Quotes from The Bone People

Keri Hulme ·  450 pages

Rating: (17.1K votes)


“You want to know about anybody? See what books they read, and how they've been read...”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“But hands are sacred things. Touch is personal, fingers of love, feelers of blind eyes, tongues of those who cannot talk…”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“Why? is the boy's motto, why does, why is, why not? Food, weather, time, fires, sea and season, clothes and cars and people; it's all grist to the mill of why.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“They were nothing more than people, by themselves. Even paired, any pairing, they would have been nothing more than people by themselves. But all together, they have become the heart and muscles and mind of something perilous and new, something strange and growing and great.
Together, all together, they are the instruments of change.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People



“Oh all the world is a little queer, except thee and me, and sometimes, I wonder about thee.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“Sunflowers and seashells and logarithmic spirals (said Kerewin); sweep of galaxies and the singing curve of the universe (said Kerewin); the oscilating wave thrumming in the nothingness of every atom’s heart (said Kerewin); did you think I could build a square house? So the round shell house holds them all in its spiralling embrace. Noise and riot, peace and quiet, all is music in this sphere.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“She had debated, in the frivolity of the beginning, whether to build a hole or a tower; a hole, because she was fond of hobbits, or a tower — well, a tower for many reasons, but chiefly because she liked spiral staircases.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth...”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“If I were you," the operator sounds happy he's not.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People



“The color has faded out of the sky. It is grey, becoming darker as the world turns herself round a little more. The clouds are long and black and ragged, like the wings of stormbattered dragons.”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


“...I was trying to make her fit my idea of what a friend, a partner was. I could see only the one way...whatever she thought she was, bend her to the idea that lovers are, marriage is, the only sanity. Don't accept merely what she can offer, make her give and take more...”
― Keri Hulme, quote from The Bone People


About the author

Keri Hulme
Born place: in Christchurch, New Zealand
Born date March 9, 1947
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“31“Behold, days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not abide in My covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord. 33“For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will surely put My laws into their mind and write them on their hearts. I will be as God to them, and they shall be as My people.† 34Each shall not teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their wrongdoings, and I will no longer remember their sins.† 35“Though the sky should be raised to a greater height,” says the Lord, “and though the ground of the earth should be sunk lower beneath, yet I would not reject the family of Israel,” says the Lord, “for all they have done.” 36Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun as a light by day, and the moon and the stars as a light by night; and who makes the sea roar so its waves make a crashing sound. The Lord Almighty is His name. 37“If these laws cease from before Me,” says the Lord, “the family of Israel shall also cease to be a nation before Me forever.”
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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.