Quotes from The Boy in the Suitcase

Lene Kaaberbøl ·  313 pages

Rating: (28.7K votes)


“She felt as if she was standing at the edge of an abyss, but she was in no way counting on God to rescue her. On the contrary. I don’t believe in any of it. Not anymore.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase


“If the boy did have a good and loving mother somewhere, surely they would find her.

God only knew how she wanted to believe it. Every single day, she practiced her detachment skills, trying not to care about everything that was wrong with the world. Or rather...to care, but in a suitably civilized manner, with an admirable commitment that might still be set aside when she came home to Morten and her family, complete with well-reasoned and coherent opinions of the humanist persuasion. Right now she felt more like one of those manic women from the animal protection societies, with wild hair and ever wilder eyes. Desperate.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase


“Only as long as one did what one always did would one remain relatively invisible.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase


“Nina couldn’t help wondering if the lives of other people were really as simple as they looked. As simple, and as happy.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase


“And the real beauty of it all for the cynical exploiters was that ordinary people didn’t care. Not really. No one had asked the refugees, the prostitutes, the fortune hunters, and the orphans to come knocking on Denmark’s door. No one had invited them, and no one knew how many there were. Crimes committed against them had nothing to do with ordinary people and the usual workings of law and order. It”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase



“She knew precious little about Lithuania, she realized, and her ideas had run along the lines of Soviet concrete ghettos, TB-infected prisons, and a callous mafia. Somehow,”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase


“Os pecadores eram bem mais interessantes que as pessoas comuns – a própria Bíblia atestava isso.”
― Lene Kaaberbøl, quote from The Boy in the Suitcase


About the author

Lene Kaaberbøl
Born place: in Copenhagen, Denmark
Born date March 24, 1960
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“. . . it seemed to me that where others had prayed before to their God, in their joy or in their agony, was of itself a sacred place.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, quote from Cranford


“Nice to have you back, girl,” he said softly. Then he turned to Alyss. “Ready to go?” She held up a hand. “One thing I have to take care of,” she said. She looked around the camp and spotted Petulengo, lurking guiltily by the goat pen. “Petulengo!” she called. Her voice was high and penetrating and he started, realizing he had been spotted. He looked around, seeking an escape route. But as he did so, Will unslung the massive longbow from his shoulder and casually plucked an arrow from his quiver. Suddenly, escaping didn’t seem like such a good idea. Then Alyss favored Petulengo with her most winning smile. “Don’t be frightened, dear,” she said soothingly. “I just want to say good-bye.” She beckoned to him, smiling encouragingly, and he stepped forward, gradually gaining in confidence as he realized that, somehow, he had won the favor of this young woman. Some of his old swagger returned as he approached and stood before her, urged a little closer by that smile. Underneath the ash and the dirt, he thought, she was definitely a looker. He gave her a smile in return. Petulengo, it has to be said, fancied himself with the ladies. Treat ’em rough and they’ll eat out of your hand, he thought. Then the smile disappeared like a candle being blown out. He felt a sudden jolt of agony in his right foot. Alyss’s heavy boot, part of Hilde’s wardrobe, had stamped down on his instep, just below the ankle. He doubled over instinctively, gasping with pain. Then Alyss pivoted and drove the heel of her open left hand hard into his nose, snapping his head back and sending him reeling. His arms windmilled and he crashed over onto the hard-packed dirt of the compound. He lay groggily, propped up on his elbows, coughing as blood coursed down the back of his throat. “Next time you throw firewood at an old lady,” Alyss told him, all traces of the winning smile gone, “make sure she can’t do that.” She turned to Will and dusted her hands together in a satisfied gesture. “Now I’m ready to go,” she said.”
― John Flanagan, quote from The Lost Stories


“Perhaps they never left the island when construction was complete," Otto replied.
Wing raised an eyebrow. "A true job for life."
"Or a life for a job," Otto countered. He wouldn't be at all surprised, given the emphasis on total secrecy, if H.I.V.E. offered an "aggressive" retirement package for lower-level employees. Here, being fired was probably a term that was taken a little too literally.”
― Mark Walden, quote from H.I.V.E. Higher Institute of Villainous Education


“Let the unseen days be. Today is more than enough.’ Now”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, quote from Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth


“Literacy rots the brain, I'm afraid. And a rotten mind is of no use to the New Order. Sadly, there must be consequences.”
― James Patterson, quote from The Fire


Interesting books

Shatter Me
(218.6K)
Shatter Me
by Tahereh Mafi
The Angel Experiment
(190.2K)
The Angel Experiment
by James Patterson
The Origin of Species
(80.1K)
The Origin of Specie...
by Charles Darwin
A Streetcar Named Desire
(228.3K)
A Streetcar Named De...
by Tennessee Williams
A Fine Balance
(108.9K)
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry
Cloud Atlas
(181.3K)
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell

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.