2014 National Book Awards Quotes & Sayings

The murderers of the three Bytyqi brothers, New York residents who were executed by Serbian Ministry of Interior personnel in 1999, have never been prosecuted. The U.S. government cannot accept that the murderers of three of its citizens go unpunished. — Michael Kirby

Writing... is like putting a message in a bottle, and casting it into the evening tide... It is a container of yourself, bled through your fingertips, and it travels the world in your place. — Joel Blaine Kirkpatrick

People don't think about the fact that when Barack Obama's parents had him - it was illegal for them to be married in several states in this country. So if we start making it okay that certain people can marry and other people can't, it's a slippery slope of civil rights. Who knows who is going to be allowed to marry or not marry next. — Kerry Washington

I think hard times are coming. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries, the realists of a larger reality. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Love flows down. The ground submits to the sky and suffers what comes. Is the ground worse for giving in like that? Do not put blankets over the drum. Open completely. Let your spirit ear listen to the green dome's passionate murmur. — Rumi

I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist. — Oscar Wilde

We need writers who know the difference between the production of a commodity and the practice of an art. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Gurney says there's no artistry in killing with the tip, that it should be done with the edge. — Frank Herbert

My heart is in television, just because it's been so good to me. — Charisma Carpenter