Quotes from Strangers

Barbara Elsborg ·  309 pages

Rating: (9.4K votes)


“Kate, I need to use the toilet,” he called through the door.

“You’ve just had hours in the sea. Couldn’t you have gone then?”

“Mum told me to get out of the water first.”

“What, even the ocean?”

“It’s wrong to pollute.” He tried to sound serious. ”
― Barbara Elsborg, quote from Strangers


“Better not to have anything. Not even love. If you got attached to something, it only got taken away. Child or adult. Toys or people. No difference”
― Barbara Elsborg, quote from Strangers


“...do me the very great honor of becoming...the person who'll cook me lovely things to eat, who'll cheer me up when I'm miserable, who'll tell me no and mean it...”
― Barbara Elsborg, quote from Strangers


“I want you so much I’m scared,” he whispered.

“I’m scared I want you so much,” Kate whispered back.”
― Barbara Elsborg, quote from Strangers


“I love you because I can be honest with you. I trust you. I love you because you've made me see I'm more than I thought.”
― Barbara Elsborg, quote from Strangers



“I don’t feel part of the world. No one needs me or wants me or even likes me very much. I don’t like myself. The world will keep turning without me. I’ll be no great loss. I’m just a temporary misuse of a minute amount of carbon.”
― Barbara Elsborg, quote from Strangers


About the author

Barbara Elsborg
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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.