“I am living. I remember you.”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“WHAT THE LIVING DO
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up
waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through
the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking,
I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve,
I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it.
Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning.
What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss--we want more and more and then more of it.
But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep
for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:
I am living. I remember you. ”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“Anything I’ve ever tried to keep by force I’ve lost.”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“the bridge appears when you walk across it—that”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“Soon I will die, he said, and then what everyone has been so afraid of for so long will have finally happened, and then everyone can rest.”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“I had no idea that the gate I would step through to finally enter this world would be the space my brother’s body made.”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“What happened in our house taught my brothers how to leave, how to walk down a sidewalk without looking back.”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“even if I could go back in time to her as me, the age I am now she would never come into my arms without believing that I wanted something.”
― Marie Howe, quote from What the Living Do: Poems
“Čudno, ko zdaj podoživljam čustvene boje tistih časov, dobim vtis, da moja velika mladostniška kriza ni nastopila, kakor se praviloma dogaja, ko sem odraščala v dekle, ampak v otroških letih. Pri dvanajstih, trinajstih štirinajstih sem že imela neko svojo žalostno trdnost... Vse je bilo le ena izmed naštetih malih vlogic, ki sem jih morala odigrati, če sem hotela imeti mir... Niso nas vzgajali za doslednost, temveč za prilagodljivost.”
― Susanna Tamaro, quote from Follow Your Heart
“It's good not to be the only girl in the fight for once.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, quote from Bullet
“The reward for attention is always healing.”
― Julia Cameron, quote from The Artist's Way
“Can I spoon you?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Can you what?”
The shadow of a smile fluttered on Jake’s lips. “You really don’t know what that is, do you?”
An embarrassed flush filled my cheeks as I ducked my head. “No,” I murmured.
Jake’s finger came under my chin and tipped my head up to look at him. “It’s okay. I’ll show you.”
― Katie Ashley, quote from Music of the Heart
“Master Dung’s study was silent. So silent, in fact, that one might have been able to hear a gnat passing air, if only an obligingly flatulent gnat had happened nearby.”
― Sorin Suciu, quote from The Scriptlings
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.