“The sunset was that long, achingly beautiful balance of stillness in which the sun seemed to hover like a red balloon above the western horizon, the entire sky catching fire from the death of day; a sunset unique to the American Midwest and ignored by most of its inhabitants. The twilight brought the promise of coolness and the certain threat of night.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“People always pay a lot of money for things that make them stupid.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“Sometimes Duane imagined that he was the single crewman on a receding starship, already light-years from Earth, unable to turn around, doomed never to return, unable even to reach his destination in a human lifetime, but still connected by this expanding arc of electromagnetic radiation, rising now through the onionlike layers of old radio shows, traveling back in time as he traveled forward in space, listening to voices whose owners had long since died, moving back toward Marconi and then silence.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“He suspected that Duane had lived in those lofty realms of thought, listening to the voices of men long dead rising from books the way he'd once said he listened to late-night radio shows in his basement.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“Old Central School still stood upright, holding its secrets and silences firmly within. Eighty-four years of chalkdust floated in the rare shafts of sunlight inside while the memories of more than eight decades of varnishings rose from the dark stairs and floors to tinge the trapped air with the mahogany scent of coffins. The walls of Old Central were so thick that they seemed to absorb sounds while the tall windows, their glass warped and distorted by age and gravity, tinted the air with a sepia tiredness. Time moved more slowly in Old Central, if at all. Footsteps echoed along corridors and up stairwells, but the sound seemed muted and out of synch with any motion amidst the shadows. The cornerstone of Old Central had been laid in 1876, the year that General Custer and his men had been slaughtered near the Little Bighorn River far to the west, the year that the first telephone had been exhibited at the nation’s Centennial in Philadelphia far to the east. Old Central School was erected in Illinois, midway between the two events but far from any flow of history.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“A human being on this world, Duane realized with a shock of recognition approaching vertigo, made no more permanent impression than does a hand thrust in water. Remove the hand, and water rushes in to fill the void as if nothing had ever been there.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“Дейл тихо опустил голову, зная, что все это — спутник, и пещеру бутлегеров, и многое многое другое — могут повториться и завтра, и через неделю, но что этот момент — друзья сидевшие рядом, едва слышные шорохи летней ночи, голоса родителей снизу, чувство какой-то бесконечности лета, которое как обычно принес август — что этот момент единственный и неповторимы. И что он должен быть сохранен.
И пока Майк и Лоуренс, Кевин, Харлен и Корди провожали глазами светлую точку, на их запрокинутых лицах читалась вера в то, что на их глазах начинается новая эра, Дейл молча следил за ними. Он думал о своем друге Дьюане и о том, как можно описать то, что видишь, словами, как это делал он.
И затем, инстинктивно зная, что такие минуты нужно замечать, но нельзя губить их наблюдениями, Дейл присоединился к друзьям, провожая взглядом Эхо, уже коснувшийся горизонта и начавший тускнеть.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
Dan Simmons
Born place: in Peoria, Illinois, The United States
Born date April 4, 1948
See more on GoodReads
“In 1986—the year before Peter Cardinal died—Gene Johnson had done an experiment that showed that Marburg and Ebola can indeed travel through the air. He infected monkeys with Marburg and Ebola by letting them breathe it into their lungs, and he discovered that a very small dose of airborne Marburg or Ebola could start an explosive infection in a monkey. Therefore, Johnson wanted the members of the expedition to wear breathing apparatus inside the cave.”
― Richard Preston, quote from The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
“Can I see you outside for a second?" Kat glared at Hale, then walked to the patio doors and out onto the veranda.
As Hale closed the door behind him, Kat heard Angus say, "Ooh, Mom and Dad are going to fight now.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Heist Society
“Eustacia Vye was the raw material of a divinity. On Olympus she would have done well with a little preparation. She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman. Had it been possible for the earth and mankind to be entirely in her grasp for a while, she had handled the distaff, the spindle, and the shears at her own free will, few in the world would have noticed the change of government. There would have been the same inequality of lot, the same heaping up of favors here, of contumely there, the same generosity before justice, the same perpetual dilemmas, the same captious alteration of caresses and blows that we endure now.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Return of the Native
“I ask myself whether his rush had really carried him out of that mist in which he loomed interesting if not very big, with floating outlines - a straggler yearning inconsolably for his humble place in the ranks. And besides, the last word is not said, - probably shall never be said. Are not our lives too short for that full utterance which through all our stammerings is of course our only and abiding intention?...There is never time to say our last word - the last word of our love, of our desire, faith, remorse, submissions, revolt.
...My last words about Jim shall be few. I affirmed that he achieved greatness.”
― Joseph Conrad, quote from Lord Jim
“Still, night falls for all of us in the end, and too soon for some.”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow
Graveminder
Warrior's Cross
Laney
Airel: The Awakening
Waking Rose
The Watch That Ends...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.
