Quotes from The Shining Girls

“She would disappear
folded like origami
into her own dreams”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“There are only so many plots in the world. It's how they unfold that makes them interesting.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“The problem with snapshots is that they replace actual memories. You lock down the moment and it becomes all there is of it.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Next time, can you ask him to bring cookies? I don't like to put up with that level of insane unless there's some kind of high-calorie compensation.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Only other people can make you feel real.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Memory is curated. All this paraphernalia you collect to ward off forgetting”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Can't reinvent the wheel. But you can put your own spin on it.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“But she was the kind of girl you couldn't keep down. Unless you cut her up and caved in her skull.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Being her friend was like going to a tropical island for a little fun in the sun, only to be kidnapped by terrorists.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“She's even been practicing making out with the back of her hand. Which was about as effective as tickling yourself. It's why you needed other fingers, other tongues. Only other people can make you feel real.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Grown-up relationships are complicated. We got what we needed from each other. Passion. A safety net. Some kind of solace. It's lonely out there. But it ran its course. It was lovely while it lasted. But everything is finite. Life. Love. All this. Sadness too. Although that's harder to let go of than happiness. - Rachel Mazrachi”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“I'm scared, Mom." ... "It's okay, honey. It's all right. That's the big secret, don't you know? Everyone is. All the time.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Dope don't have no sympathy, not for love or family, definitely not for fear. Put dope and the devil up against each other in the ring, and dope will win out. Every single time.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Oh, but fine isn't everything!' Rachel exclaims and grabs her hands and pulls her into a stepping foxtrot over the paintings, twirling her round. 'Fine is the very definition of mediocrity. It's what's polite. It's what's socially acceptable. We need to live brighter and deeper than just fine, my darling!”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“We do this to ourselves. Society is a poisonous hamster wheel.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“If you want to kiss me again, then shut the fuck up and stop bleeding to death”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Affectionate violence. For when a hug just won't do. That's a Hallmark card for you.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Time heals. Crushes let up. Splinters work their way out. Doesn't mean they don't leave scars that itch.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Nothing is infinitely reducible. You can split an atom but you can't vaporize it. Stuff sticks around. It clings to you, even when it's broken.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Six foot eight and all asshole.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“He adds, wistfully, "I don't suppose you have syphilis, do you?"
"No."
"Pity. There's a study starting in Alabama that would have paid for all your medical care if you did. Although you'd have to be a Negro."
"I'm not that, either."
"Too bad." The doctor shrugs.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“(…) everything is finite. Life. Love. All this.' (…) 'Sadness too. Although that's harder to let go of than happiness.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“You can bury your radical magazines and tear up your sexually perverse sketches and burn your sheets. But how do you erase who you are?”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Fear festers in the imagination. It’s not fear’s fault. That’s just the way it’s made. Nightmares breed. Allies become enemies. Subversives are everywhere. Paranoia justifies any persecution, and privacy is a luxury when the Reds have the bomb.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“It doesn't escape him that the rock holding it up is the perfect fit for his fist. Or how easily one of those needle spokes would slide right through the girl's eye like Jell-O.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“And he's sorry he ever doubted the House. She's the one. One of the ones. His shining girls.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“A gut wound will drop a man in his tracks every time. Harper always found it more personal than bullets, getting right up into someone. It made the war bearable.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“It's why you need other fingers, other tongues. Only other people can make you feel real.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

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“I have something to show you."
He sank down next to me and handed me a sketchbook. I opened it.
And saw the mermaid. She was drawn in colored ink, exquisitely detailed; each scale had a little picture in it: a pyramid, a rocket, a peacock, a lamp. Her torso was patterened red, like a tattoo, like coral. She had a thin strand of seaweed around her neck, with a starfish holding on to the center. Her hair was a tumble of loose black curls. She had my face.
I turned the page.And another and another. There she was fighting a creature that was half human, half octopus. Exploring a cave. Riding a shark. Laughing and petting a stingray that rested on her lap.
"I'm calling her Cora Lia for the moment," Alex told me. "I thought about Corella, but it sounded like cheap dishware."
"She's...amazing."
"She's fierce. Fighting the Evil Sea-Dragon King and his minions."
I traced the red tattoo on her chest. "This is beautiful."
Alex reached into my sweater, pulled the loose neck of the T-shirt away from my shoulder. I didn't stop him. "It looks like coral to me."
He touched me, then,the pad of his thumb tracing the outline of the scar. It felt strange, partly because of the difference in the tissue, but more because in the last few years, the only hands that had touched me there were mine.
I set the book aside carefully. "Guess I don't see what you do."
"That's too bad, because I see you perfectly."
I curved myself into him. "Maybe you're exactly what I need."
"Like there's any doubt?" He buried his face in my neck.I didn't stop him. "So."
"So?"
"We'll kill a few hours, watch the sunrise, have pancakes, and you'll drive home."
"What?"
I felt him smile against my skin. "I got you swimming with sharks. Next on the Conquer Your Fears list is driving a stick shift.Right?"
"One thing at a time," I said. Then, "Oh. Do that again."
In another story, the intrepid heroine would have gone running out and splashed in the surf, hypothermia be damned. She would have driven the Mustang home, booked a haircut, taken up stand-up comedy, and danced on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
But this was me, and I was moving at my own pace.
Truth: My story started a hundred years ago. There's time.”
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“The old man’s voice was soft and sinister, like a snake across swamp water.”
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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.

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