George Orwell, quote from A Collection of Essays
“What you don’t understand is, people never believe these things. Not until they experience them. Then when they experience them they become people other people don’t believe. Hard lines.”
― Doris Lessing, quote from Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta
“Everybody’s got a cage that keeps out the sharks. Those who open the door and venture out do so at their own risk.”
― Michael Connelly, quote from City of Bones
“I don’t want to be in pain anymore. I want to be done, to be left unburdened and naked, to tear the hurt off my body like layers of clothes. At the end of the trail I stop and bend forward, hands on my knees, to catch my breath. I’m not healed, but for this moment, I’m better.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“Time has a funny way of airbrushing relationships, removing all the things that were wrong so when you look back it looks much better than it really was.”
― Alexandra Potter, quote from Do You Come Here Often?
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The SleepwalkersBookQuoters 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.
