“She would tell me to never change for anyone, because the people you change for are the people who control you.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you're on, but keep walking down it anyway.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“Ava’s Mum: – We are not like them, Ava. […] We have to be ready to fight, and when the enemy gets you, one day, you show them what I taught you. When they lock you in the darkness, become an arsonist. When they put you under house arrest, or defile your name in public, or make you live beneath the rules that will suffocate you, become an arsonist. When they put a pistol in your hand and make you shoot your best friend, and when they throw you in a death camp, when you see everyone around you get sick from the poison they’re feeding them, light a fire that will destroy them. A fire they won’t forget the next time they try to do it to someone else.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“Georg Winkler: – You take a lesson from Ava, […]. You want to know how to navigate life? Don’t live and die by the beliefs you had when you were young. Everything changes, that’s what you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have. The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you’re on, but keep walking down it anyway.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“Molly: – You killed people. […] You made them disappear, and didn’t even let the families hold funerals.
Heinrich Werner: – That was the machine, not me.
Molly: – You were part of the machine.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“Ava: – Gentle. I was never taught to be gentle. When I sang, I did so loudly. When I played sports, I had to win, otherwise what was the point? My mother would never tell me to quiet myself for a boy. She would tell me to never change for anyone, because the people you change for are the people who control you.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“Grief is a kind of war, I think now. Loss is like a bullet. A person can only take so much.”
― Stephanie Oakes, quote from The Arsonist
“Man is preoccupied with freedom yet laden with handicaps. The breadth of his activity and experience is narrowed by the limitations of his relatively weak, sluggish body. The racehorse, by virtue of his awesome physical gifts, freed the jockey from himself.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, quote from Seabiscuit: An American Legend
“When I think something nice is going to happen I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation; and then the first thing I realize I drop down to earth with a thud. But really, Marilla, the flying part is glorious as long as it lasts...it's like soaring through a sunset. I think it almost pays for the thud.”
― L.M. Montgomery, quote from Anne of Avonlea
“It does not matter what it is; it matters how much there is of it; that all around the oases of your shining Western cities it exists; it is three-fourths of the world! Open your ears, my darling; listen to thier prayers; listen to the silence of those who've learned to pray for nothing. For nothing has always been their portion, whatever the name of their nation, thier city, their tribe.”
― Anne Rice, quote from The Queen of the Damned
“The vampire was real. It was only that his true story had never been told.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from I Am Legend and Other Stories
“Myrna was part of a ballet troupe and Jack had seen her and the other dancers perform—his mother often made him go with her and it was mostly boring stuff, like church or Sunrise Semester on TV. But he had never seen Myrna in practice . . . never that close up. He had been impressed and a little frightened by the contrast between seeing ballet on stage, where everyone seemed to either glide or mince effortlessly on the tips of their pointes, and seeing it from less than five feet away, with harsh daylight pouring in the floor-to-ceiling windows and no music—only the choreographer rhythmically clapping his hands and yelling harsh criticisms. No praise; only criticisms. Their faces ran with sweat. Their leotards were wet with sweat. The room, as large and airy as it was, stank of sweat. Sleek muscles trembled and fluttered on the nervous edge of exhaustion. Corded tendons stood out like insulated cables. Throbbing veins popped out on foreheads and necks. Except for the choreographer’s clapping and angry, hectoring shouts, the only sounds were the thrup-thud of ballet dancers on pointe moving across the floor and harsh, agonized panting for breath. Jack had suddenly realized that these dancers were not just earning a living; they were killing themselves. Most of all he remembered their expressions—all that exhausted concentration, all that pain . . . but transcending the pain, or at least creeping around its edges, he had seen joy. Joy was unmistakably what that look was, and it had scared Jack because it had seemed inexplicable. What kind of person could get off by subjecting himself or herself to such steady, throbbing, excruciating pain?”
― Stephen King, quote from The Talisman
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.