“A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart.”
“That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.”
“Everything is funnier in retrospect, funnier and prettier and cooler. You can laugh at anything from far enough away.”
“I'm sorry if this all seems a little rushed and desperate. It is.”
“A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart."
— Chuck Palahniuk, Stranger Than Fiction”
“So this is why I write. Because most times, your life isn’t funny the first time through. Most times, you can hardly stand it.
That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. And writing makes you look back. Because since you can’t control life, at least you can control your version.”
“Scratching Yogi's ears Michelle says 'That's just part of his job, the comforting. That's what I mean by the bhatisvata. That he's more concerned with comforting and helping, even more than his own well-being." This is a trait that more "people" should encompass.”
“all my books are about a lonely person looking for some way to connect with other people.”
“The French philosopher Jacques Derrida likens writing fiction to a software code that operates in the hardware of your mind. Stringing together separate macros that, combined, will create a reaction.”
“Me encantaría creer en un mundo invisible. Eso destruiría todo el sufrimiento y la presión del mundo físico. Pero también negaría el valor del dinero que tengo en el banco, de mi casa que no está nada mal y de todo mi esfuerzo. Todos nuestros problemas y todo lo bueno que nos pasa podrían desdeñarse simplemente porque no son más reales que las escenas de un libro o una película. Un mundo eterno e invisible convertiría el nuestro en una ilusión.”
“Slang is the writer's palette of colors.”
“So this is why I write. Because most times, your life isn’t funny the first time through. Most times, you can hardly stand it.”
“Nobody used to look at George Washington, with his wooden teeth, in his powdered wig, and say, Fashion Victim.”
“That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. And writing makes you look back. Because since you can’t control life, at least you can control your version.”
“Why are you alone? I mean, we are all alone. Aloneness is... that´s life. It´s the quality of our aloneness that matters.”
“Solitude is a natural place for a writer to be.”
“The problem with proximity friends is, they move away. They quit or get fired.”
“Friendship is what really resolves and mitigates loneliness while not compromising the self in the way that love does, romantic love does.”
“It’s OKAY to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.”
“The first glance at the pillow showed me a repulsive sentinel perched upon each end of it--cockroaches as large as peach leaves--fellows with long, quivering antennae and fiery, malignant eyes. They were grating their teeth like tobacco worms, and appeared to be dissatisfied about something. I had often heard that these reptiles were in the habit of eating off sleeping sailors' toe nails down to the quick, and I would not get in the bunk any more. I lay down on the floor. But a rat came and bothered me, and shortly afterward a procession of cockroaches arrived and camped in my hair. In a few moments the rooster was crowing with uncommon spirit and a party of fleas were throwing double somersaults about my person in the wildest disorder, and taking a bite every time they stuck. I was beginning to feel really annoyed. I got up and put my clothes on and went on deck.
The above is not overdrawn; it is a truthful sketch of inter-island schooner life.”
“My fate is like those envelopes – sealed and tossed aside.”
“the problem with statistics is that they
don't activate our moral emotions. The depressing numbers leave
us cold: our minds can't comprehend suffering on such a massive
scale. This is why we are riveted when one child falls down a
well but turn a blind eye to the millions of people who die every
year for lack of clean water. And why we donate thousands of
dollars to help a single African war orphan featured on the cover
of a magazine but ignore widespread genocides in Rwanda and
Darfur. As Mother Teresa put it, "If I look at the mass, I will
never act. If I look at the one, I will”
“Love? You have no understanding that to love is to give, not to take.”
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.