Read Between the Pages > Read's Quotes

“Of course I loved books more than people.”
― Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

“Killing isn't free. It takes something out of you every time you do it. You get their life; they get a piece of your soul. It's always a trade.”
― Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker

“I know the mall is just a lot of fake plants and fake food and people buying crap for too much money, and at Christmas people pay for their kids to talk to Santa, learning greed the way some kids learn piano. I know all that. I can hear the Muzak, smell the waffle fries. Like everybody else, I walk around stuck inside a cliche, like we're stars of some TV show we plan to watch later, if nothing else is on. But still, there's something hopeful about this place, too, and maybe it takes having a crazy mother to get that. People buy stuff, because they think they are going to need it, because they think their lives are going to keep skipping down the same old path, and I want so much for that to be true for them that it nearly makes me cry. The mall says, Nothing is terrible. The mall says, Life is small and adequate.”
― Heather Hepler, Jars of Glass

“The greatest art belongs to the world. Do not be intimidated by the experts. Trust your instincts. Do not be afraid to go against what you were taught, or what you were told to see or believe. Every person, every set of eyes, has the right to the truth.”
― Blue Balliett, Chasing Vermeer

“A person's soul is bigger than his body. It takes root and lives in all who love him.”
― Kelly Barnhill, The Mostly True Story of Jack

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“The house appeared just as cozy and welcoming as the first time I saw it. Now, though, I knew what I was seeing was just the architecture, the outer shell; it didn't mean anything about the type of house it was inside.”
― Marianna Baer, Frost

“Replace the old memory with a potentially crappier new one? No thank you.”
― Lauren Barnholdt, Sometimes It Happens

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“Smile. Nod. Say
something witty
before he finds
out what an incredible
geek you are.”
― Ellen Hopkins, Crank

“This country life doesn’t look so bad from the window. It melts your heart. It warms your soul.lets you think about the possibility of quiet and how quiet is beautiful when seen through the proper lenses and mind-set.”
― Jason Myers, Run the Game

“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Actually, the zapping light was kinda like Sookie’s fairy-light-thing. Do you think there’s any chance I’m a fairy?”

“No, Z. Focus. True Blood is fiction. This is the real world.”
― P.C. Cast, Hidden

“I may have implied on several occasions to several different people that I may have been Jesus Christ, but I haven't decided yet what I am or who I am.”
― Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

“I am often thought of as being remarkably bright, and yet my brains, more often than not, are busily devising new and interesting ways of bringing my enemies to sudden, gagging, writhing, agonizing death.”
― Alan Bradley, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

“How very kind of her, ' I said. 'I must remember to send her a card.'

I'd send her a card alright. It would be the Ace of Spades, and I'd mail it anonymously from somewhere other than Bishop's Lacey.”
― Alan Bradley, A Red Herring Without Mustard

“Impertinent children ought to be given six coats of shellac and set up in public places as a warning to others.”
― Alan Bradley, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

“You are pulling down heaven and raising up a whore”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“Between a book's covers there may be passion, bile, mayhem, or murder, but in the quiet spaces where it awaits its fate (either acceptance of indifference) all is calm.”
― David Abbott, The Upright Piano Player

“Paranoia is just the bastard child of fear and good sense." (Charlie)

"Poor thing. Let's adopt it, give it a last name and raise it right." (Jace)

"You want to get it a puppy, too?"

"Sure. We'll call it Panic. It and little Paranoia can play together at the park and scare the hell out of all the other kids.”
― D.D. Barant, Back from the Undead

“If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.”
― John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things

“I’ve never known fear; as a youth I fought/ In endless battles. I am old, now,/ But I will fight again, seek fame still,/ If the dragon hiding in his tower dares/ To face me”
― Burton Raffel, Beowulf

“Have you ever hoped for something? And held out for it against all the odds? Until everything you did was ridiculous? ”
― Ali Shaw, The Girl With Glass Feet

“Besides, it doesn't matter if it's real. It never does with dreams. They aren't anything anyway but lifesavers to cling to so you don't drown. Life is an ocean, and most everyone's hanging on to some kind of dream to keep afloat.”
― Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now

“You don't seem to understand me,' she said. 'The last thing I want is to start over. You can't wake up something that's dead and buried.”
― Erick Setiawan, Of Bees and Mist

“I sleep better knowing that a naked cork-eater is not sneaking around at night, stealing my underwear. ”
― Maureen Johnson, The Bermudez Triangle

“I didn’t say you weren’t smart. I said you were stupid.”
“I guess I’m too dumb to see the difference.”
― Cath Crowley, A Little Wanting Song