“Hate is a lot like love. It's warm and fills you up until every part of you is tingling to release it.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“I’m sitting here on the Kaye Gibbons Show, and all I can think is that the whole country is sick. Sick with the idea that it’s good to be known as seen by as many people as possible, to show every part of our lives to the public at large. Whether it’s Facebook photos, blogs, or reality TV, it’s like nobody is content to just live life. The worth of our existence seems to be measured in pixels and megabytes and “likes.” Those of use whose lives can be downloaded seem to have the most value – until someone outrageous comes along to claim their time in the spotlight.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“I don't like seeing myself on camera." But that's not it--that sounds shallow, like I'm worried I'll look fat or something. "It's like somebody is walking on my grave. TV immortalizes you. The episodes are what my family would watch if I died.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“This, I think, is a little glimpse of what life could be like without my family. Home could be a place of laughter and love, a refuge. I'm filled with a terrifying weightlessness, like I've jumped off a cliff, but I know that if I don't look down, I'll be just fine.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“You know those primitive tribal people who believed a camera could steal your soul? Turns out they were right.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“This night felt like a last hurrah, like we could blaze our brightest, at the apex of our insane adolescence. This was our Mardi Gras before the dark days of Lent.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetrrs inside your skull”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“Somehow, the pain and rage and confusion of the past eighteen years dissolves until all that is left is this one perfect moment; unscripted, unedited, it's ours and ours alone.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“You can't screw up your own suicide and then expect the universe to give you presents wrapped in the skin of a wonderful boy. That's just not the way it works.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“If my sister were a character in a Victorian drama, she would be the snobbish rich girl with a penchant for talking shit about everyone behind their fan.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“He looks like the kind of boy who would jump trains, strum guitars, and pass a joint.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“The past is past. You tried to kill yourself. So what? I humped a couch in season twelve. We all have our skeletons.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“We're together now, that's all that matters.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“After graduation, we can just … ride into the sunrise,” he says. “The sunrise?” His lips twitch. “If we ride into the sunset, we’d wind up in the middle of the Pacific.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“Why would you get a cat?” “Because it’s my destiny.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“Even Mom doesn't understand how being in front of a camera all the time twists and warps you. How one second it makes you feel unbelievably alive and the next publicly strips you down until all that's left is one big question mark.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“I'm not Bonnie™ or Chloe. I'm the essence of her, the nontrademarked person the camera can never capture and my parents have no right to sign over. There is a sovereign nation encased in this skin that MetaReel can never trademark.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“Fourteen Kids, Two Dads, One Mom, Two Nannies, Two Tutors—and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“After graduation, we can just ... ride into the sunrise," he says.
"The sunrise?" His lips twitch.
"If we ride into the sunset, we'd wind up in the middle of the pacific"
"Just my luck," I mutter.”
― Heather Demetrios, quote from Something Real
“Greek philosophers looked upon the past and the future as the primary evils weighing upon human life, and as the source of all the anxieties which blight the present. The present moment is the only dimension of existence worth inhabiting, because it is the only one available to us. The past is no longer and the future has yet to come, they liked to remind us; yet we live virtually all of our lives somewhere between memories and aspirations, nostalgia and expectation. We imagine we would be much happier with new shoes, a faster computer, a bigger house, more exotic holidays, different friends … But by regretting the past or guessing the future, we end up missing the only life worth living: the one which proceeds from the here and now and deserves to be savoured.”
― Luc Ferry, quote from A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living
“The path taken by the authorities in their so-called Rauschgiftbekämpfung, or “war on drugs,” lay less in an intensification of the opium law, which was simply adopted from the Weimar Republic,21 than in several new regulations that served the central National Socialist idea of “racial hygiene.” The term Droge—drug—which at one point meant nothing more than “dried plant parts,”* was given negative connotations. Drug consumption was stigmatized and—with the help of quickly established new divisions of the criminal police—severely penalized. This new emphasis came into force as early as November 1933, when the Reichstag passed a law that allowed the imprisonment of addicts in a closed institution for up to two years, although that period of confinement could be extended indefinitely by legal decree.22”
― quote from Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
“A verdade, se ela existe, Ver-se-á que só consiste Na procura da verdade, Porque a vida é só metade.”
― Fernando Pessoa, quote from Poems of Fernando Pessoa
“Ah, but you were not a pawn. All along, you have been the queen.”
― Margaret Rogerson, quote from An Enchantment of Ravens
“People have been turning their backs on civilization ever since it began.”
― James Wallman, quote from Stuffocation: Living More with Less
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.