“One time when we were in Płaszów a guard struck my mother on the side of her head with a wood plank. The blow permanently shattered her eardrum. She said that for the rest of her life she could hear her two murdered sons calling to her in that ear.”
― quote from The Boy on the Wooden Box
“- No puedes sentarte ahí -dijo-. Los asientos traseros son para los negros. Tienes que cambiarte a la parte delantera.
Sus palabras me golpearon como una bofetada. De repente retrocedí en el tiempo hasta Cracovia, cuando los nazis ordenaron que los judíos nos sentáramos en los asientos traseros de los tranvías (antes de prohibirnos directamente viajar en transporte público). El contexto era muy diferente, pero de todos modos casi hizo explotar mi cabeza. ¿Por qué existía algo así en los Estados Unidos? Yo habría creído, erróneamente, que esa clase de discriminación estaba destinada únicamente a los judíos durante el régimen nazi. Ahora descubriría que la inequidad y el prejuicio existía también en ese país que yo habría aprendido a amar”
― quote from The Boy on the Wooden Box
“(...) que tenía una inscripción del talmund en hebreo 'Aquel que salva una vida, salva al mundo entero'.”
― quote from The Boy on the Wooden Box
“As a Jewish kid during those times, I fought to live every day. I didn't have a choice. As an influential Nazi, Schindler did have a choice. Countless times he could have abandoned us, taken his fortune, and fled. He could have decided that his life depended on working us to death but he didn't. Instead, he put his own life in danger every time he protected us for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. I am not a philosopher, but I believe that Oskar Schindler defines heroism. He proves that one person can stand up to evil and make a difference. I am living proof of that. I recall a television interview I once saw with scholar and writer Joseph Campbell. I've never forgotten his definition of a hero. Campbell said that a hero is an ordinary human being who does "the best of things in the worst of times". Oskar Schindler personifies that definition.”
― quote from The Boy on the Wooden Box
“Yo, un chico judío, tenia que luchar para vivir todos los días en aquellos tiempos. No tenia otra opción. Él, un nazi con mucho poder, sí tenía opciones. Pudo habernos abandonado incontables veces, pudo haber huido llevándose su fortuna. Pudo haber decidido que su vida dependía de hacernos trabajar hasta morir, pero no lo hizo. En cambio, puso su propia vida en peligro cada vez que nos protegía, sin otra razón que porque era lo correcto. No soy un filósofo, pero creo que Oskar Schindler es la definición del heroísmo, Demostró que una persona puede hacer frente al mal y hacer la diferencia.”
― quote from The Boy on the Wooden Box
“Nunca olvidé su definición de héroe. Campbell dijo que un héroe es 'un ser humano común y corriente que hace lo mejor en las peores circunstancias'.”
― quote from The Boy on the Wooden Box
“Eros the melter of limbs (now again) stirs me -
sweetbitter unmanageable creature who steals in”
― Sappho, quote from If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
“Goddamn woman has me on an invisible line. Like she’s cranking the reel and tightening the hook in my mouth before I even have a chance to taste the fucking bait.”
― K. Bromberg, quote from Raced
“Thank you, but I take no joy in my wedding.” “Of course you don’t, but still, you must act the part. I often take no joy in my spinsterhood; I have no babes to fill my arms, and yet by acting the part of it, I convince myself that I am not lonely. And sometimes it works.”
― Nomi Eve, quote from Henna House
“Ah, Joori--couldn't live with him, couldn't chop him up for stew.”
― Carole Cummings, quote from Incendiary
“When she reached me she asked gently if I were O.K., what was bothering me. Fine, nothing, I said, but in a way I hoped confirmed incommunicable depths had opened up inside me.”
― Ben Lerner, quote from Leaving the Atocha Station
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Grass for His PillowBookQuoters 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.
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