“Oh now now he says that's all over you must forget all about that next week your solitary finishes how about that hmm? I felt like laughing in his face: How can your solitary finish? That's the best laugh yet.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“All the beautiful things in this world are lies. They count for nothing in the end.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“I don`t know if he was English but he spoke like it. He said good afternoon when everybody else said hardy weather or she looks like rain.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“I wanted to stop talking about the whole thing. I wanted to talk about the hide and the old days and hacking at the ice and whose turn it was to toss the marble and all that, that was what I wanted to talk about. They were the best days, you could see through them days, as clear as polished glass. But Joe didn't want to.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“All of a sudden I looked at him with his rosy cheeks and the two silver snots at his nose and what did I want to do I wanted to kiss him. Not the way Tiddly did it any of that but just because all of a sudden everything seemed so good. I said to myself: Just being here is so good I could stand here for ever.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“Ah I see, says Father Dom with his two thumbs like dwarfs doing an old-time waltz in and out of his little black buttons.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“Mary had the same face as ma used to have sitting staring into the ashes it was funny that face it slowly grew over the other one until one day you looked and the person you knew was gone. And instead there was a half-ghost sitting there who had only one thing to say: All the beautiful things of this world are lies. They count for nothing in the end.”
― Patrick McCabe, quote from The Butcher Boy
“... she suddenly looks different to Olympia, physically different, as though a portrait has been alterred. And Olympia thinks that possibly such adjustments might have to be made for everyone she knows. Upon meeting a person, a sketch is formed, and for the life of the relationship, however intimate or not, a portrait is painted, with oils or pastels or with black ink or with watercolor, and only at a persons's death can the portraits be considered finished. Perhaps not even at the person's death.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Fortune's Rocks
“Oh, who would be so foolish as to do that? Only someone who didn’t know him, of course—someone who didn’t know him the way she knew him.”
― Stephen King, quote from Rose Madder
“But no. There is a difference between the truth and what we wish were true.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, quote from The Slow Regard of Silent Things
“The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool.”
― quote from Inherit the Wind
“Yes, I went through a lot of pain, heartache,breaking. But I'm here berthing and my heart is beating. I'm thriving. I'm not alone. And I'm loved.”
― Jessica Sorensen, quote from The Redemption of Callie & Kayden
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.