Karen Kline > Karen's Quotes

“So if you want to find somebody to blame for the way i am, I guess you'd have to start with the public education system.”
― Jeff Kinney, Dog Days

“I'm not really sure what makes a book a 'classic' to begin with, but I think it has to be at least fifty years old and some person or animal has to die at the end.”
― Jeff Kinney

“Her only friends on the estate were books, and books can talk but do not listen.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“Love is the anesthetic applied by Nature to extract babies.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“Art feasts upon its maker”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“I’d love to know how Dad saw me when I was a kid. I’d love to know a hundred things. When a parent dies, a filing cabinet full of all the fascinating stuff also ceases to exist. I never imagined how hungry I’d be one day to look inside it.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“Life is a terminal illness.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I can't waste my energy like that and expect to get ahead. When they left, it took everything I had in me just to survive. Now I have to stay focused. I've just gotta take care of it myself' Joe Rantz”
― Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

“It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down,” he told his daughter, Marilynn. “What matters is how many times you get up.”
― Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

“I loved going to the library. It was the first time I ever saw Black newspapers and magazines like JET, Ebony, the Baltimore Afro-American, or the Chicago Defender. And I’ll never forget my librarian.”
― John Robert Lewis, March: Book One

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”
― Walter Cronkite

“It's easy to become anything you wish . . . so long as you're willing to forfeit your soul.”
― Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese

“There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.”
― Stephen King

“One must always be careful of books," said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

“Everyone is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that it’s stupid.”
― Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Fish In A Tree

“There's nothing wrong with you. There's a lot wrong with the world you live in. And definitely get out of high school and make everyone sorry.”
― Chris Colfer

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
― Marcel Proust

“...I doubt very seriously whether anyone will hire me.'

What do you mean, babe? You a fine boy with a good education.'

Employers sense in me a denial of their values.' He rolled over onto his back. 'They fear me. I suspect that they can see that I am forced to function in a century I loathe. This was true even when I worked for the New Orleans Public Library.”
― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”
― Mark Twain

“In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.”
― André Maurois

“This is the world as it is. This is where you start.”
― Saul Alinsky

“To die, it's easy. But you have to struggle for life.”
― Art Spiegelman, Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

“Comics are a gateway drug to literacy.”
― Art Spiegelman

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”
― Deb Caletti

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
― Jason Reynolds, All American Boys

“You can't run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.”
― Jason Reynolds, Ghost

“Had our hearts really become so numb that we needed dead bodies in order to feel the beat of compassion in our chests? Who am I if I need to be shocked back into my best self?”
― Jason Reynolds, All American Boys

“People truly engaged in life have messy houses.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen

“Not thinking about endings doesn't stop them from happening. It only makes the endings sneak up on you.”
― Erin Somers, Stay Up with Hugo Best