“Hollowness: that I understand. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything you can do to fix it. That's what I've taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“it’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“Life is not a paragraph, and death is no parenthesis.
(This is a reference to an E.E. Cummings poem within the author's work)”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“When did you become so weak?” I don’t know. I don’t know where that strength went, I don’t remember losing it. I think that over time it got chipped away, bit by bit, by life, by the living of it.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“There’s nothing so painful, so corrosive, as suspicion.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I can’t do this, I can’t just be a wife. I don’t understand how anyone does it—there is literally nothing to do but wait. Wait for a man to come home and love you. Either that or look around for something to distract you.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I want to drag knives over my skin, just to feel something other than shame, but I'm not even brave enough for that”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“But I did become sadder, and sadness gets boring after a while, for the sad person and for everyone around them.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“let’s be honest: women are still only really valued for two things—their looks and their role as mothers.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I’m playing at real life instead of actually living it.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“And I’ve just got to let myself feel the pain, because if I don’t, if I keep numbing it, it’ll never really go away.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I am not the girl I used to be. I am no longer desirable, I’m off-putting in some way. It’s not just that I’ve put on weight, or that my face is puffy from the drinking and the lack of sleep; it’s as if people can see the damage written all over me, can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“A tiding of magpies: One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts. Who was it said that following your heart is a good thing? It is pure egotism, a selfishness to conquer all.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“It's impossible to resist the kindness of strangers.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“But then I think, this happens sometimes, doesn’t it? People you have a history with, they won’t let you go, and as hard as you might try, you can’t disentangle yourself, can’t set yourself free. Maybe after a while you just stop trying.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“Sometimes I catch myself trying to remember the last time I had meaningful physical contact with another person, just a hug or a heartfelt squeeze of my hand, and my heart twitches.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“Beautiful sunshine, cloudless skies, no one to play with, nothing to do. Living like this, the way I’m living at the moment, is harder in the summer when there is so much daylight, so little cover of darkness, when everyone is out and about, being flagrantly, aggressively happy. It’s exhausting, and it makes you feel bad if you’re not joining in.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“I have to find a way of making myself happy, I have to stop looking for happiness elsewhere. It’s true,”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“He’s a master at it, making me feel as though everything is my fault, making me feel worthless.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“It’s ridiculous, when I think about it. How did I find myself here? I wonder where it started, my decline; I wonder at what point I could have halted it. Where did I take the wrong turn?”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“It’s impossible to resist the kindness of strangers. Someone who looks at you, who doesn’t know you, who tells you it’s OK, whatever you did, whatever you’ve done: you suffered, you hurt, you deserve forgiveness.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl . . . Three for a girl. I’m stuck on three, I just can’t get any further. My head is thick with sounds, my mouth thick with blood. Three for a girl. I can hear the magpies—they’re laughing, mocking me, a raucous cackling. A tiding. Bad tidings. I can see them now, black against the sun. Not the birds, something else. Someone’s coming. Someone is speaking to me. Now look. Now look what you made me do.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“it’s as if people can see the damage written all over me, can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“They’re what I lost, they’re everything I want to be.”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
“Who's to say that once I run, I'll find that isn't enough? Who's to say I won't end up feeling exactly the way I do right now-not safe, but stifled? Maybe I'll want to run again, and again, and eventually I'll end up back on those old tracks, because there's nowhere left to go. Maybe. Maybe not. You have to take the risk, don't you”
― Paula Hawkins, quote from The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins
Born place: Zimbabwe
See more on GoodReads
“While the bells rang and echoed, she sat near the edge of the water. Here was peace, she thought, and joy. She would never, never take either for granted. She would remember to give something back every day. Even if it was just a heel of bread for the gulls. She would tend what she planted. She would remember to be kind, and never forget to offer a helping hand.”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Dance Upon the Air
“the professionals who are opposed to advertising say it downgrades their profession. And it does. To advertise effectively today, you have to get off your pedestal and put your ear to the ground. You have to get on the same wavelength as the prospect. In advertising, dignity as well as pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
― Al Ries, quote from Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace
“Every time she saw a videotape of the planes she moved a finger toward the power button on the remote. Then she kept on watching. The second plane coming out of that ice blue sky, this was the footage that entered the body, that seemed to run beneath her skin, the fleeting sprint that carried lives and histories, theirs and hers, everyone's, into some distance, out beyond the towers.”
― Don DeLillo, quote from Falling Man
“Quite often I reflect on the big house in Hollywood, on 'Midnight Confessions" and on Ramon Novarro and on the fact that Roman Polanski and I are godparents to the same child, but writing has not yet helped me to see what it means.”
― Joan Didion, quote from The White Album
“Finn did what he always did when confronted by an angry woman—he checked out her boobs.”
― Jennifer Estep, quote from Venom
Without Feathers
Geek Girl
Jaya: An Illustrated...
The Subtle Art of No...
Ten Big Ones
Round the BendBookQuoters 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.
