“Love is the exception to the law of diminishing returns.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“My mom told me once that she wouldn't be a kid again for a million bucks. She said things hurt more when you don't have any perspective on pain.
That's true.
But doesn't everyone want to be young and hot forever?
They only think they want it, Parker. But nobody really wants anything forever. Just for longer than they get it.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“There's a word in Portuguese that my dad wrote about in one of his books: saudade.
It's the sadness you feel for something that isn't gone yet, but will be. The sadness of lost causes. The sadness of being alive.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“I think that kids have a knack for detecting happiness, but they lose it as they get older. They have to. Otherwise they'd notice how unhappy everybody else is, and they'd never be able to be happy themselves.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Why does anyone fall in love with anyone? I don’t believe we each have some single special person waiting for us out there, if that’s what you’re getting at. I’ve been in love too many times over the years to buy into that old canard. It’s more a question of timing you know? As if we all have these elaborate locks inside our hearts that are constantly changing shape, and every once in a while, someone happens along with the perfect key. Love is nothing more than a fortuitous collision of circumstances. And then you discover you’ve ended up spending fifty years with someone.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“In my opinion, the best time to be alive is always right now. People are aways whining about how they were born in the wrong century, but they really haven't thought things through. They picture the old castle they wish they could live in, but they don't think about the drafts in the winter or the pitch darkness at night, or all the spiders and the lice. They can't imagine the everyday pain of a life without movies or recorded music or... or... Interet videos about cats. And don't even get me started on women who idealize the past. Do you have any idea what it was like to be a woman even a hundred years ago? Horrible! And a hundred years before that, the situation practically defies description. We might as well have been slaves. Trussed up in hoop skirts and corsets, married off like racehorses. Good riddance to history, I say!”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Life isn't sugarcoated. Why should coffee be?”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Why is it that the bad shit in our lives always seems to take up so much more mental space than the good stuff? I wrote. Is that part of being a person, or just part of being me?
I think about that question all the time.
Do you have an answer?
I don't think that questions like that have answers. An optimistic person would probably say that the bad things stick out because they're not as common as the good things.
Are you an optimistic person?
No.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Young people feel things so deeply, don't they?' she said quietly, almost to herself. 'Everything's happening for the first time.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Life would take everything from you eventually. So who would be so stupid to leave someone they loved by choice?”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“When change loses its magic, then there really isn't anything left to live for.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Exactly. The dots guy. I've always thought getting older was a bit like looking at those paintings. You're born, and that's when you're standing right up next to the canvas. Nothing makes any sense. There's just a lot of light and color. But as you get older, you begin to back away, and that's when the image starts to cohere. All those little spots of color turn into flowers, or people, or dogs. You gain perspective.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Back on the beach, everyone was tearing off their costumes piece by piece. It was like some kind of crazy dream, the sight of all those people emerging from their disguises, shedding the fake muscles and plastic armor, the fairy wings and angel wings, and devils horns, all of it piled up like a mass grave for make-believe.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“In my opinion, the best time to be alive is always right now. People are aways whining about how they were born in the wrong century, but they really haven't thought things through. They picture the old castle they wish they could live in, but they don't think about the drafts in the winter or the pitch darkness at night, or all the spiders and the lice. They can't imagine the everyday pain of a life without antibiotics or anesthetics. The tedium of a world without movies or recorded music or... or... Internet videos about cats. And don't even get me started on women who idealize the past. Do you have any idea what it was like to be a woman even a hundred years ago? Horrible! And a hundred years before that, the situation practically defies description. We might as well have been slaves. Trussed up in hoop skirts and corsets, married off like racehorses. Good riddance to history, I say!”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“People don't like getting older, but they do like changing”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Alana – still dressed as a pirate- chambers over the counter like that evil Japanese ghost in the Ring, knocking over the child-size popcorn of some little kid, who starts to cry. The pink-pigtailed girl knows something crazy is going on, but she doesn’t yet understand it has anything to do with her. Not until Alana has grabbed Tyler by his black button-down shirt and pushed him hard into the Icee machine, which begins to stream cherry-red Icee onto the counter.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“where there is no fear, there is no bravery.” As”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“IT MIGHT SEEM WEIRD TO hate parties. Who hates parties? It’s just a bunch of people getting together to have a good time, right? Wrong. It’s a bunch of people getting together to be drunk, loud assholes, with a special emphasis on the loud. And another emphasis on the drunk. And a third emphasis on assholes, while we’re at it. Jamie”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“there's a word in Portuguese that my dad wrote about in one of his books: saudade. It's the sadness you feel for something that isn't gone yet, but will be. The sadness of lost causes. The sadness of being alive.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“Paris? People always say Paris is the shit. “Yes, I’ve never understood the American obsession with that city. The food is actually quite terrible on the whole, and the people can be rather awful if you don’t speak the language.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
“There’s a word in Portuguese that my dad wrote about in one of his books: saudade. It’s the sadness you feel for something that isn’t gone yet, but will be. The sadness of lost causes. The sadness of being alive. I”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from Thanks for the Trouble
Tommy Wallach
Born place: in Stamford, CT, The United States
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“One day might be different from another, but there ain't much difference when they're put together.
September 14, 1911: Writer and teacher William Armstrong wrote celebrated children's books including the Newbery Medal-winning Sounder, about an African American sharecropper family with a loud and loyal hound, inspired by Odysseus' dog Argus. Armstrong was born in Virginia 102 years ago today.”
― William H. Armstrong, quote from Sounder
“We do not know what we intend to do until the intention itself arises. To understand this is to realize that we are not the authors of our thoughts and actions in the way that people generally suppose.”
― Sam Harris, quote from Free Will
“I myself grew up to be not only a Hero, but also a Writer. When I was an adult, I rewrote A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons, and I included not only some descriptions of the various deadly dragon species, and a useful Dragonese Dictionary, but also this story of how the book came to be written in the first place.
This is the book that you are holding in your hands right now.
Perhaps you even borrowed it from a Library?
If so, thank Thor that the sinister figure of the Hairy Scary Librarian is not lurking around a corner, hiding in the shadows, Heart-Slicers at the ready, or that the punishment for your curiosity is not the whirring whine of a Driller Dragon's drill.
You, dear reader, I am sure cannot imagine what it might to be like to live in a world in which books are banned.
For surely such things will never happen in the Future?
Thank Thor that you live in a time and a place where people have the right to live and think and write and read their books in peace, and there are no need for Heroes anymore ...
And spare a thought for those who have not been so lucky.”
― Cressida Cowell, quote from A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons
“The only selfish life is a timid one.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from The Powerbook
“Everything has its "that," everything has its "this." From the point of view of "that" you cannot see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, "that" comes out of "this" and "this" depends on "that" - which is to say that "this" and "that" give birth to each other. But where there is birth there must be death; where there is death there must be birth. Where there is acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability. Where there is recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right. Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way, but illuminates all in the light of Heaven. He too recognizes a "this," but a "this" which is also "that," a "that" which is also "this." His "that" has both a right and a wrong in it; his "this" too has both a right and a wrong in it. So, in fact, does he still have a "this" and "that"? Or does he in fact no longer have a "this" and "that"? A state in which "this" and "that" no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Way. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly. Its right then is a single endlessness and its wrong too is a single endlessness. So, I say, the best thing to use is clarity.”
― Zhuangzi, quote from Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings
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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.
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