Kingsolver Books Quotes & Sayings

Please read my diary, look through my things and figure me out. — Kurt Cobain

Quit smoking in the hope of growing old. It takes a long time to write. People go to books for wisdom and older authors tend to have more of it. — Barbara Kingsolver

I have tried to teach my children to love nature as my parents taught that reverence to me
through example, proximity, and plenty of field guides and age-appropriate biology books. — Barbara Kingsolver

The United States has done more for the war crimes tribunal than any other country in the world. We're turning over all the information we have, including intelligence information. — Warren Christopher

I vow I shall give all my very best books to the underprivileged, once I have read them — Barbara Kingsolver

He's not from here, that's the thing," Cub said.
"Just because he's the outsider, he has no say? Should we not read books, then, or listen to nobody outside this county? Where's that going to leave us? — Barbara Kingsolver

I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to invite them in. — Barbara Kingsolver

I should like to write my books only for the dear person who lies awake reading in bed until page last, then lets the open book fall gently on her face, to touch her smile or drink her tears. — Barbara Kingsolver

When emotions dominate, maturity and wisdom deteriorate — Dennis Prager

Theater is a way to keep challenging myself. — Patrick J. Adams

Honestly, it's hard to learn about comedy from comedians. Comedy is not something that you necessarily learn or can imitate. You're funny or you're not, and you hope what you're doing is funny. — Jane Levy

I'm an actor and a playwright, and I don't earn much. — Ellen McLaughlin

Journalists prize independence - not teamwork. — Ken Auletta

But nothing on this earth is guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know ? I've been thinking about that. About how your kids aren't really YOURS, they're just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you'll all grow up someday to like each other and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you get is really just on loan. Does that make sense?"
Sure,"I said. "Like library books. Sooner or later they've all got to go back into the nightdrop. — Barbara Kingsolver

I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book. — Barbara Kingsolver

Don't you miss it, any of it?'
...
'I couldn't say.' She thought about it. 'Not cars or electric lights, not movies. Books I can get if I ask. But walking around in a library, putting my hands on books I never knew about, that I miss. Any thing else, I don't know. — Barbara Kingsolver

In the uproar, the confusion
of accents and inflections
how will you hear me when I open my mouth?
Look for me, one of the drab population
under fissured edifices, fractured
artifices. Make my various
names flock overhead,
I will follow you. — Li-Young Lee

You just read your books and go on a hundred miles away, You ignore me. — Barbara Kingsolver

When the rain pours down especially, we have long hours of captivity, in which my sisters determinedly grow bored. But are there books, books there are! Rattling words on the page calling my eyes to dance with them. Everyone else will finish with the singular plowing through, and Ada still has discoveries ahead and behind. — Barbara Kingsolver

I thought everything in the world was already discovered. Already in my books. A lot of dead stuff that put me to sleep. That was the day I understood the world is still living. — Barbara Kingsolver

People love to read about sins and errors, but not their own. — Barbara Kingsolver

I read as if time were running out, because technically it is. As I grow older I find I'm increasingly impatient with mediocre entertainments; I want books that will take my breath away and realign my vision - Barbara Kingsolver — Pat Williams

Most of my books have been about the complex ways an individual depends on community. — Barbara Kingsolver

The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front. — Douglas Adams

People read books to escape the uncertainties of life. — Barbara Kingsolver

If the material consumption of a fraction of humanity is already harming the planet, is there an alternative path that enables all of humanity to live more lightly upon the Earth while experiencing a higher quality of life? — Duane Elgin

A novel can educate to some extent, but first a novel has to entertain. That's the contract with the reader: you give me ten hours and I'll give you a reason to turn every page. I have a commitment to accessibility. I believe in plot. I want an English professor to understand the symbolism while at the same time I want the people I grew up with - who may not often read anything but the Sears catalog - to read my books. — Barbara Kingsolver

I dreamt that Earth was finished. And the only
human being to contemplate the end was Franz
Kafka. In heaven, the Titans were fighting to the
death. From a wrought-iron seat in Central Park,
Kafka was watching the world burn. — Roberto Bolano

Watching Italians eat (especially men, I have to say) is a form of tourism the books don't tell you about. They close their eyes, raise their eyebrows into accent marks, and make sounds of acute appreciation. It's fairly sexy. Of course I don't know how these men behave at home, if they help with the cooking or are vain and boorish and mistreat their wives. I realized Mediterranean cultures have their issues. Fine, don't burst my bubble. I didn't want to marry these guys, I just wanted to watch. (p. 247) — Barbara Kingsolver

If people really gave it full consideration, I mean, like if you could return a baby after thirty days' examination like one of those Time-Life books, then I figure the entire human species would go extinct in a month's time. — Barbara Kingsolver

Who puts strawberries in a salad? Seriously, is this a thing now? Is it a thing I don't know about? Is it an American thing? It can be. It's freaking me out. — James Corden

God knows the motives of every man. — Lailah Gifty Akita

But are there books, books there are! Rattling words on the page calling my eyes to dance with them. — Barbara Kingsolver

I've always felt that if something is polarizing, that's usually the stuff I like the most. If something is taking a chance and is willing to be weird, that's my favorite thing. I know there's somebody out there who hates it. — Andy Samberg

Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden. — Karl Kraus

I learned to write by reading the kind of books I wished I'd written. — Barbara Kingsolver