James > James's Quotes

“Being a princess isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.”
― Chris Bohjalian, The Princess of Las Vegas

“No one escapes who they are.”
― Chris Bohjalian, The Princess of Las Vegas

“Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“Oh, Junie. Life is so short. Why do we build up these walls?”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“It’s not lying. I swear, it was never as psychopathic as it sounds. It’s all just stretching reality a bit, putting the right spin on the picture so that the lurking social media outrage mob doesn’t get the wrong idea.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“If publishing is rigged, you might as well make sure it’s rigged in your favor.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“But the truth is, praise is just like an addiction. The more you get it, the more of it you need just to stay even.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is “You’re safe with me”—that’s intimacy.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Sometimes reality comes crashing down on you. Other times reality simply waits, patiently, for you to run out of the energy it takes to deny it.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Never let anyone make you feel ordinary.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“But people can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

“not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour—and in the oddest places!—for the lack of it.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

“He made me think of home—perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

“After all, no one can hurt you as much as someone you love.”
― Katherine Reay, The Berlin Letters

“To be vulnerable is not the same as being weak.”
― Kate Quinn, The Phoenix Crown

“There’s an invisible thread of red silk,” Ming Lee said, “that the gods tie to the fingers of two people whose destinies are meant to be joined. The thread brings them together eventually, no matter how far apart they are. No matter what hardships they face, no matter how much strain is put on that thread, it will not break.”
― Kate Quinn, The Phoenix Crown

“He never hated anyone. He was always kind. He’d give away his last crumb. And here in America, he’d married a woman who was the same way. Kindness. Love. Principle. It runs the world.”
― James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

“Every day of your life feels like you’re climbing up the mountain. And then you get there and you stay for a bit. And it’s nice at the top. But then you start sliding down the other side.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising

“It’s a family trait . . . We all have secrets.”
― Katherine Reay, The Berlin Letters

“The point is, none of us are completely authentic, exempt from playing with the slippery truth. But just how far we’ll go, and which lines we refuse to cross, is for each of us to determine.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“After all, how can one truly know oneself when everything around them is a lie?”
― Katherine Reay, The Berlin Letters

“Don’t die in the waiting room of the future.”
― Katherine Reay, The Berlin Letters

“I fare better being surprised by hope rather than being fooled by reality.”
― Katherine Reay, The Berlin Letters

“It’s funny how easily you can convince yourself that the people you live with see the world like you do.”
― Katherine Reay, The Berlin Letters

“You did the right thing,” I said. “If I did the right thing, why do I feel so awful?” “Aw, sweetie, that’s the price you have to pay for your dignity and self-respect.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“Mathematics has saved my life, both figuratively and literally. This is what mathematics does: it saves us. It brings balance, clarity and peace of mind; it helps us see how things really are, it tells us what we should do in order to reach our goals.”
― Antti Tuomainen, The Moose Paradox