Jan > Jan's Quotes

“Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.”
― George Saunders

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”
― August Wilson

“The past beats inside me like a second heart.”
― John Banville, The Sea

“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
― Derek Walcott

“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.”
― Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“The note in the quill was intended for the girl, and it read, 'Yes and yes and yes.' Yes I love you, yes I miss you, and yes I know and remember that you do, too. For in her last missive she had written 'No and no.' That is to say, No I do not want anyone other than you, and no I do not manage to sleep at night.”
― Meir Shalev

“When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.”
― Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

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

“I am a citizen of the world.”
― Sylvia Beach

“If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.”
― Seamus Heaney, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney