Quotes from The Basketball Diaries

Jim Carroll ·  224 pages

Rating: (25.6K votes)


“It was a dream, not a nightmare, a beautiful dream I could never imagine in a thousand nods. There was a girl next to me who wasn't beautiful until she smiled and I felt that smile come at me in heat waves following, soaking through my body and out my finger tips in shafts of color and I knew somewhere in the world, somewhere, that there was love for me.”
― Jim Carroll, quote from The Basketball Diaries


“Little kids shoot marbles
where the branches break the sun

into graceful shafts of light…
I just want to be pure.”
― Jim Carroll, quote from The Basketball Diaries


“they're fucking up minds they do not own.”
― Jim Carroll, quote from The Basketball Diaries


“To sit in this awful mess and maybe smoke some dope and watch some innocuous shit on a dumb glass tube and feel fine about it and know there's really nothing you have to do, ever, but feel your warm friend's silent content. You don't feel guilty about not fighting a war or carrying signs to protest it either. We've just mastered the life of doing nothing, which when you think about it, may be the hardest thing of all to do.”
― Jim Carroll, quote from The Basketball Diaries


“It was in Central Park near the lake and I watched a weeping willow turn into a giant rooster and fly off. No tree remained. It glided beautifully into the sky, a big blue barnyard. My mind went with it, something all you bald head generals and wheelchair senators could never imagine.”
― Jim Carroll, quote from The Basketball Diaries



About the author

Jim Carroll
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date August 1, 1950
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“I can barely breathe. I feel like I’m going to explode. Jake Wilder is kissing me. French-kissing me. Is he even supposed to be French-kissing me for the play? I thought… Oh, who cares if he’s supposed to or not. He is, that’s all that matters.”
― Mari Mancusi, quote from Boys that Bite


“You're drunk as four skunks, you idiot.”
― Sherwood Smith, quote from Crown Duel


“A happy wall is a long-lived wall, a practical wall, a useful wall.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Foundation's Edge


“Il voulait qu'elle se donnât, et non la prendre.”
― Gustave Flaubert, quote from Sentimental Education


“Cinder took Kai's hand and squeezed it. "There's something I want to show you. Do you think anyone would notice if we slipped away for a bit?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Given that we make up a full quarter of the guest list, I would be a little insulted if they didn't notice."
"It was a rhetorical question."
"Then by all means, lead the way.”
― Marissa Meyer, quote from Stars Above


Interesting books

Remember Me
(10.2K)
Remember Me
by Christopher Pike
Sandman Slim
(28.7K)
Sandman Slim
by Richard Kadrey
Seeing Redd
(16.1K)
Seeing Redd
by Frank Beddor
Fruits Basket: The Complete Collection
(2.1K)
Fruits Basket: The C...
by Natsuki Takaya
The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories
(6.3K)
The King in Yellow a...
by Robert W. Chambers
Craving Constellations
(17.6K)
Craving Constellatio...
by Nicole Jacquelyn

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.