Caitlin > Caitlin's Quotes

“Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Love of the Last Tycoon

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
― Voltaire

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
― James D. Nicoll

“Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.”
― Clementine Paddleford

“I opened a book and in I strode.
Now nobody can find me.
I've left my chair, my house, my road,
My town and my world behind me.
I'm wearing the cloak, I've slipped on the ring,
I've swallowed the magic potion.
I've fought with a dragon, dined with a king
And dived in a bottomless ocean.
I opened a book and made some friends.
I shared their tears and laughter
And followed their road with its bumps and bends
To the happily ever after.
I finished my book and out I came.
The cloak can no longer hide me.
My chair and my house are just the same,
But I have a book inside me.”
― Julia Donaldson

“It's still National Library Week. You should be especially nice to a librarian today, or tomorrow. Sometime this week, anyway. Probably the librarians would like tea. Or chocolates. Or a reliable source of funding.”
― Neil Gaiman

“It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would rather have stayed there in peace.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it!”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”
― Jo Godwin

“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
― Aeschylus

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the bastards grind you down.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“All of that art-for-art’s-sake stuff is BS,” she declares. “What are these people talking about? Are you really telling me that Shakespeare and Aeschylus weren’t writing about kings? All good art is political! There is none that isn’t. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, ‘We love the status quo.’ We’ve just dirtied the word ‘politics,’ made it sound like it’s unpatriotic or something.” Morrison laughs derisively. “That all started in the period of state art, when you had the communists and fascists running around doing this poster stuff, and the reaction was ‘No, no, no; there’s only aesthetics.’ My point is that is has to be both: beautiful and political at the same time. I’m not interested in art that is not in the world. And it’s not just the narrative, it’s not just the story; it’s the language and the structure and what’s going on behind it. Anybody can make up a story.”
― Toni Morrison

“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.”
― William Butler Yeats

“What determines how we remember history and which elements are preserved and penetrate the collective consciousness? If historical novels stir your interest, pursue the facts, history, memories, and personal testimonies available. These are the shoulders that historical fiction sits upon. When the survivors are gone we must not let the truth disappear with them. Please, give them a voice.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Salt to the Sea

“There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
― Audre Lorde

“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”
― William Faulkner

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.”
― William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

“A thing named is a thing tamed.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“A named thing is a tamed thing.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”
― Jane Austen, Persuasion

“posit by W. B. Yeats: “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.”
― Yeats W. B.

“My longest relationship was nine days, and even I know that you don’t keep shit from your bird. But”
― Lucy Parker, The Austen Playbook

“For all his interest in history and the art and literature of the past, Freddy realised, Griff would always prioritise the present and the future.”
― Lucy Parker, The Austen Playbook

“We’re all a hundred different things at once. A different person to everyone who knows us. And there are very few people we’ll ever love and trust enough to let them have—well, as much of the whole of ourselves as another person can know.”
― Lucy Parker, The Austen Playbook

“Christ, we’ve only been here for five minutes. It’s like being stuck in the TARDIS. Time has lost all meaning.”
― Lucy Parker, Act Like It

“Don’t be naïve. Nobody succeeds on their own. And in this business, they grab hold of every connection they have and squeeze it dry.”
― Lucy Parker, Act Like It

“Her voice was calm and cool as she proved herself once and for all the mother of a teenager, used to hysterics”
― Lucy Parker, Act Like It