Katherine Reay > Quotes

“Love spills out of these people. That's what I want. Settling for anything less is a lie.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“And, Mr. Knightley, forget my theory about Icarus. If you don't sail high, with the risk of crashing and burning, do you really live? Can you love? I doubt it. I'm ready to fly. Love, Sam”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“Maybe that’s what love is—sacrificing yourself to save another, taking the insult or taking the hit.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“The day we forget the horror, Sam, we will repeat it. Never forget your past. It will make you less human, less than human.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“Never let something so unworthy define you.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“I’ve heard all sorts of things about a kiss (melting, fireworks, music), but no one ever told me it’s a conversation: asking, accepting, deciding, inviting, giving . . . Questions posed and answered.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“Do you ever feel like there are plans for you? Not ones you make, but plans for good that will come about if you trust and remain patient?”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“All real lives hold controversy, trials, mistakes, and regrets. What matters is what you do next.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“My new favorite title is How Jane Austen Ruined My Life. I don't have the courage to read it, though. I'm afraid to discover she's ruined mine as well.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“Time was never neutral and often felt dangerous. We either think we have all the time in the world or time moves too fast or too slow, a shock can stop time; fear or impending pain can slow it. Time never simply is…And no matter how much you want to hang on to it, time runs out.”
― Katherine Reay, The Austen Escape

“Maybe that's what love is—sacrificing yourself to save another, taking the insult or taking the hit.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“And it’s yellow. The way pale yellow should look, like sunshine and butter, mixed with hope and cream.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“You could lose yourself in a book and, paradoxically, find yourself as well.”
― Katherine Reay, The Printed Letter Bookshop

“While I don't believe in love at first sight, because I think it takes more work than that, I do believe that one soul can speak to another and find an inexplicably deep connection over a short period of time, unimaginably short, and know that it will never forget that soul, that moment, or the light it emits forever.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“I don’t think we get exempt from the pain because we live good lives. Some circumstances we can’t control—in fact, most are truly beyond our abilities. Instead maybe it’s how we get made new; it’s one of the only times we slow down enough to listen and receive grace, real grace.”
― Katherine Reay, Lizzy & Jane

“How can I not believe that there is a God who exists and loves, when the people before me are infused with that love and pour it out daily?”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“Self-protection keeps you from love, Mr. Knightley-all love. I am so sad at how I've kept them at a distance-the Muirs, Alex, Father John, Kyle, Hannah...Anyone and everyone who has ever stood by me. I played God in our relationships. I determined their value by how much I let them in, by how much I let them determine my worth. I'm not God. And I don't need to work so hard anymore...”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“My childhood wasn't easy. I buried myself in books. I guess I'm a recovering book addict.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“I mean that reading forms your opinions, your worldview, especially childhood reading, and anything that does that has an impact. So call them friends, call some stories enemies if you want, but don’t deny their influence.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“All the books have it . . . That time when you don’t know where you’ll be, but you can’t stay as you are. In life or in literature, that time rarely feels good.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“That's what books do, Maddie used to say; they are a conversation, and introduce us to ourselves and others.”
― Katherine Reay, The Printed Letter Bookshop

“We didn't talk much, and the silence hung like a silk curtain, light and lovely.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“You learn drama from the Brontës; sense from Austen; social justice from Dickens; beauty from Wordsworth, Keats, and Byron; patience and perseverance from Gaskell; and don't even get me started on exercising your imagination with Carroll, Doyle, Wells, Wilde, Stoker--”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“Lucy reached in her bag and pulled out the book, knowing exactly where to search. I thank my Maker, that, in the midst of judgment, he has remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto. There it was. Mercy. Grace. And just as she’d told James, fiction conveyed change and truth and was loved and digested again and again because it reflected the worst, the best, and all the moments in between of the human experience.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“It is nothing to say lovely things to someone who expects them, needs them. The beauty is when one who does not expect them comes to believe them - that only happens when the compliments and the love behind them are sincere.”
― Katherine Reay, A Portrait of Emily Price

“I’ll be there. I smiled. I’ll be there—when you call, when you’re hurt, when you’re sick, when you’re lonely, when life is overwhelming, when you’re scared. I’ll be there.”
― Katherine Reay, Lizzy & Jane

“He said that how people treat you is only 10 percent about you and 90 percent about them, so you need to be careful how you react and how you judge. You never know someone's story.”
― Katherine Reay, The Austen Escape

“I'm not guaranteed a happy ending just because I make it to the last page.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot

“People forget your face after a book tour or an infrequent appearance on Letterman, but put your face on your books and you're handing them your life. They presume to know what you think or who you are.”
― Katherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

“Don't hang on to the past so tightly that you taint the future.”
― Katherine Reay, The Brontë Plot