Quotes from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Maggie O'Farrell ·  277 pages

Rating: (21.4K votes)


“We are all, Esme decides, just vessels through which identities pass: we are lent features, gestures, habits, then we hand them on. Nothing is our own. We begin in the world as anagrams of our antecedents.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“It is a terrible thing to want something you cannot have. It takes you over. I couldn't think straight because of it. There was no one else, I realized, whom I could possibly tell.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“Two and a half thousand left-handed people are killed every year using things made for right-handed people.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“She walks slowly. She wants to feel the prick, the push of every bit of gravel under her shoe. She wants to feel every scratch, every discomfort of this....her leaving walk.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“We begin in the world as anagrams of our antecedents.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox



“Two women in a room. One seated, one standing”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“Her grandmother keeps announcing that Esme will never find a husband if she doesn't change her ways. Yesterday, when she said it at breakfast, Esme replied "Good" and was sent to finish her meal in the kitchen.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“It was always the meaningless tasks that endure: the washing, the cooing, the clearing, the cleaning. Never anything majestic or significant, just the tiny rituals that hold together the seams of human life.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“The dress bunched up like loose skin round her neck. It wouldn't behave, wouldn't act as if it was really hers. Wearing it was like being in a three legged race with someone you didn't like.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox


“ear, ‘did you know that two and a half thousand left-handed people are killed every year using things made for right-handed people?”
― Maggie O'Farrell, quote from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox



About the author

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

Popular quotes

“The accouterments of humanity may change, but its heartbeat remained the same.”
― Julie McElwain, quote from A Murder in Time


“It's fishy," Ivy said.
"More than fishy. It's like a whole shark." - Scarlet”
― Sophie Cleverly, quote from The Dance in the Dark


“Isn't it odd that some groups view being legally equal to other groups as 'oppression'?”
― Christina Engela, quote from Blachart


“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, quote from Auguries of Innocence


“Leave it to Niles Sparks to prank his pranking partner in the middle of a prank.”
― Mac Barnett, quote from The Terrible Two Get Worse


Interesting books

Finnegans Wake
(10.5K)
Finnegans Wake
by James Joyce
Once and Always
(20.7K)
Once and Always
by Judith McNaught
Winger
(20.6K)
Winger
by Andrew Smith
The Realms of the Gods
(46K)
The Realms of the Go...
by Tamora Pierce
Haunted
(32.5K)
Haunted
by Meg Cabot
End of Days
(43.8K)
End of Days
by Susan Ee

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.