Anna > Anna's Quotes

“What you know about women,” replied Maude, “could be written in large font on the back of a postage stamp and there’d still be room for the Lord’s Prayer.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

“It was a difficult time to be Irish, a difficult time to be twenty-one years of age and a difficult time to be a man who was attracted to other men. To be all three simultaneously required a level of subterfuge and guile that felt contrary to my nature.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

“I had never considered myself to be a dishonest person, hating the idea that I was capable of such mendacity and deceit, but the more I examined the architecture of my life, the more I realized how fraudulent were its foundations. The belief that I would spend the rest of my time on earth lying to people weighed heavily on me and at such times I gave serious consideration to taking my own life.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

“Here was yet another person telling him what he needed, how he should act, the person he should be. Another person who didn't think he was enough just as he was.”
― Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo

“Helios stopped talking and stared up at the ceiling. ‘I’ve always been a disappointment.’ Icarus couldn’t say that Helios wasn’t, he couldn’t say it was going to be okay because he didn’t know if it would be, he didn’t have a paragraph of loving words that he’d rehearsed the way Helios did. He only had the truth. ‘I want you anyway.’ Then, softer, ‘I’ll want you still, all the same.”
― K. Ancrum, Icarus

“Every man is afraid of women as far as I can see,” said Julian, displaying an understanding of the universe far beyond his years. “That’s true,” she said. “But only because most men are not as smart as women and yet they continue to hold all the power. They fear a change of the world order.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

“He tells a story, and that's what I like. Does this fella tell a story? He doesn't spend twenty pages describing the colour of the sky?'
'He hasn't so far.'
'Good. Jeffrey Archer never talks about the colour of the sky and I like that in a writer. I'd say Jeffrey Archer has never even looked up at the sky his entire life.'
'Especially now that he's in prison,' I suggested.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

“Why do they hate us so much anyway?’ I asked after a lengthy pause. ‘If they’re not queer themselves, then what does it matter to them if someone else is?’ ‘I remember a friend of mine once telling me that we hate what we fear in ourselves,’ she said with a shrug.”
― John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies

“Cooking is about respect. Respect for the food, respect for your space, respect for your colleqgues and respect for your diners. The chef who ignores one of those is not a chef at all.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, With the Fire on High

“This is how we reveal ourselves: these tiny flashes of discomfort, the reactions we can’t hide.”
― Christina Lauren, Autoboyography

“A God worthy of your eternal love wouldn’t judge you for who you love while you’re here.”
― Christina Lauren, Autoboyography

“I don’t actually care if you break my heart, Sebastian. I went into this knowing it could happen and I gave it to you anyway. But I don’t want you to break your own. You have so much space in your heart for your church, but does it have space for you?”
― Christina Lauren, Autoboyography

“The things that I love about you aren't going to go away when you go on your book tour, and they're not going to go away when you go on your mission. I'll still be here, and I'll still be thinking about all those things. I'll still be working on being a better person, a better friend, a better son. I'll still be wondering what it would be like to be a better boyfriend for you. And you will be on your mission, thinking about how much you wish your weren't gay.”
― Christina Lauren, Autoboyography

“He's so far buried in his own dogma and his own world of shoulds that he can't admit to himself that he's into dudes, that it's a piece of him, a perfect part of him, and it deserves admiration and respect and space the same way anything else about him does.”
― Christina Lauren, Autoboyography

“The next slide is titled: 'Exploring your sexuality: Healthy, but does it have to be with the Prince of England?' She apologizes for not having time to come up with better titles. Alex actively wishes for the sweet release of death.”
― Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue

“There are so many books written about the weak learning to be strong and not many about the strong opening themselves up to weakness and vulnerability.”
― K. Ancrum, Icarus

“There is a small monster in my brain that controls my doubt.
The doubt itself is a stupid thing, without sense or feeling, blind and straining at the end of a long chain. The monster though, is smart. It's always watching, and when I am cmpletely sure of myself, it unchains the doubt and lets it run wild. even when I know it's coming, I can't stop it.”
― Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters

“I'm so tired. I'm tired of anxiety that twists my stomach so hard I can't move the rest of my body. Tired of constant vigilance. Tired of wanting to do something about myself, but always taking easy way out.”
― Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters

“He recognised that bravery could only exist where there was fear, and so of all of them, only Gaunt was truly capable of heroism.”
― Alice Winn, In Memoriam

“Unfortunately, the more time he [Gaunt] spent with Elisabeth, the more apparent it became how fruitless it was to try to want her. He could appreciate her beauty in an artistic sense, as if she were a sculpture in a museum, but it was a flat, textureless sort of admiration. If love was stepping off a cliff in the hope of flying, there was a wall at the precipice that had never been there with Sandys, or Ellwood, or even Devi, whom Gaunt had helplessly adored at thirteen. He felt no fear around Elisabeth, because there was no chance of falling. He was fond of her, but he would never say to her, '"Withhold no atom's atom of I die!”
― Alice Winn, In Memoriam

“The Hague Convention sought to make war more humane. We had reached a point in history where we believed it was possible to make war humane.”
― Alice Winn, In Memoriam

“It’s easy to be brave. Harder to know when not to fight.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“Salt,” he says indignantly, his voice rising. “Are you going to fucking cook him?” I shake my head, flipping the top off. “I saw it on Supernatural. Dean and Sam shoot it at ghosts.” “Oh well, by all means let’s pin our survival on fictional characters in a TV programme.”
― Lily Morton, The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings

“Today me will live in the moment, unless it’s unpleasant, in which case me will eat a cookie.”
― Steven Rowley, Lily and the Octopus

“You know how before you die, they say your life flashes before your eyes? Well, just so you know, that also happens when you come your brains out with your fingers in your ass, screaming for your dad to fuck you in his shower, then walk into his bedroom and realize he heard every word.”
― Honey London, Call Me Daddy