Rummaging for answers in the pages

A sampling of my favourite quotes from whatever I happen to be reading.

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

...life has so many tuneless days...

Kathleen Collins, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

...you remember that surprise party you gave me when I turned forty...that's still far and away the best party I've ever been to...you made this rum punch that you let sit in the freezer for days, and it was so potent people didn't get drunk they got disembodied...

Kathleen Collins, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?

[smile-aimee]

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

The Scots would teach the world that one of the crucial ways we measure progress is by how far we have come from what we were before.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World, Arthur Herman

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

'A male, apart from the mad moments when you love him and he enters you, always remains outside. So afterward, when you no longer love him, it bothers you just to think that you once wanted him. He liked me, I like him, the end. It happens to me many times a day--I'm attracted to someone. That doesn't happen to you? It lasts a short time, then it passes. Only the child remains, he's part of you; the father, on the other hand, was a stranger and goes back to being a stranger. Even the name no longer has the sound it used to. Nino, I'd say, and repeat it, over and over in my head, as soon as I woke up, it was a magic word. Now, though, it's a sound that makes me sad.'

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

How can I explain to this woman--I thought--that from the age of six I've been a slave to letters and numbers, that my mood depends on the success of their combinations, that the joy of having done well is rare, unstable, that it lasts an hour, an afternoon, a night?

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

I would always be afraid: afraid of saying the wrong thing, of using an exaggerated tone, of dressing unsuitably, of revealing petty feelings, of not having interesting thoughts.

The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

... I also understood that there was no comparison with the exchanges I had had with Lila years earlier, which ignited my brain, and in the course of which we tore the words from each other's mouth, creating an excitement that seemed like a storm of electrical charges. With Nino it was different. I felt that I had to pay attention to say what he wanted me to say, hiding from him both my ignorance and the few things that I knew and he didn't.

The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

Words: with them you can do and undo as you please.

The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

'He wanted to know what I saw in you. I told him...' he paused again, and then continued almost shyly, 'that you poured out honor like a fountain, all around you.' 'That's weird. I don't feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion.' 'Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.'

Shards of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

'All the truth in the world is held in stories, you know.'

The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

'You know what annoys me?' Emma mumbled. 'When people act as if not having your personal life sorted out by our age is some sort of failure of paying attention. Like if you want it, you can automatically have it. As if it isn't mostly down to luck.'

It's Not Me, It's You, Mhairi McFarlane

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

"Stop talking and take me to beer."

Hellcat #1, Kate Leth

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

'Tell me,' he said, 'what is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. What are they waiting for?'

Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

People are full of surprises, even for themselves, if they have been stirred enough.

Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

Now, from this night, this coming morning, no matter how many beds I find myself in between now and my final bed, I shall never be able to have any more of those boyish, zestful affairs -- which are, really, when one thinks of it, a kind of higher, or, anyway, more pretentious masturbation. People are too various to be treated so lightly.

Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

[rummaging4answersinthepages]

She'd been a respectable young woman for quite some time. In certain people, that means there's a lot of dammed-up disreputability just waiting to burst out.

The Truth, Terry Pratchett