Quotes from Small Island

Andrea Levy ·  441 pages

Rating: (20.9K votes)


“There are some words that once spoken will split the world in two. There would be the life before you breathed them and then the altered life after they'd been said. They take a long time to find, words like that. They make you hesitate. Choose with care. Hold on to them unspoken for as long as you can just so your world will stay intact.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“He looked so pained that I dreamed of taking his hands and making him dance”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“Describe snow to someone who's lived in the desert. Depict the colour blue for a blind man. Almost impossible to fashion the word.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“Paved with gold, no - but, yes, diamonds appear on the ground in the rain”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“Why you wan' the whole world when ya have a likkle piece a hope here? Stay. Stay and fight, man. Fight till you look 'pon what you wan' see.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island



“Gilbert: How Clark Gable turn every women's head so? Foolish young English girls would see a movie star in every GI with the same Yankee-doodle voice. Glamour in US privates named Jed, Buck or Chip, with their easy-come-by-gifts and Uncle Sam sweet-talk. Dreamboats in hooligans from Delaware or Arizona with fingernails that still carried soil from home, and eyes that crossed with any attempt at reading. Heart-throbs from men like those in the tea-shop, who dated their very close relatives and knew cattle as their mental equal.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“There are some words that once spoken will split the world in two. There would be the life before you breathed them and then the altered life after they'd been said. They take a long time to find, words like that. They make you hesitate. Choose with care.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“No, no, no, no. Don't get carried away, man. One thaw is not the summer.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


“A mass whose desperation made them seem like the feckless, and whose drab presence drained the classroom of all colours until even the white potties at the corner glinted like diamonds. I will never forgive Hitler for turning human beings into that.”
― Andrea Levy, quote from Small Island


About the author

Andrea Levy
Born place: in London, The United Kingdom
Born date March 7, 1956
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“if I had enough time” is the unstated sentence “to hear myself think.” In other words, we imagine that if we had time we would quiet our more shallow selves and listen to a deeper flow of inspiration. Again, this is a myth that lets us off the hook—if I wait for enough time to listen, I don’t have to listen now, I don’t have to take responsibility for being available to what is trying to bubble up today.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation Into the Writing Life


“Austin: "Well it is like salvation sort of. I mean the smell. I love the smell of toast. And the sun's coming up. It makes me feel like anything's possible. Y'know?”
― Sam Shepard, quote from True West


“The wrought-iron gate squeaked as Lucas opened it. He lowered the rented bike down the stone steps and onto the sidewalk. To his right was the most famous Globe Hotel in Paris, disguised under another name. In front of the entrance five Curukians sat on mopeds. Lu-cas and his eighteen-month-old friend then shot out across the street and through the invisible beam of an-other security camera.
He rode diagonally across the place de la Concorde and headed toward the river. It seemed only natural. The motorcycles trailed him. He pedaled fast across the Alex-andre III bridge and zipped past Les Invalides hospital. He tried to turn left at the Rodin Museum, but Goper rode next to him, blocking his escape.”
― Paul Aertker, quote from Brainwashed


“When it came to risks, the thinnest of lines separated a legend and a fool.”
― Kristina McMorris, quote from Every Time We Say Goodbye


“Your Grace," she said, "I have only one question. Do you wish this man crippled, or dead?”
― David Weber, quote from Flag in Exile


Interesting books

Njal's Saga
(3.4K)
Summers at Castle Auburn
(9.6K)
Summers at Castle Au...
by Sharon Shinn
The Virgin's Lover
(44.8K)
The Virgin's Lover
by Philippa Gregory
The Ten-Year Nap
(7.8K)
The Ten-Year Nap
by Meg Wolitzer
The Moth Diaries
(2.2K)
The Moth Diaries
by Rachel Klein
Progress and Poverty
(232)
Progress and Poverty
by Henry George

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.