The Astral Library Quotes

“Can a bookworm ever really call herself alone when she’s surrounded by books?”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Libraries are sanctuaries for everyone, no matter how different.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“People who die with too many books on their To Be Read stack sometimes end up here. The ones who don’t feel they can pass over until they catch up on their reading.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“I never look down my nose at anyone for what they read. As long as they're reading, at least they aren't watching reality television.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“I give you slavery, Japanese internment, colonization, and chemical castration. All, at some point, legal and accepted—and how? Because a lot of men claimed the right to sit around a table and bring exceptionally evil things into practice, while pretending to be polite, civilized, and moral human beings.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Libraries are full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Art doesn’t exist to make you feel good,” the Gallerist said as though reading my mind. “Art exists to make you”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“What a miraculous thing a book was, when you stopped to think about it: whole worlds springing to life from nothing more than squiggles on a page.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“The smell of woodsmoke because you were reading in front of a cozily crackling fire; the smell of lavender laundry soap from the lambswool blanket tucked around your knees; the smell of a cat because in a perfect library you’d have a cat purring at your feet as you read the best book in the world in front of a crackling fire with tea and chocolate chip cookies on the arm of your perfect reading chair.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Belle is every book girl’s favorite fairy-tale princess, after all, and the Beast is every book girl’s favorite Disney hero. Sure, he’s a monster, but he gives her a library!”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Maybe you’ve never done poverty math. If so, lucky you. It’s the Olympic sport of the working poor, the mental gymnastics performed by a woman with $36.82 in her checking account and an empty fridge at home, desperately trying to calculate just what shopping-basket Jenga will stave off both bankruptcy and malnutrition in the ten days to go before payday.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Some fights are worth starting,” Beau said. “Even if you think you’ll lose.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Survivors don’t tend to be nice people; niceness gets crushed out of them like juice out of a grape.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Under the surface we’re all a patchwork of disasters.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Because a lot of men claimed the right to sit around a table and bring exceptionally evil things into practice, while pretending to be polite, civilized, and moral human beings. Boards, committees, legislatures”—Beau’s hand encompassed all of them, and more—“can be the ultimate gaslighters and normalizers of the inhumane.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“What makes you think anyone can control stories? They take on a life of their own, once the author sets down the pen. Stories are not obedient. Even old well-loved favorites sometimes grow teeth.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Libraries are full of idea - perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“I’m part white, part Black, part Japanese, part Pakistani, and all bisexual,” he said. “Just reaching for the very, very low-hanging fruit when it comes to the history of those latter population segments, I give you slavery, Japanese internment, colonization, and chemical castration. All, at some point, legal and accepted—and how? Because a lot of men claimed the right to sit around a table and bring exceptionally evil things into practice, while pretending to be polite, civilized, and moral human beings. Boards, committees, legislatures”—Beau’s hand encompassed all of them, and more—“can be the ultimate gaslighters and normalizers of the inhumane.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“I’d scrambled onto the long rolling library ladder the moment we passed it, barely managing to keep my squeal of delight silent, because what bookworm doesn’t fantasize about library ladders sliding along bookshelves on polished wheels? I certainly did, having spent half my childhood imagining myself as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I gave the ladder a pat and hopped down. “I promise I’ll behave,”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Heathcliff, who let’s be honest was a stack of red flags in a frock coat rather than any kind of worthy book boyfriend—”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“A coalition of angry, self-righteous men happened,” said the Librarian. “Who else is responsible for so much of the world’s violence?”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“I’d gone off the edges of the map to where the warning said, Here There Be Monsters, and like any stupid girl in a book I’d paid no heed. No one ever does, because we all think the book is about us and the monsters will eat someone else.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library: A Novel

“A smithy where the muses who inspired poets and novelist actually beat metallic blocks of words out into sentences on anvils with hammers. 'I work for Kate Quinn', one haggard-looking muse said, dripping sweat onto her blacksmithing apron, 'and that bitch runs a sweatshop.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“I caught a glimpse of what I was fairly sure was a rendition of The Last Supper, but couldn’t remember if it was a Michelangelo or a Leonardo. Either way, I didn’t see the point of going to visit it. Stuck at a dinner party that never ends with a lot of religious types? Pass the water-into-wine, please.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Survivors don’t tend to be nice people; niceness gets crushed out of them like juice out of a grape. A lot of it had been crushed out of me too.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“that’s another facet of poverty math: how expensive it is, how frustratingly, ruinously expensive, to be broke.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“because if your life is Cinderella pre-ball, it’s nice to think your engraved invitation and your monogrammed pumpkin are out there somewhere.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“Some people would rather spend eternity reading than go to heaven anyway.”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“People who die with too many books on their To Be Read stack sometimes end up here. The ones who don’t feel they can pass over until they catch up on their reading. After a few decades you get to know them. Dennis, really,” the Librarian called to the nearest floating book, making me squint—”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library

“And don’t even get me started on the Wordsmithing Forge. (A smithy where the muses who inspired poets and novelists actually beat metallic blocks of words out into sentences on anvils with hammers. I work for Kate Quinn, one haggard-looking muse said, dripping sweat onto her blacksmithing apron, and that bitch runs a sweatshop. “Kate who?” I’d asked, but the muse just went back to hammering and swearing.)”
― Kate Quinn, The Astral Library