Quotable Quotes

Sometimes when I am reading a book, I come across a quote that for some reason grabs me. It may simply be beautifully written or it speaks to me on a deeper level. I often think I must write that down! - which I do, on a piece of paper somewhere that floats around for a week or two until it disappears. So, I thought instead I would create a page for these quotes. Every now and then, I will do a Quotable Quotes post and then add the actual quote to this Quotable Quotes page so I can keep track of them. The link for the page is now on the right hand side of the page - made for me by my wonderful husband!

Emperor Saga read as a saviour, Adolf Hitler as a slaughterer. The rest of us probably read as we hope to travel, flying away, losing our bearings just enough to be shown some strangeness, some wonder. Knowing we might not be comfortable for the whole journey but that we'll have something to talk about when we touch down.
        Reading by Moonlight, Brenda Walker p. 134

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"American movies, English books - remember how they end? Gamini asked that night. "The American or the Englishman gets on a plane and leaves. That's it. The camera leaves with him. He looks out of the window at Mombasa or Vietnam or Jakarta someplace now he can look at through clouds. The tired hero. A couple of words to the girl beside him. He's going home. So the war, to all purposes is over. That's enough reality for the West. It's probably the history of the last two hundred years of Western political writing. Go home. Write a Book. Hit the circuit."
         Anil's Ghost, Michael Ondaatje p. 285

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Rincewind, all the shops have been smashed open, there was a whole bunch of people across the street helping themselves to musical instruments, can you believe that?"
"Yeah," said Rincewind, picking up a knife and testing the blade thoughtfully. "Luters I expect."
         The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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On the girl's brown legs there were many white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too and I ask you right here to please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, "I survived."
               The Other Hand, Chris Cleave

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The problem is that children believe what adults say and, once they're adults themselves, they exact their revenge by deceiving their own children. "Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is" is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you become an adult and you realise that's not true, it's too late. the mystery remains intact, but all you available energy has long ago been wasted on stupid things. All that's left is to anaesthetise yourself by trying to hide the fact that you can't find any meaning in your life, and then, the better to convince yourself, you deceive your own children.

...People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler  just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd. That might deprive you of a few good moments in your childhood but it would save you a considerable amount of time as an adult - not to mention the fact that you'd be spared at least one traumatic experience, i.e. the goldfish bowl.

                  The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery


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