Emma > Emma's Quotes

“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

“The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.”
― Neil LaBute, Reasons to Be Pretty

“I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

“The helpful thought for which you look
Is written somewhere in a book.”
― Edward Gorey

“The reality of what we really are is often times found in the small snips, way down at the bottom of things.”
― Jean Shepherd

“Nothing great in the world was accomplished without passion.”
― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
― Sarah Williams

“One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

“There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.”
― John Knowles, A Separate Peace

“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

“In a time of destruction, create something.”
― Maxine Hong Kingston

“People who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature.”
― Mo Yan

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
― Franz Kafka

“I barely knew I had skin before I met you.”
― Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests

“Why should you believe your eyes? You were given eyes to see with, not to believe with. Your eyes can see the mirage, the hallucination as easily as the actual scenery.”
― Ward Moore, Bring the Jubilee

“Much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said.”
― Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

“When will you learn that there isn't a word for everything?”
― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself”
― D.H. Lawrence

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Perhaps the future belongs to magic, and it's we women who control magic.”
― J. G. Ballard, Rushing to Paradise

“Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.”
― William Allingham

“Sometimes skulls are thick. Sometimes hearts are vacant. Sometimes words don't work. ”
― James Frey, A Million Little Pieces

“Basically, I have been compelled by curiosity.”
― Mary Leakey

“Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.”
― Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter

“I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“You want to know about anybody? See what books they read, and how they've been read...”
― Keri Hulme, The Bone People

“Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.”
― Ben Okri