Quotes from Surrender

“I am dying: it's a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of the cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I thought about how stupid it is, that all of us are born destined to desire somebody else, though desire brings with it such disappointment and pain. Humankind's history must be scored bloody with heartbreak. This hankering for affection is a blight upon us.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Life is lived on the inside. What's outside doesn't matter.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“She doesn't understand that doors, walls, fences, ceilings - they're helpless to keep out what determinedly desires to get in.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Affection makes fools. Always, without exception, love digs a channel that's sooner or later flooded by the briny water of despair.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I suppose that's what happens when you make other people's lives miserable: life gets miserable back at you.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“My life was pouring out my feet and seeping through cracks in the floor; yet still I knelt and did not move, for fear she'd let go my hands. Let me stay, I wanted to beg: Please don't make me go.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I would always be lonely, but no more alone.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“There's fire in my fingers. I burn everything I touch.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I looked along the aisle and saw her, and it was as if I saw her for the first time. Everything changed. The ancient featureless interior of me spangled orange, mint, cat-blue. I looked back to the window immediately, my face damp, my breath caught. And worried I would never have the courage to look at her again.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“We walked into the forests which encircled the town. I have never liked them, their dark throat, their sullen height, their slump-shouldered gloom. But Evangeline walked steadily into their maw, and I followed her. She wanted to see the swathes which, years ago, the firebug had burned. The furnaced forest was green again, though here and there stood leafless trunks cindered to the core; on the scruffy dirt lay stiff black limbs tangled in morning-glory. Evangeline touched her palm to the charcoal, murmured, 'Poor things.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Time crawled past on leaden hands and knees.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I am dying: it's a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Yeah, reflections! The same, but different. Like twins - like blood brothers! And when you need something bad done, like punishment or revenge, you'll just ask me, and I will do it -”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“We both knew that what I said was the truth, as well as being a lie. The pure and honest answer was pinging between us, hovering above the weeds.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Every atom in me feels composed of lead. This is what dying is: a pull to the ground.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Some things about him are the same as ever. He still looks painfully angelic.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“You always underestimated me. You thought you made me harmless when you gave angelhood to me. You forgot that some angels are warriors. Where there's warriors, there's war. I will fight to the death. It's my duty. I am not afraid.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Evangeline's obliviousness was a reason to like her rather than not: I liked least those schoolfellows whose awareness of me invariably caused misery.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“A small town has as many eyes as a fly”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I am Gabriel, the messenger, the teller of astonishing truths.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“Goodbye, fin,' I say. And I wish I was going with him, to some warm sheltered hideaway in the hills, wish that I, too, could lie down beside the dog, feel his unbroken heartbeat, smell the dust in his fur.
There's only hours. I steel my courage.
Surrender.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“A small town is nothing but eyes and gaping maw; it pecks at its own like a flock of vicious birds.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“He is dirt under fingernails and the stick of sap on skin... I am saintly, poetic; I am demise, otherworld.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“A tethered thing is a dead thing...”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“I felt dry as if someone had skinned me. I was not the bones and meat, but the cast-aside skin. The heat had hollowed me.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“... [it] would seem like a daydream, like touching a tiger's face in the dark.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

“The warmth of outside was shaved from my skin and fell in curls to the floor.”
― Sonya Hartnett, quote from Surrender

About the author

Popular quotes

“It is we who are the parasites, and Earth the host”
― Carl Zimmer, quote from Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures

“One of the fables we live by is that some day the killing will stop. If only we rid ourselves of Chinese, white men will have jobs and white women will have virtue, and then we can stop killing. If only we rid ourselves of Indians, we will fulfill our Manifest Destiny, and then we can stop killing. If only we rid ourselves of Canaanites, we will live in the Promised Land, and then we can stop killing. If only we rid ourselves of Jews, we can build and maintain a Thousand Year Reich, and then we can stop killing. If only we stop the Soviet Union, we can stop the killing (remember the Peace Dividend that never materialized?). If only we can take out the worldwide terrorist network of bin Laden and others like him. If only. But the killing never stops. Always a new enemy to be hated is found.”
― Derrick Jensen, quote from The Culture of Make Believe

“The goal of attunement is not simply continual meshing, with an utter entrainment of every thought and feeling; it also includes giving each other space to be alone as needed. This cycle of connectedness strikes a balance between the individual’s needs and the couple’s. As one family therapist put it, “The more a couple can be apart, the more they can be together.”
― Daniel Goleman, quote from Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

“A moon like a fallen fruit reversing gravity was hoisting itself above the rooftops.”
― Ross Macdonald, quote from The Chill

“I had grazed along the surface of her actions and made deep judgments. Rejecting someone because you couldn't understand their love, that was a new one. The more I thought about it the longer the shadow of doubt stretched over all my conclusions. More often than not, things were as they seemed. But as I stared at her, she wasn't as bad looking as I had once thought. I realized how all this time I had seen her the wrong way, and how one's character affects one's appearance. Although she wasn't my type she was attractive. As I thought about her - the vulnerable intelligence, the violent honesty, and the fact that in the entire city she was the only one who took me in and fed me - she became more and more irresistible. Baited by an obscure beauty, trapped by an intense sorrow - all prior definitions had been overruled: this was love.”
― Arthur Nersesian, quote from The Fuck-Up

Interesting books

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.