The Republic of Love Quotes

“Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“It's hard work being a person, you have to do it every single day.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“So this is where the years of maturity deliver us - to this needy, selfish, unwieldy wish to be somebody else's first and primal other.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“Routine is liberating, it makes you feel in control.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“I've had lots of happy moments. I've been lucky. But I always think the happiest moment hasn't happened yet. I'm talking about the queen of happy moments. The biggie. The unfathomable. The epitome of happiness. The only thing is, I worry that when it comes along I won't recognize it. It'll be flashing away there at the edge of my vision and I'll be looking so hard that I'll just let it float right by.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“To be a romantic is to believe anything can happen to us.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“Love is not, anywhere, taken seriously. It's not respected. It's the one thing in the world everyone wants, but for some reason people are obliged to pretend that love is trifling and foolish.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love

“Boiled down, isn't love just a form of vanity? You know, the wish to be adored. To be the absolute center for someone else.”
― Carol Shields, The Republic of Love