Qirat > Qirat's Quotes

“The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful ... Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Destroying things is much easier than making them.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, "sketch" is not quite a word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“I like wearing a blindfold while watching movies, so that I can focus on the dialogue. My favorite flicks are the silent movies.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

“That’s part of what I like about the book in some ways. It portrays death truthfully. You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“Instead of a Lemonade Stand, I should open up a “You know what I can’t stand?” Stand. I’ll sell rants in small, medium, and large.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book Title is Invisible

“I breathe onto a mirror just to make sure I’m still alive, and to see how good looking my breath is.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

“Will the words end, I ask
whenever I remember to.
Nope, my sister says, all of five years old now,
and promising me

infinity.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“We all have the same dream, my grandmother says. To live equal in a country that’s supposed to be the land of the free. She lets out a long breath, deep remembering.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“Y'all know how much I love you? "Infinity and back again," I say the way I've said it a million times. And then, daddy says to me, "go on and add a little bit more to that.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“I am not gifted. When I read, the words twist
twirl across the page.
When they settle, it is too late.
The class has already moved on.

I want to catch words one day. I want to hold them
then blow gently,
watch them float
right out of my hands.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“It's easier to make up stories
than it is to write them down. When I speak, the words come pouring out of me. The story
wakes up and walks all over the room. Sits in a chair, crosses one leg over the other, says,
Let me introduce myself. Then just starts going on and on.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“May, I am thinking, there is something hidden like this in all of us. A small gift from the universe waiting to be discovered. (233)

Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen. (278)”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

“Nothing good came free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“The ordinary, utterly mundane reason behind the massacre makes it somehow more terrible, and far more depressing. The word 'senseless' springs to mind, and Idris thwarts it. It's what people always say. A senseless act of violence. A senseless murder. As if you could commit sensible murder.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“For courage, there must be something at stake. I come here with nothing to lose.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“People learned to live with the
most unimaginable things.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“Do remember, though, that sometimes the people you oppress become mightier than you would like.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“Killing you is not the worst thing they can do to you," I say. "Controlling you is.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“And sometimes, if you want the truth, you have to demand it.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“I feel bare. I didn't realize I wore my secrets as armor until they were gone and now everyone sees me as I really am.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“What do you think they're going to do to us when they find us guilty?" she says after a few minutes of silence have passed.
"Honestly?"
"Does now seem like the time for honesty?"
I look at her from the corner of my eye. "I think they're going to force us to eat lots of cake and then take an unreasonably long nap.”
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

“I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.”
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.”
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

“Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams”
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

“no, no, it's not all random, if it really was all random, the universe would abandon us completely. and the universe doesn't. it takes care of its most fragile creations in ways we can't see. like with parents who adore you blindly. and a big sister who feels guilty for being human over you. and a little gravelly-voiced kid whose friends have left him over you. and even a pink-haired girl who carries your picture in her wallet. maybe it is a lottery, but the universe makes it all even out in the end. the universe takes care of all its birds.”
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

“My mom smiled at me. Her smile kind of hugged me.”
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

“Kabul is... a thousand tragedies per square mile.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“The finger cut, to save the hand.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“It's like people you see sometimes, and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk. Only, I know that I'm that person to other people, maybe to every single person in that whole auditorium.
To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid.”
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder