Quotes from The Contortionist's Handbook

“A person’s life story is equal to what they have plus what they want most in the world, minus what they’re actually willing to sacrifice for it.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“It's taken me years of practice to learn how to act natural.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“i learned that predators don't intentionally choose the weak or old or sick. they kill what they can, which means the slow members of the pack. thus, they strengthen the very gene pool they're feeding from. the threshold for what is weak, old or sick gets raised, and the strength, speed and instincts of new generations of hunters grow. a beautiful, self-perpetuating system where evolution is the antithesis of entropy.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“When you’re in love, your brain secretes endorphins into your blood. Organic morphine leaks out of a gland in your skull, feels like a low-grade opium rush. Some people confuse the two, the head rush and the love. You think you’re in love with a person, but you’re in love with a syringe.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“...what they show tells you what they want to hide.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“I love you, I said, but not out loud.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“The combination to be on guard for is young and bored, or young and resentful. You can spot them at social gatherings, the grad students or interns who tell you about syndromes, conditions, deviances, and disorders, and they love, love, love to talk. They speak in half-sentences with a knowing smile-squint, watch you falter at the pause, and then keep talking.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“If no God, there must at least be a pattern-making demiurge.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“People can numb themselves, get used to anything.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“Carisoprodol. Comes in a white tablet like a big-ass vitamin, 350 mg of muscle liquefier for those tense, recovering athletes and furniture movers. Too much, and those relaxed muscles include your diaphragm, then your heart.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“They see my fingers, they run. Dominique. Alicia. Penny.

They see my fingers, they want their hair pulled. Alex. Renee. Kristin.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“My left hand is a Rorschach blotch all its own, a six-fingered, skin-blood-and-bone ink splatter. People see it and fly their worst fears and secret fetishes at full mast when they think they’re being discreet. They see it as strange, fascinating, ugly, beautiful, disgusting or erotic depending on what’s behind their eyes.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

“A person's life story is equal to what they have plus what they want most in the world, minus what they're actually willing to sacrifice for it.”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from The Contortionist's Handbook

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Popular quotes

“That's the nice thing about insanity: evil people kill you, but crazy ones try to make you understand.”
― Seanan McGuire, quote from A Local Habitation

“عجبا لهذا الوجود! إنه معجزة حقا! إذا فتحت عينى أري الجبال والسحاب والمطر يساقط، وإذا أغمضت عينى أري الله خالق الجبال والسحاب والمطر ... حيثما نول وجوهنا فثم وجه الله .... فى ضوء النهار أو فى عتمة الليل.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Christ Recrucified

“She was afraid of me. That much was obvious, but there was a fire there, too, and the more she fought it, the more it turned me on.
The way her body reacted to me told me that there was only so long she could resist the inevitable. The inevitable being me fucking her until she couldn’t remember her own name.
It’s not like she knew it anyway.”
― T.M. Frazier, quote from King

“Unlike my mother, my father does not cry quietly. His wails roll out like a wave of pain, and I scramble to roll up my window. My mother cannot hear that. I cannot bear to hear it myself. I am not used to my father's crying. I've had no time to harden my heart against him.”
― Margaret Peterson Haddix, quote from Double Identity

“Kendi otomobilini üretemeyen ülkeye borç verip otobanlar yaptırırız. Sonra onlara arabalarımızı satarız. Sonra bankalarını satın alırız. O bankalardan halka ucuz krediler verip daha çok araba almalarını sağlarız. Böylece verdiğimiz o krediyi arabamızı satarak geri alırız, hem de faiziyle. O ülkeye dünya bankası ya da kardeş kurumlardan kredi ayarlarız. Ayarlanan kredi "ASLA" o ülkenin hazinesine gitmez. O ülkede ‘proje‘ yapan bizim şirketlerimizin kasasına girer. Enerji santralleri, sanayi alanları, limanlar, dev havaalanları yapılır. Aslında insanların işine yaramayan bir yığın beton. Bizim şirketlerimiz kazanır o ülkedeki birileri de nemalandırılır. Toplum bu düzenekten hiçbirşey kazanmaz. Ama ülke büyük bir borcun altına sokulmuş olur. Bu o kadar büyük bir borçtur ki ödenmesi imkansızdır. Plan böyle işler. Sonunda ekonomik danışmanlar/tetikçiler olarak gider onlara deriz ki; "Bize büyük borcunuz var ödeyemiyorsunuz. O zaman petrolünüzü satın, doğal gazınızı bize verin, askeri üslerimize yer gösterin, askerlerinizi birliklerimize destek olmaları için savaştığımız bölgelere gönderin, Birleşmiş Millletler de bizim için oy verin! Elektrik su kanalizasyon sistemlerinizi özelleştirin! Onları Amerikan şirketlerine ya da diğer çok uluslu şirketlere satın..." Sosyal hizmetleri, teknik sistemleri, eğitim kurumlarını, sağlık kurumlarını hatta adli sistemleri ele geçiririz. Bu, ikili, üçlü, dörtlü bir darbeler serisidir.”
― John Perkins, quote from Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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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.