Dani > Dani's Quotes

“He knew now, and the knowledge was hard, that his task had never been to undo what he had done, but to finish what he had begun.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

“I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”
― C.S. Lewis

“My conversation is probably something like the rain. On some days it pours, and then on other days there's just a clear sky- not a word in sight.”
― Heather O'Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel

“If there was one thing responsible for ruining lives, it was love.”
― Heather O'Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel

“Being a woman was a trap. Something would bring you down before you turned twenty-three. The only time the world shows you any favor, or cuts you any slack, is during that very brief period of courtship where the world is trying to fuck you for the first time.”
― Heather O'Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel

“Women were still strange and inscrutable creatures. Men didn’t understand them. And women didn’t understand themselves either. It was always a performance of some sort. Everywhere you went, it was like there was a spotlight shining down on your head. You were on a stage when you were on the trolley. You were being judged and judged and judged. Every minute of your performance was supposed to be incredible and outstanding and sexy.
You were often only an ethical question away from being a prostitute.”
― Heather O'Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel

“Everything written by any woman was written by all women, because they all benefited from it. If one woman was a genius, it was proof that it was possible for the rest of them.”
― Heather O'Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel

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

“If you don't understand, ask questions. If you're uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It's easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here's to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“This is the trouble with history. You can't see what's not there. You can look at an empty space and see that something's missing, but there's no way to know what it was.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Power

“One of them says, 'Why did they do it?'
And the other answers, 'Because they could.'
That is the only answer there ever is.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Power

“Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? Whatever a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells: it's not there.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Power

“You have been taught that you are unclean, that you are not holy, that your body is impure and could never harbour the divine. You have been taught to despise everything you are and to long only to be a man. But you have been taught lies.”
― Naomi Alderman, The Power

“That is certainly one way to look at the matter. There are others.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Thirteenth Child

“You can't force folks to have good sense, even if they're family. Maybe especially then.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Across the Great Barrier

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.”
― Neil Gaiman

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”
― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

“I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me.”
― Tahereh Mafi

“I had to leave my debit card at home when I went into a bookstore or else I would drain my account.”
― Chelsea M. Cameron, My Favorite Mistake

“A place is not really a place without a bookstore.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”
― Anonymous

“So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“Books may well be the only true magic.”
― Alice Hoffman