Quotes from Typical American

Gish Jen ·  304 pages

Rating: (1.3K votes)


“A man was the sum of his limits; freedom only made him see how much so.”
― Gish Jen, quote from Typical American


“One left; things shifted in one's absence; one returned to something else. Time frustrated all. There was no sneaking past its rough guard, even to get to one's own yard of intimacies.”
― Gish Jen, quote from Typical American


“Anything is possible. A man is what he makes up his mind to be.”
― Gish Jen, quote from Typical American


“He was like a nation in crisis, looking back, and back and back — its history might be ugly, but its past shone perfect.”
― Gish Jen, quote from Typical American


“Of course he bothers me. He's my husband.”
― Gish Jen, quote from Typical American



About the author

Gish Jen
Born place: in Long Island, New York, The United States
Born date August 12, 1955
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Знание - товар скоропортящийся, того и гляди заплесневеет. Так же как и будущее.”
― Milorad Pavić, quote from Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel in 100,000 Words


“girl of eighteen named Elsa Norgaard,”
― Wallace Stegner, quote from The Big Rock Candy Mountain (Contemporary American Fiction)


“When a culture is unfair and opaque, it creates multiple perverse incentives. When a culture is fair and transparent, on the other hand, it bolsters the adaptive process.”
― quote from Black Box Thinking: Why Some People Never Learn from Their Mistakes - But Some Do


“Everyone has his price. It's just a case of making an offer that pleases him but doesn't hurt you too much. - Dad”
― Joseph Delaney, quote from The Spook's Apprentice


“Lonely you linger in a league above poetry.”
― Mie Hansson, quote from Where Pain Thrives


Interesting books

The Dying Animal
(6.9K)
The Dying Animal
by Philip Roth
Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys
(31.4K)
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
(34.1K)
Gregor and the Proph...
by Suzanne Collins
Tales of Ordinary Madness
(17.7K)
Tales of Ordinary Ma...
by Charles Bukowski
A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat
(7.1K)
A Season in Hell/The...
by Arthur Rimbaud
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed
(5.1K)
The Golden Spruce: A...
by John Vaillant

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.