Quotes from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“Don't be the kind of person who sees groups instead of people.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The best I can hope for is the occasional moment of loose happy freedom—found usually with Harp but once or twice on this trip with Peter—that tells me it’s okay. That if I was put on this earth for any particular reason, it was to experience love and joy, just like anybody else.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“But Viv, if I've learned anything at all in the last eight years of my life? It's that people just like to tell themselves stories about where they came from. They can't help themselves. They don't trust the world around them--it's too good for them, or not good enough--so they tell themselves stories about it. They tell themselves an old magician who lives up in the sky made them out of clay and put them here until whenever he makes up his mind to take them out again. Your parents didn't like their creation myth, that's all--it had pain in it, and chaos, and their own parents were ashamed. So they told themselves a story that was at least partially true: about two good people who deserved happy lives. And probably at some point they started to believe that story. But the thing is, really, that it doesn't matter. For your parents or anyone else. It doesn't actually matter where we came from, or where we're going, or when. The only thing that matters is what we have to do while we're here and how well we do it.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“This is car theft. This is running away. This is some punk-rock New Orphans shit. This is not like any Vivian Apple I have ever been before. But this is Vivian Apple at the end of the world.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The way we live our lives is not sustainable. I don’t just mean recycling and turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth. I mean the way we treat each other. The way we pick and choose whose lives are important—who we actually treat as human. There is nobody on this earth whose life is not of value.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“But the thing is, really,” Peter continues, “that it doesn’t matter. For your parents or anyone else. It doesn’t actually matter where we came from, or where we’re going, or when. The only thing that matters is what we have to do while we’re here and how well we do it.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“It doesn’t actually matter where we came from, or where we’re going, or when. The only thing that matters is what we have to do while we’re here and how well we do it.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The group’s camaraderie had a certain level of appeal in a city where a sexually active girl could find herself waking up in a house on fire,”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“Oh, Vivian Apple," Harp says. "You beautiful, crazy bitch.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“I know Harp doesn’t really regret it either, because it meant she got to scream “FUCK YOU, OLD MAN” at Mr. Knackstedt as we walked out the door.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“What the Church wanted from you wasn't goodness; it was meekness. And I know because I've been meek for seventeen years. That's what you just called godliness. It's so much easier to be meek--to read the guidelines and submit and obey, instead of actually dealing with chaos, or pain--but that's not what good is.”
― Katie Coyle, quote from Vivian Apple at the End of the World

About the author

Popular quotes

“You see the world in colors,
I see in Black and Red.”
― Irum Zahra, quote from Psychaotic: See The World In Red And Black

“Жизнь одинокого человека связана с ритуалом изгнания вакуума из вечеров, проведенных в одиночестве.”
― Douglas Coupland, quote from Eleanor Rigby

“If your employees, including your CEO, wish to give to their alma maters or other institutions to which they feel a personal attachment, we believe they should use their own money, not yours.”
― Warren Buffett, quote from Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders

“A friend was someone you talked to in school, joined a club with, or who went to your church. A stupid fight in a basement could end a normal friendship. But a best friend was someone you could trust with your life, someone who you knew would be there for you. Being best friends was a promise to work through things no matter what.”
― Michael Barakiva, quote from One Man Guy

“That goes for old wounds, too, you know. I really wish we'd had the chance to talk before this," he says, cracking the window so the smoke can escape. "There's a Longfellow quote I have stuck on my bulletin board at the church office- 'There is no grief like the grief that does not speak'- and it's true. I've found that keeping pain inside doesn't give it a chance to heal, but bringing it out into the light, holding it right there in your hands and trusting that you're strong enough to make it through, not hating the pain, not loving it, just seeing it for what it really is can change how you go on from there. Time alone doesn't heal emotional wounds, Sayre, and you don't want to live the rest of your life bottled up with anger and guilt and bitterness. That's how people self-destruct.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Ordinary Beauty

Interesting books

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.