Kara > Kara's Quotes

“Fat’ is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her.

I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me; but then, you might retort, what do I know about the pressure to be skinny? I’m not in the business of being judged on my looks, what with being a writer and earning my living by using my brain…

I went to the British Book Awards that evening. After the award ceremony I bumped into a woman I hadn’t seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!’

‘Well,’ I said, slightly nonplussed, ‘the last time you saw me I’d just had a baby.’

What I felt like saying was, ‘I’ve produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren’t either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?’ But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!

I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons.”
― J.K. Rowling

“in a world
full of
temporary things

you are
a perpetual
feeling.”
― Sanober Khan

“It was the feeling, she imagined, that one had when vouchsafed a vision. Everything is changed, becomes more blessed, making the humblest of surroundings a holy place”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Right Attitude to Rain

“You haven't offended me at all. You've made me think. That's all.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Right Attitude to Rain

“There were worlds within worlds, and each will have within its confines values and meaning. It may not really matter to the world at large, thought Isabel, that I should feel happy rather than sad, but it matters to me, and the fact that it matters matters.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Right Attitude to Rain

“Dearest Amabot,
If you only had a heart to absorb our hatred...
Thanks for nothing, you jury-rigged rust bucket.
The gorgeous messiness of flesh and blood with prevail!”
― Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

“If I remember correctly, pages 26, 42, 58, 77, 91, 103 and 118, basically all the places in the script where one of my people has a speaking part, he or she screams. No words, just screams. So you should at least get the screams right.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“Remember, you're not half of anything, you're twice of everything”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“Not to own the means of production can lead to premature death, but not to own the means of representation is also a kind of death.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“I had won the argument, but somehow, as in our college days, he had won the audience.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever”
― Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

“You see, you are not so soft after all; you are rock and wave and the peeling barks of trees, you are ladybirds and the smell of a garden after the rain. When you put your best foot forward, you are taking the north side of a mountain with you.”
― Ella Frances Sanders, Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe

“Your luminosity is intrinsic, but your brightness will depend on who is looking at you.”
― Ella Frances Sanders, Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe

“Choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable because it requires us to surender to uncertainty. We have to ask questions, admit to not knowing, risk being told that we shouldn't be asking, and, sometimes, make discoveries that lead to discomfort.”
― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
― Søren Kierkegaard