Quotes from Zazen

“The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I looked at the woman crying over the doll and felt something else. I was sick of people acting against their own interests. Mooing about how to refinance the slaughterhouse. Putting skylights in the killing pen and pretending the bolt in the brain was a pathway to a better field. I paid my bill. Save your fucking pennies for a gun and a history book, I thought.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“But I know what it means to crave what you're not. To want to sew up that rift because it's exhausting to hold it open. Sometimes you just need to be someone else, someone who doesn't care about anything at all. I know I do. I want emptiness but I can't have it.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“Some things are so sad that they have no name. I have tried to name them and I can’t.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“The equation Bubble Tea = Something to Look Forward To depressurizes the misery of capitalism and is a Hello Kitty band-aid on the festering wound of Neo-Liberalism.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I like to think of myself as a coworker with lots of experience rather than a boss,” Franklin said.


I like to think of myself as a boss more than a slave but mostly I prefer to not think about it at all because when I think about it, I can’t stop.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“Oh, you must be part of the underground no one’s ever heard about.”

“I don’t belong to any group outside of my friends.”

“That’s a real bridge builder.”

But it was a pretty hollow response. I wasn’t part of any group either, and not just because my wiring was shot and I cried all the time, but because I had never met anyone in any political organization that I liked.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I tried to map the cultural trends leading up to it but as I did they grew, interconnecting and weaving backwards and sideways out to everything. Next to the megalithic institutionalized shredding of people's humanity, marked by tombstone malls and scabby hills, the Styrofoam gullets and flag-waving god-chatterers casting their votes for eternal paternity on the lap rapists - next to all of that, the intimacy between a terrorist and his target was almost a beautiful thing but I still couldn't solve that moment when they did it anyway so I grabbed more paper and widened my field of vision.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I looked around at the smoke and people. I couldn’t find any hate in me anywhere. The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up. I decided to love it anyway.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“Britta wanted to try to turn a guard. Tamara thought it was idiotic.

“What are you going to do? Buy him beer and tell him about Kropotkin?”

I envisioned the conversation:

Vanguard: Wage Slave, are you aware that you are but a wire nail in the toolbox of capitalism?
Wage Slave: I thought I was a chisel.
Vanguard: No, the petit bourgeois are the chisels.
Wage Slave: What about a washer set? Can I be a washer set?
Vanguard: No, my ferret, run free! For I have unlocked your collar with knowledge!
Wage Slave: I want to be a chisel.

Vanguard pushes screaming ferret through hole in fence cut by the clippers of noblesse oblige.

“Well, maybe we could bribe him,” said Britta. Tamara laughed.

“With what? Health insurance?”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I paid my bill. Save your fucking pennies for a gun and a history book...”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“You could always industrialize,” she refilled Jimmy’s wine glass. “You know, get a job stunning chickens in a factory to earn the trust of the working class.” Jimmy laughed again and accidentally spat Chablis on my legs. “It’s a pretty silly idea, isn’t it?” said Grace, getting a rag. “Leaping out of the closet in a crisis?” She lowered her voice, “Don’t worry, sir. I’m a revolutionary socialist. Everything’s going to be okay.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I was not afraid of horror, I was afraid of beauty, of what it could do to me if I let it.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“Because that’s the way it is when a possibility opens up; the body doesn’t know any better. It reaches for the glittering incongruity.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I felt my pride like a prison.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“The gentle rustle of armies crawling the planet like ants. Anybody with any sense knows what’s coming.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“...if anybody was going to blow up the Superland™ Wal-Mart, it was going to be me. Not some fucking crusty punk.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

“I remember thinking, like I do now, that I would love to love something, especially if I could do it without feeling like I was watching it die right in front of me.”
― Vanessa Veselka, quote from Zazen

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Popular quotes

“Oy, hayır, hakkında konuştuğum yazar, kendisini olgun saydığı için değil, fakat tam da kendi olgunlaşmamışlığını tanıdığı için, bir biçimi olmadığını ve tırmanmakta olan, ama daha tırmanıp çıkmamış biri olduğunu, yapılmakta olan, ama henüz yapılıp bitmemiş biri olduğunu bildiği için kendisini yazmaya verecektir. Eğer nasibine başarısız ve budalaca bir eser yazmak düşerse, diyecektir ki: “Harika! Aptalca yazdım, ama kimseyle sadece akıllıca, mükemmel eserler verme anlaşması yapmamıştım. Kendi budalalığıma ifade kazandırdım ve bundan ötürü de seviniyorum, değil mi kendime karşı uyandırdığım isteksizlik ve insani katılık beni şekillendiriyor ve işliyor, sanki yeni baştan yaratıyor ve işte ben bir kez daha yeni doğmuş oluyorum.” Bundan da görülüyor ki sağlıklı bir felsefesi olan ozan, kendi içinde öyle bir pekişmiştir ki onu aptallık ve olgunlaşmamışlık bile ne ürkütebilir ne de bir zarar verebilir – sizler, korku sesinizi sizden aldığı için, handiyse hiçbir şey ifade edemeyecek bir durumdayken, o, açık alınla kendisini ifade edebilir ve kendi ataleti içinde görünür olabilir.”
― Witold Gombrowicz, quote from Ferdydurke

“Aloof on her mountain top she considered the innumerable activities of men. She had a wonderful sense of freedom from all earthly ties, and it was such an ecstasy that nothing in comparison with it had any value. She felt like a spirit in heaven.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from Theatre

“But plants grow again," She murmured, focusing on the verdant beauty around her. "They put down new roots, create room for themselves in foreign soil.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Archangel's Consort

“Your life isn't out of control. It's expanded.”
― Janet Evanovich, quote from Wicked Appetite

“Lula hauled herself up off the floor and put her hand to her neck. “Do I got holes? Am I bleeding? Do I look like I’m turning into a vampire?”
“No, no, and no,” I told her. “He doesn’t have his teeth in. He was just gumming you.”
“That’s disgustin’,” Lula said. “I been gummed by a old vampire. I feel gross. My neck’s all wet. What’s on my neck?”
I squinted over at Lula. “Looks like a hickey.”
“Are you shitting me? This worthless bag of bones gave me a hickey?” Lula pulled a mirror out of her purse and checked her neck out. “I’m not happy,” Lula said. “First off I don’t know if I got vampire cooties from this. And second, how am I gonna explain a hickey to my date tonight”
― Janet Evanovich, quote from Smokin' Seventeen

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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.