Charlotte Corbett > Charlotte's Quotes

“You learn not to mourn every little thing out here, or you’d never, ever stop grieving.”
― Alexandra Fuller, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness

“Cowboy up, cupcake.”
― Alexandra Fuller, The Legend of Colton H. Bryant

“So you should be grateful about most everything, because, being an American, you live a very privileged life. There’s just a tiny amount of room for complaining, because there are a few legitimate things worth complaining about. Like, let’s say you watched a show about people who crashed on an island, and it was full of interesting mysteries, and you kept watching for six seasons, hoping to find answers to all the mysteries—but then in the finale they totally didn’t answer anything and acted like it was the characters and their resolutions I was supposed to care about—like Jack’s constant whining should have been my focus rather than the smoke monster or the mysterious hatch. That’s awful. That’s worth complaining about . . . even years later.”
― Frank J Fleming, Punch Your Inner Hippie: Cut Your Hair, Get a Job, and Make America Awesome Again

“Book lovers will understand me,
and they will know too that part of the pleasure
of a library lies in its very existence.”
― Jan Morris

“The language itself, whether you speak it or not, whether you love it or hate it, is like some bewitchment or seduction from the past, drifting across the country down the centuries, subtly affecting the nations sensibilities even when its meaning is forgotten.”
― Jan Morris, Wales: The First Place

“In a Kenya game park once I saw a family of wart-hogs waddling ungainly and in a tremendous hurry across the grass. Contemptuous though I am of those who find animals comic…still I could not help laughing at this quaint spectacle. My African companion rightly rebuked me. “You should not laugh at them,” he said. “They are beautiful to each other.”
― Jan Morris, Conundrum

“That which you believe becomes your world.”
― Richard Matheson, What Dreams May Come

“Dis maklik om te sê die kerk is ’n droë ou moeder. Tog wil ek my nie indink wat sal in die woestyn van barmhartigheid gebeur as die wêreld op ’n oggend wakker word en alle kerke het oornag hulle deure gesluit en hulle aktiwiteite gestaak nie. Geen brood om uit te deel nie. Geen sendingstasies of sopkombuise nie. Niemand om mense te doop en te begrawe nie. Eers op daardie dag sal ons besef die ou moeder was toe al die tyd nie so dor as wat ons gedink het nie.”
― Annelie Botes, Swart op Wit

“She then made a move on me, and I very nearly snapped her neck before I realized she was hugging me.”
― Frank J. Fleming, Superego

“Anyway, I don’t know what your plans are, but we’re on our way to church, and the rest of our church would love to meet you and thank you for all you’ve done.” That was one of the most hellish proposals I’d ever heard, and I’ve had crime lords threaten to do all manner of nasty things to me.”
― Frank J. Fleming, Superego

“No matter how lazy or unmotivated a person is, if he feels his life is on the line, he will devote every available resource to not being killed. Civilization goes out the door, and pure survival kicks in. When people are that awake and that focused, they intrigue me. So you can say I have a job that brings out the best in people.”
― Frank J. Fleming, Superego

“So friends care about each other and their problems. That was something I’d have to remember to fake.”
― Frank J. Fleming, Superego

“Oh, but Barack Obama was no mere man. He was a paragon of intelligence and civilized society. A savior to the world’s depressed. A lightbringer. A genius thinking thoughts the common man could never hope to comprehend. And his words—his beautiful words read from crystal panes—reached down to our souls and told us all would be well. With the simple act of casting a ballot for Barack Obama, we could make the world an immeasurably better place—a world of peace, of love, of understanding, of unicorns, of rainbows, of expanded entitlements. This was his promise. And now, having had him as president for more than two years, we can say without reservation that he has delivered all his promises and more and is the best president this country—or any country—has ever had or could even imagine to have.”
― Frank J. Fleming, Obama: The Greatest President in the History of Everything