Fien > Fien's Quotes

“He went through life with his hands firmly shoved into his pockets. She danced.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“You only need one ray of light to chase all the shadows away,”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“Ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. But if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn’t.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“Children don’t know the meaning of yesterday, of the day before yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now: the street is this, the doorway is this, the stairs are this, this is Mamma, this is Papa, this is the day, this the night.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

“It’s hard to understand other people, to know what’s hidden in their hearts, and without the assistance of alcohol it might never be done at all.”
― Michel Houellebecq, Submission

“Ze zeggen dat rouw even diep is als liefde was. Sommige dagen kom ik tot het inzicht dat ik geluk heb gehad omdat ik Maria zo lang naast me heb gehad en op andere dagen stel ik vast dat als ik haar niet zo lang naast me had gehad het niet zo moeilijk zou zijn om haar te missen. Elke dag moet ik beslissen of ik dankbaar ben of eenzaam. Maar ik wil haar verdomme gewoon terug zien. Dat is wat ik wil.”
― Ish Ait Hamou, Het moois dat we delen

“Warmte heeft een geluid. Je kunt het niet beschrijven maar je hoort het onmiddellijk wanneer het er niet meer is.”
― Ish Ait Hamou, Het moois dat we delen

“People were afraid of memories, of insights, knowing these might drag them into a bottomless pit, twist their own lives out of all recognition, and all of this could cause self-loathing to swell to immeasurable proportions. Besides, where was all this wretched truth-telling heading?”
― Nino Haratischwili, The Eighth Life

“We decide what we want to remember and what we don’t. Time has nothing to do with it. Time doesn’t care.”
― Nino Haratischwili, The Eighth Life

“And if you don’t know who you are, then look at all the possible versions of you, find the most impossible one, and become that.”
― Nino Haratischwili, The Eighth Life

“Want zie je, Mia, het is niet eten en drinken dat ons in leven houdt, maat levenslust, de morele overtuiging dat het de moeite waard is, dat er waarheid en schoonheid ligt in het leven zelf, altijd en overal, maar dat het aan ons is om dat op te zoeken, te delven, als gelukszoekers, in de beste betekenis van dat woord...”
― Sander Kollaard, Uit het leven van een hond

“I can’t lose the thing I’ve held onto for so long, you know?” My face twists up from the pain of pushing it out. “I just really need it to be a love story, you know? I really, really need it to be that.”
“I know,” she says.
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it”? I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide open empathy. “It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“You can change the law but you can’t change people and how they treat each other.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

“We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

“He who gets behind in a race must forever remain behind or run faster than the man in front.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

“at some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

“In my experience, this is the hardest lesson of them all. After a certain age, we are all walking around this world in bodies made of secrets and shame and sorrow and old, unhealed injuries. Our hearts grow sore and misshapen around all this pain - yet somehow, still, we carry on.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

“Never has it felt more important for me to tell stories of joy and abandon, passion and recklessness. Life is short and difficult, people. We must take our pleasures where we can find them. Let us not become so cautious that we forget to live.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

“You must learn in life to take things more lightly, my dear. The world is always changing. Learn how to allow for it.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

“Let us not become so cautious that we forget to live.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

“They did this to me. They did that to me. A woman who thinks that way will never overcome her anger. You are not being punished for your anger. You're being punished by your anger.”
― Lisa See, The Island of Sea Women

“The sea is better than a mother. You can love your mother, and she still might leave you. You can love or hate the sea, but it will always be there. Forever. The sea has been the center of her life. It has nurtured her and stolen from her, but it has never left.”
― Lisa See, The Island of Sea Women

“I wasn't aware that words could hold so much. I didn't know a sentence could be so full.”
― Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

“Autumn leaves don't fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”
― Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

“He began to feel that he might have broken his life on this journey, that he should have stayed at home with the small and the familiar instead of being out here with the large and the unknown.”
― Carys Davies, West

“Life falls apart. We try to get a grip and hold it together. And then we realize we don't want to hold it together.”
― Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography

“When our father does the things he needs to do in the world, we understand it is his due. If our mother does the things she needs to do in the world, we feel she has abandoned us. It is a miracle she survives our mixed messages, written in society's most poisoned ink. It is enough to drive her mad.”
― Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography