Quotes from The Hand That First Held Mine

Maggie O'Farrell ·  341 pages

Rating: (11.5K votes)


“You young people are always so obsessed with truth. The truth is often overrated.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Hand That First Held Mine


“Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Hand That First Held Mine


“And we forget because we must.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Hand That First Held Mine


“There on the landing sits the typewriter. It is clogged with dust, the ribbon dried and flimsy. Looking at it gives Felix a feeling close to vertigo. He realises he can replicate in his head the exact sound it used to make. The clac-clac-a-clac of the metal letters hitting the paper, the ribbon raising itself each time to make the impression. The machine-gun fire of it, when the work was going well. The stops and pauses when it wasn't, to allow for a sigh, a draw on a cigarette. The ding every time the carriage reached its limit. The whirr as the page was snatched out, then the rolling ratcheting as a new one was wound in.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Hand That First Held Mine


“He is momentarily filled with a kind of pity for his son. What a task lies ahead of him: to learn literally everything.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Hand That First Held Mine



About the author

Maggie O'Farrell
Born place: Coleraine, Ireland
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“In human language, selling a smoking pot for three gold pieces is called a 'swindle,'" the man said, narrowly escaping a kick in the shins.
"In Elfish language it's called 'genius,'" the little elf replied cheerfully...”
― Silvana de Mari, quote from The Last Dragon


“Eat dessert first Life is uncertain”
― Perri Birney, quote from Pure Vision: The Magdalene Revelation


“Sometimes you need darkness to see things better:”
― Donato Carrisi, quote from The Lost Girls of Rome


“Do you think I'm pretty?
I think you're beautiful
Beautiful?
You are so beautiful, it hurts sometimes.”
― Richelle Mead, quote from Blutsschwestern


“Our path dictates how strong we will be and how tall we will grow. Will our life grow into something beautiful, or will we develop thorns for protection.”
― Chanda Hahn, quote from Forever


Interesting books

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
(298.8K)
Three Cups of Tea: O...
by Greg Mortenson
The Witching Hour
(91.3K)
The Witching Hour
by Anne Rice
Bared to You
(402.7K)
Bared to You
by Sylvia Day
Of Human Bondage
(40.4K)
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset Maugham
The Republic
(133.8K)
The Republic
by Plato
North and South
(116.2K)
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell

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.