“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Knowing can be a curse on a person's life. I'd traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn't know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can't ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I have noticed that if you look carefully at people's eyes the first five seconds they look at you, the truth of their feelings will shine through for just an instant before it flickers away.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“After you get stung, you can't get unstung
no matter how much you whine about it.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Nobody around here had ever seen a lady beekeeper till her. She liked to tell everybody that women made the best beekeepers, 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting. It comes from years of loving children and husbands.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I hadn't been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called 'bee yard etiquette'. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving Coke with peanuts. Isn't that a shame we don't have many more ways to say it?”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“When it's time to die, go ahead and die, and when it's time to live, live. Don't sort-of-maybe live, but live like you're going all out, like you're not afraid.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Sunset is the saddest light there is.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Drifting off to sleep, I thought about her. How nobody is perfect. How you just have to close your eyes and breathe out and let the puzzle of the human heart be what it is.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“There's nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“You gotta imagine what's never been.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“It's your time to live, don't mess it up.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I can't think of anything I'd rather have more than somebody lovin' me.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional...What a special case I was.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“You think you want to know something, and then once you do, all you can think about is erasing it from your mind.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them. I was wondering what my body knew that I didn't.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Actually, you can be bad at something...but if you love doing it, that will be enough. - August Boatwright”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Every human being on the face of the earth has a steel plate in his head, but if you lie down now and then and get still as you can, it will slide open like elevator doors, letting in all the secret thoughts that have been standing around so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the top. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“You have to know when to prod and when to be quiet, when to let things take their course.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“It was the first time I'd ever said the words to another person, and the sound of them broke open my heart.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd
Born place: in Sylvester, Georgia, The United States
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“...but loving had left her skinless.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds
“His fingers dug into my nape with everything he kept hidden.”
― Pepper Winters, quote from First Debt
“I had you. I had you since the day you were born. I asked your mama for you and she said yes.”
― Tillie Cole, quote from Raze
“We are all subjected to two distinct natures in the same person. I myself have suffered grievously in that way.”
― James Hogg, quote from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
“it takes almost a lifetime to learn how to do a thing simply.”
― Joseph Mitchell, quote from Up in the Old Hotel
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The Tale of Desperea...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.
