“Reading a book, for me at least, is like traveling in someone else's world. If it's a good book, then you feel comfortable and yet anxious to see what's going to happen to you there, what'll be around the next corner. But if it's a lousy book, then it's like going through Secaucus, New Jersey -- it smells and you wish you weren't there, but since you've started the trip, you roll up the windows and breathe through your mouth until you're done.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs
“The questions are the danger.
Leave them alone and they sleep.
Ask them, awake them, and more than you
know will begin to rise.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs
“Пару лет я коллекционировал авторучки. Однажды на блошином рынке во Франции я увидел, как какой-то человек передо мной взял с лотка одну ручку и стал рассматривать. По шестиугольной звезде на колпачке я сразу понял, что это “монблан”. Старый “монблан”. Я замер как вкопанный и начал повторять про себя: “ПОЛОЖИ ЕЕ, НЕ ПОКУПАЙ!” Но тщетно – человек приглядывался к ней все внимательней. Тогда мне захотелось, чтобы он умер тут же на месте, и я смог бы вынуть ручку из его окоченевших пальцев и купить сам. Он все стоял спиной ко мне, но моя ненависть была так сильна, что, должно быть, его проняло: он положил ручку, бросил испуганный взгляд через плечо и поспешно удалился.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs
“Самое худшее, что может случиться с человеком в сказке, – это превратиться в зверя. Но высочайшая награда для зверя – превратиться в человека.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs
“– Думаю, нужно быть писателем, когда в голове столько безумных идей и историй. А то лопнешь, если их не запишешь.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs
“He said, ‘Don’t mind what happened to me. Don’t be angry. I’m a frail creature with certain crude reflexes.”
― Elizabeth Knox, quote from The Vintner's Luck
“Um," I asked, "isn't the whole point about being a slave that you don't have a choice to be anything else?" Prettying up the word slave with the adjective-noun constructions makes "enslaved African" sound nonchalant. As in "Those were the cabins of the jolly leprechauns.”
― Sarah Vowell, quote from The Partly Cloudy Patriot
“So do extremes meet; and such is sometimes the all-embracing capacity of the approval of a fool!”
― Wilkie Collins, quote from No Name
“He leaned in conspiratorially. “Do you know why the fans turned on those two guys so horribly?” Just to keep him talking, Myron shook his head. “Because those pretty boys pointed out the truth: We are all shallow. Milli Vanilli music was pure crap—and they won a Grammy! People listened to it simply because Rob and Fab were handsome and hip. That scandal did more than rip away the façade. It held a mirror up to the fan’s face and let him see a total fool. There are many things we can forgive. But we can’t forgive those who point out our true foolishness. We don’t like to think of ourselves as shallow. But we are. Gabriel Wire looked brooding and deep but he was anything but. People thought that Gabriel didn’t do interviews because he felt he was too important—but he didn’t give them because he was too dumb. I know I was mocked over the years. Part of me was hurt—who wouldn’t be?—but most of me understood that this was the only way. Once I started, once I created Gabriel Wire, I couldn’t destroy him without destroying me.” Myron tried to let this information settle. “That’s what you meant with all that talk earlier about Suzze falling for you or falling for the music. About being Cyrano.” “Yes.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Live Wire
“The tyrant had said our backgrounds were similar, and in some ways they were.”
― Ann Leckie, quote from Ancillary Sword
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.