💬 Quotes

"If you know all there is to be known about the life of anyone—no matter who—you will find that there is some point where they have broken the law."

"There are two solutions to this case. I leave it to the judgment of the directors of the company to decide which is the one they will present to the police."

"There are some things in life you can't fight, no matter how much training you have. Some things you just have to endure."

"A guardian's life is one of sacrifice. You learn that early on. You learn that you are a shield, and a shield is meant to take the blows."

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies; the man who never reads lives only one."

"Every story is a dialogue between the author's intent and the reader's perspective."

"The power of language lies not just in the words chosen, but in the silence between them."

"To understand a character is to bridge the gap between ourselves and the 'other,' fostering empathy through the written word."

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is my favourite place in which to write, tucked away up here, with the books and the jars of tea and the kitchen table in full view."

"It is a funny thing about poverty; you start by thinking you can manage it, and you end by finding that it manages you."

"I think that all the best writers have had a very unhappy childhood. I am having a very happy one, so I suppose I shall never be a great writer."

"How can one be expected to marry a man one doesn't love, just because he is rich? And yet, how can one be expected to love a man who is poor, when love is such a luxury?"

"I suppose it is a queer thing to be a person in a book, but I think it is even queerer to be a person who is writing one."

"Topaz is not a real stepmother, and she is not a fairy godmother, either. She is just Topaz, and that is quite enough."

"It is a way of saying that she has lived, that she has tasted the air and touched the things of this world."

"I suppose that’s the way it is with all of us. We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep—it’s as simple and as terrifying as that."

"The flowers were bought by Clarissa herself, for she had decided to buy them herself, though it was hardly a day of any importance."

"Everything is a struggle, a process, a series of small negotiations with the world."

"Maybe it's just that there's only one day, and you spend your whole life trying to get it right."

"She would marry a man, she would have children, she would lead a life that was perfect and still and entirely hollow."