The Queen's Gambit Quotes

“It's an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it; I can dominate it. And it's predictable. So, if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“She was alone, and she liked it. It was the way she had learned everything important in her life.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“The strongest person is the person who isn’t scared to be alone.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Chess isn't always competitive. Chess can also be beautiful.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“She had flirted with alcohol for years. Now it was time to consummate the relationship.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“It is foolish to run risk of going mad for vanity's sake.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“And what did being women have to do with it? She was better than any male player in America. She remembered the Life interviewer and the questions about her being a woman in a man's world. To hell with her; it wouldn't be a man's world when she finished with it.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“My experience has taught me that what you know isn’t always important.”
“What is important?”
“Living and growing,” Mrs. Wheatley said with finality. “Living your life.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Her mind was luminous, and her soul sang to her in the sweet moves of chess.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Listening to the two of them, she had felt something unpleasant and familiar: the sense that chess was a thing between men, and she was an outsider. She hated the feeling.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“I could have done this at eight.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“After a moment a simple thought came to her: I’m not playing Benny Watts; I’m playing chess.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“My tranquility needs to be refurbished,”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Beth walked slowly home and replayed the game. Her mind was as lucid as a perfect, stunning diamond”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“What you know is not always important.”
― Walter Tevis , The Queen's Gambit

“There had been a few times over the past year when she felt like this, with her mind not only dizzied but nearly terrified by the endlessness of chess.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“How old were you when you started playing?”, she asked.
“Five. I was District Champion at seven. I hope to be a World Champion one day.”
“When?”
“In three years.”
“You'll be sixteen in three years”, she said, “If you win, what will you do afterward?”.
He looked confused. “I don't understand”, he replied.
“If you're a World Champion at sixteen, what will you do with the rest of your life?”
He still looked confused. “I don't understand”.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Benny, I like the way your hair looks.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“You’ve been the best at what you do for so long you don’t know what it’s like for the rest of us.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Normally she fled from any human encounter,”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“she felt herself resisting it as it opened up in her mind, hating to let go of the pleasant ballet they had danced together.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“She felt in herself an inexhaustible ability to find strong, threatening moves.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“I am no longer a wife, except by legal fiction.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“What I wanted to tell you about Philidor was that Diderot wrote him a letter. You know Diderot?"
"The French Revolution?"
"Yeah. Philidor was doing blindfold exhibitions and burning out his brain, or whatever it was they thought you did in the eighteenth century. Diderot wrote him: 'It is foolish to run the risk of going mad for vanity's sake.' I think of that sometimes when I'm analyzing my ass over a chessboard.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“Do they have a chess club ? I want to join."
"Oh," the girl said. "I don't think they have anything like that. You can try out for junior cheerleader.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“She had three thousand dollars in her savings account; she was no longer a virgin; and she knew how to drink.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“I didn’t see what he was doing,” Beth said, picturing the move where his queen took her pawn. It was like putting your tongue against an aching tooth.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“The waitress who handed her a menu was dressed in a black miniskirt and fishnet hose, but she had the face of a geometry teacher.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“For a moment she wanted to say something about the expensiveness of room service, even measured in pesos, but she didn’t. She picked up the phone and dialed six. The man answered in English. She told him to send a margarita and a large Coke to 713.”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

“My experience has taught me that what you know isn’t always important.” “What is important?” “Living and growing,”
― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit