“The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alone in the world. You're part of this cosmic community of people who've thought about this thing, whatever it happens to be.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“You didn’t win the game of life by losing the least. That would be one of those—what were they called again?—Pyrrhic victories. Real winning was having the most to lose, even if it meant you might lose it all. Even though it meant you would lose it all, sooner or later.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Why had he assumed time was some sort of infinite resource? Now the hourglass had busted open, and what he’d always assumed was just a bunch of sand turned out to be a million tiny diamonds.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“You don’t wanna go out of this world with regrets. If there’s some-
thing you want to do, you do it. You take this life by the balls and you tell it that you existed.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Do you think it is better to fail at something worthwhile, or succeed at something meaningless”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“the fundamental rule of life: Things were never so bad that they couldn’t get worse.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Beauty always made a target of its possessor. Every other human quality was hidden easily enough – intelligence, talent, selfishness, even madness – but beauty would not be concealed.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little less alone in the world.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Red Rover, Red Rover, send Ardor right over," Eliza said. They laughed. The asteroid was a little bigger now, brighter, and still they went on laughing. Laughing in the face of what they couldn't predict or change or control. Would it be fire and brimstone? Would it be Armageddon? Or would it be a second chance? Eliza held tight to her friends, laughing, and a pair of hands land soft as feathers on her shoulders, like the hands of a ghost, laughing and laughing as Ardor swept along its fated course, laughing and through that laughter, praying. Praying for forgiveness. Praying for grace. Praying for mercy.
0”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“They said no man was an island, and Anita figured that was probably true. But women were; they had to be. And even if someone bothered to sail over and disembark, he'd soon discover that there was always a castle at the center of the island, surrounded by a deep moat, with a rickety drawbridge and archers manning the battlements and a big pot of oil posed above the gate, ready to boil alive anyone who dared to cross the threshold.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“She was miserable because she kept hoping things would change. If she could eradicate the hope, she could eradicate the sadness.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“And there in the darkness of the hotel room, scarcely more than twenty-four hours before the maybe end of the world, the three of them managed to laugh together. It turned out that no amount of terror could stop the great human need to connect. Or maybe, Anita thought, terror was actually at the heart of that need. After all, every life ended in an apocalypse, in one way or another.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Instead of a few months, the doctors gave him a year. That was how you could be lucky without being lucky. That was how you could be a winner and still lose.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“As a little kid, Peter had figured that once you reached a certain age, somebody just handed you all the knowledge you'd need in order to be an adult. But it turned out that wasn't how it worked.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Anita felt like she finally understood why love was symbolized by the grotesque pumping organ, always threatening to clog, or break, or attack. Because the heart was the body's engine, and love was an act of the body. Your mind could tell you who to hate or respect or envy, but only your body--your nostrils and your mouth and the wide, blank canvas of your skin--could tell you who to love.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Today was just another shit day in a life that sometimes felt like a factory specializing in the construction of shit days.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Just another little piece of utterly irrelevant history, aspiring to permanence, doomed to oblivion.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Was life too short? Of course- there was never enough time to do all the things you wanted to do. And of course not- if it were any longer, you'd appreciate it even less than you already did.
Was it better to live primarily for the good of yourself, or for the good of others? For the good of yourself, of course- it was madness to take responsibility for other people's happiness. And for others, of course- selfishness was just another way to isolate yourself, when everyone knew that true happiness was all about friendship and love.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Karass: A group of people linked in a cosmically significant manner, even when superficial linkages are not evident”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Then I'll just tell you that it doesn't matter whose fault it is. Blame is just a way to keep score, and adults don't play games like that.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“The end of the world revealed the futility of all commemorative plaques.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“That was how you could be lucky without being lucky. That was how you could be a winner and still lose.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“She looked up toward the sky, toward the implacable sparkle of good old Ardor, and saw that the two of them—she and the asteroid—were caught up I a battle of wills. In that moment, she stopped being afraid of it, even dared it to come, because she knew thre was mo way it could crave death as much as she craved life.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“This is the twenty-first century. The oceans are rising. Mad dictators have access to nuclear weapons. Corporatism and the dumbing down of the media have destroyed the very foundations of democracy. Anyone who isn’t afraid is a moron.” There”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“She believed photography to be the greatest of all art forms because it was simultaneously junk food and gourmet cuisine, because you could snap dozens of pictures in a couple of hours, then spend dozens of hours perfecting just a couple of them.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“It occurred to Anita that hatred and dislike and even indifference were all luxuries, born of the mistaken belief that anything could last forever.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“The best books, they don’t talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you’d always thought about, but that you didn’t think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you’re a little bit less alone in the world. You’re part of this cosmic community of people who’ve thought about this thing, whatever it happens to be.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“He was the kind of guy who had a unique facial expression dedicated to thinking.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
“Fiction described reality better than non-fiction.”
― Tommy Wallach, quote from We All Looked Up
Tommy Wallach
Born place: in Stamford, CT, The United States
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“But when he died, I saw - nothing. There was nothing left to see. It happened and it was impossible and beautiful and then it ended before it even really began, leaving nothing behind but secrets and broken hearts.”
― Sarah Ockler, quote from Twenty Boy Summer
“Sometimes I think my whole life has been about holding on to you.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Vanishing Acts
“Even more than the cold, I’m frozen by the sadness in his beautiful eyes, deep and true. He squeezes them closed a moment and breathes deeply through his nose. Then, with one swift movement, he cups the back of my neck with a strong hand, pulls my head forward, and presses his lips to mine. He wastes precious moments kissing me, his tongue gliding across my lips, darting at my teeth. I open my mouth and kiss back just as eagerly.”
― Rae Carson, quote from The Girl of Fire and Thorns
“would flower; and where birds came—and pecked”
― Mary Norton, quote from The Borrowers
“Make it quick," I said when I picked up.
"Okay. Two men from the FBI are here." Cookie said. Quickly.
Crap. "Men in black are at the office?"
"Well, yes, but they're actually in more of a navy."
Crapola. I so don't have time for men. In any color. "Okay, two questions. Do they look mad, and are they hot?"
After a long, long, pause, Cookie said, "One, not really. Two, no comment at this time. And three, you're on speakerphone."
After another long, long pause, I said, "Okie dokie then. Be there in a jiff.”
― Darynda Jones, quote from Second Grave on the Left
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The Essays of Warren...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.
