Deb > Deb's Quotes

“Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“This is why I read novels: so I can escape my own unrelenting monologue.”
― Carol Shields, Unless

“Write the book you want to read, the one you cannot find.”
― Carol Shields

“History may well be a series of stories we tell about the past, but the stories are not just any stories. They're not chosen by chance. By and large, the stories are about famous men and celebrated events. We throw in a couple of exceptional women every now and then, not out of any need to recognize female eminence, but out of embarrassment.”
― Thomas King, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

“History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another's pain in the heart our own.”
― Julius Lester

“A mother’s unfulfilled ambitions lie heaviest on her daughters.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“White is not an origin. It’s a mental construct of privilege.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“that mothers’ and daughters’ hearts can be crushed so repeatedly without learning to defend themselves.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered