Billy > Billy's Quotes

“TV takes away our freedom to have whatever thoughts we want. So do photographs, movies, and the Internet. They provide us with more intellectual stimuli, but they construct a lower, harder ceiling.”
― Chuck Klosterman

“He believed that lack of education was the root of all of Pakistan’s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected.”
― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

“It killed humans, therefore it was a weapon. But radiation killed humans, and a medical X-ray machine wasn’t intended as a weapon. Holden was starting to feel like they were all monkeys playing with a microwave. Push a button, a light comes on inside, so it’s a light. Push a different button and stick your hand inside, it burns you, so it’s a weapon. Learn to open and close the door, it’s a place to hide things. Never grasping what it actually did, and maybe not even having the framework necessary to figure it out. No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito.”
― James S.A. Corey, Abaddon's Gate

“But there is not one management course in the world where they recommend Self-Righteousness as a tool.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

“What's this?" She pulled out a card and held it away from her face. "I can't read what it says." I took it from her and read it aloud.

1. Beeber Bifocal
2. Twenty Mile House
3. Bee
4. Your escape
Fourteen miracles to go.”
― Maria Semple, Where'd You Go, Bernadette

“At some point, we need to be honest with ourselves and do what excites us instead of what looks good on paper.”
― Terry McMillan, I Almost Forgot About You

“Racism should never have happened and so you don't get a cookie for reducing it.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“Yes, he just wanted her to want to be a mom, in the same way that he felt, with all of his blood, that he was a dad first, and everything else in the world an obscure, unfathomably distant second.”
― J. Ryan Stradal, Kitchens of the Great Midwest

“The way I see it,” Menshiki said, “there’s a point in everybody’s life where they need a major transformation. And when that time comes you have to grab it by the tail. Grab it hard, and never let go.”
― Haruki Murakami, Killing Commendatore

“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“He thought he had discovered one of life's great truths (and one he could have done without): the only thing harder than saying goodbye to yourself, a pound at a time, was saying goodbye to your friends.”
― Stephen King, Elevation

“It was a window onto why teachers consistently tell researchers that, given the choice, they would opt for a good principal and supportive working conditions over merit pay. Indeed, research had found no correlation between merit pay and student achievement, although reformers and venture philanthropists were fighting hard to make it a staple of new teacher contracts.”
― Dale Russakoff, The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?

“Change requires intent and effort. It really is that simple.”
― Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist: Essays

“I don’t want to bet my life on other people being smart.”
― James S.A. Corey, Persepolis Rising

“That is the one thing that makes me a Democrat, I suppose - this idea that our communal values, our sense of mutual responsibility and social solidarity, should express themselves not just in the church or the mosque or the synagogue; not just on the blocks where we live, in the places where we work, or within our own families; but also through our government.”
― Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

“I half closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, and maybe even call.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“Sometimes the best lie was just the truth left to ripen on the branch too long.”
― Lou Berney, The Long and Faraway Gone

“For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across--hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“If you ask me I don't think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That's enough.”
― Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“A woman wants to be adored but she doesn’t want reverence.”
― Liane Moriarty, The Last Anniversary

“I will protect your freedom, Malala. Carry on with your dreams.”
― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban

“Maybe that’s what religion is, hurling yourself off a cliff and trusting that something bigger will take care of you and carry you to the right place.”
― Maria Semple, Where'd You Go, Bernadette

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.”
― Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

“I believe a stronger sense of empathy would tilt the balance of our current politics in favor of those people who are struggling in this society. After all if they are like us, then their struggles are our own. If we fail to help we diminish ourselves.”
― Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

“A marriage is hard work and sometimes it’s a bit of a bore. It’s like housework. It’s never finished. You’ve just got to grit your teeth and keep working away at it, day after day.”
― Liane Moriarty, The Last Anniversary

“The past had power. The past was a riptide. That's why, if you had a brain in your head, you didn't go in the water.”
― Lou Berney, The Long and Faraway Gone

“That’s the problem with the world,” he said. “You save it today, and tomorrow it’s gone and gotten itself into trouble all over again. It’s like a Kardashian.”
― Lou Berney, The Long and Faraway Gone

“If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Yes,” he said, “intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Dawn