Gabrielle Zevin · 260 pages
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“Sometimes books don't find us until the right time.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“The words you can’t find, you borrow.
We read to know we’re not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.
My life is in these books, he wants to tell her. Read these and know my heart.
We are not quite novels.
The analogy he is looking for is almost there.
We are not quite short stories. At this point, his life is seeming closest to that.
In the end, we are collected works.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“We aren’t the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“We are not quite novels.
We are not quite short stories.
In the end, we are collected works.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“I can promise you books and conversation and all my heart.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us,” the passage goes, “but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable. Someday, you do not know when, you will be driving down a road. And someday, you do not know when, he, or indeed she, will be there. You will be loved because for the first time in your life, you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“A place ain’t a place without a bookstore,”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Someday, you may think of marrying. Pick someone who thinks you're the only person in the room.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“No Man Is An Island; Every Book Is A World.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Why is any one book different from any other book? They are different, A.J. decides, because they are. We have to look inside many. We have to believe. We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be exhilarated every now and again.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“The words you can't find, you borrow.
We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“The most annoying thing about it is that once a person gives a shit about one thing, he finds he has to start giving a shit about everything.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Every word the right one and exactly where it should be. That's basically the highest compliment I can give.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Most people's problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Bookstores attract the right kind of folk. Good people like A.J. and Amelia. And I like talking about books with people who like talking about books. I like paper. I like how it feels, and I like the feel of a book in my back pocket. I like how a new book smells, too.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“A question I've thought about a great deal is why it is so much easier to write about the things we dislike/hate/acknowledge to be flawed than the things we love.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“The words you can't find, you borrow.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn't be—basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary fiction about the Holocaust or any other major world tragedy to be distasteful—nonfiction only, please. I do not like genre mash-ups à la the literary detective novel or the literary fantasy. Literary should be literary, and genre should be genre, and crossbreeding rarely results in anything satisfying. I do not like children's books, especially ones with orphans, and I prefer not to clutter my shelves with young adult. I do not like anything over four hundred pages or under one hundred fifty pages. I am repulsed by ghostwritten novels by reality television stars, celebrity picture books, sports memoirs, movie tie-in editions, novelty items, and—I imagine this goes without saying—vampires.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“The difficulty of living alone is that any mess he makes he is forced to clean up himself.
No, the real difficulty of living alone is that no one cares if you are upset.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Remember that a fine education can be found in places other than the usual.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Maya, we are what we love. We are that we love.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Do you like Moby Dick?" he asks.
"I hate it," she says. "And I don't say that about many things. Teachers assign it, and parents are happy because their kids are reading something of 'quality.' But it's forcing kids to read books like that that make them think they hate reading.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Who are these people who think a book comes with a guarantee that they will like it?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“When I read a book, I want you to be reading it at the same time. I want to know what would Amelia think of it. I want you to be mine. I can promise you books and conversation and all my heart, Amy.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Love you,” Maya says. “Yes, she keeps saying that,” A.J. says. “I warned her about giving love that hasn’t yet been earned, but honestly, I think it’s the influence of that insidious Elmo. He loves everyone, you know?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“I've been a police officer for twenty years now and I'll tell you, pretty much every bad thing is life is a result of bad timing, and every good thing is the result of good timing.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“He wants to laugh out loud or punch a wall. He feels drunk or at least carbonated. Insane. At first, he thinks this is happiness, but then he determines it's love. Fucking love, he thinks. What a bother. It's completely gotten in the way of his plan to drink himself to death, to drive his business to ruin. The most annoying thing about it is that once a person gives a shit about one thing, he finds he has to start giving a shit about everything.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, quote from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Gabrielle Zevin
Born place: The United States
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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”
― quote from Arousing Love
“To do what you imply would require nothing short of divine intervention. You must change man, not systems.”
― Rafael Sabatini, quote from Scaramouche
“It is true that the genius of assembled men or of peoples is quite different from a man's character in private, and that one would know the human heart very imperfectly if he did not examine it also in the multitude. But it is no less true that one must begin by studying man in order to judge men, and that he who knew each individual's inclinations perfectly could foresee all their effects when combined in the body of the people.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, quote from Emile or On Education
“A NATION'S GREATNESS DEPENDS ON ITS LEADER
To vastly improve your country and truly make it great again, start by choosing a better leader. Do not let the media or the establishment make you pick from the people they choose, but instead choose from those they do not pick. Pick a leader from among the people who is heart-driven, one who identifies with the common man on the street and understands what the country needs on every level. Do not pick a leader who is only money-driven and does not understand or identify with the common man, but only what corporations need on every level.
Pick a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
Most importantly, a great leader must serve the best interests of the people first, not those of multinational corporations. Human life should never be sacrificed for monetary profit. There are no exceptions. In addition, a leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader.
And lastly, pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.”
― quote from Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
“When you are destined for greatness, it shows in everything you do.
It becomes you. Greatness becomes you.”
― Lorii Myers, quote from Targeting Success, Develop the Right Business Attitude to be Successful in the Workplace
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