In years past I have often shared favorite lines and passages from books, but I had the realization midway through last year that I’ve only done so when I’ve had lots of quotes from one book to share. Going forward I would also like to share the instances when I’ve underlined a few lines but not enough for its own post. Below are all* the things I underlined while reading in 2023.
“On the plane, on the way back, I reflected that I had traveled to Denmark simply to send a postcard to a man.” — Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion
“The problem with silence is that it can’t speak up and say why it’s silent. And so silence collects, becomes amplified, takes on a life outside our intentions, in that silence can get misread as indifference, or avoidance, or even shame, and eventually this silence passes over into forgetting.” — Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings
“It makes me worried about the future, about this nation’s inborn capacity to forget, about the powers that be who always win and take over the narrative.” — Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings
“An underwhelming breakup. No affair; no big, blowout moment. Just a series of small fires that we let burn out around us, clutching our coffees like the dog from the internet: this is fine.” — Monica Heisey, Really Good, Actually
“intolerance is a failure of curiosity.” — Christina Lauren, The True Love Experiment
“Men admire each other when they are at their best, but women enjoy meeting each other in pits of despair.” — Daisy Alpert Florin, My Last Innocent Year
“Everywhere I looked people were talking and talking, working their mouths like cows chewing their cuds, but absolutely no one was listening.” — Daisy Alpert Florin, My Last Innocent Year
“What was a promise anyway? Just a string of words. I knew as well as anyone they didn’t always mean something.” — Daisy Alpert Florin, My Last Innocent Year
“Deep winter and the night air is cold. So still,
it feels like the world goes on forever in the darkness
until you look up and the earth stops
in a ceiling of stars. My head against
my grandfather’s arm,
a blanket around us as we sit on the front porch swing.
Its whine like a song.
You don’t need words
on a night like this. Just the warmth
of your grandfather’s arm. Just the silent promise
that the world as we know it
will always be here.
— Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming, “sometimes, no words are needed”
“I believe in one day and someday and this
perfect moment called Now.
— Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming, “what i believe”
“I was a young man embedded in an environment which was a breeding ground for toxic masculinity, where the only acceptable form of emotions I could show were different shades of anger.” — Hassan Akkad, Hope Not Fear
“As I’ve said before, I don’t consider myself a hero. I carry survivor’s guilt with me. I think to myself, ‘Who am I, to share these things?’ I carry the sense of the other people with me, the ones that didn’t make it to freedom.” — Hassan Akkad, Hope Not Fear
“People don’t want sympathy, they want opportunity. Refugees don’t want people to pity them. They want internships, job opportunities, concrete offers.” — Hassan Akkad, Hope Not Fear
“Love always finds a language.” — Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die
“I’m beginning to think men are not sending us their best people.” — Abby Jimenez, Yours Truly
“But I know now a person always exceeds and resists the limits of a story about them, and no matter how widely we set the boundaries, their subjectivity spills over, drips at the edges, then rushes out completely. People are, it seems, too complicated to sit still inside a narrative, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from trying, desperately trying, to compact a life into pages.” — Catherine Lacey, Biography of X
“To understand India you have to see it, hear it, breathe it and feel it. Living through the good, the bad and the ugly is the only way to know where you fit in and where India fits you.” — Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains
“An Indian train ticket was a permit to trespass on the intimacies of other people’s lives and certain improprieties became instantly acceptable: tearing strips of chapatti from a man I had known for five minutes; sticking my fingers into the masala potato his wife had lovingly packed that afternoon; lying in bed watching a dishevelled stranger mutter and twitch in his sleep; eavesdropping on boyfriend troubles and mother-in-law disputes; or joining a wedding party, clapping and singing along as their gifts of glass bangles slipped over their elbows. Finally, my destination would tap at the window, rudely interrupting and heralding a curtain call on the show.” — Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains
“However, I had now learnt that in India there was always an alternative option. It could cost one greased palm, require a shifty uncle, or take double the time and a dozen phone calls, but there were no dead ends.” — Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains
“For many, Indian Railways provides little more than a mode of transport: a cheap and convenient way to commute, visit relatives or simply while away the day. For others, it is a place of employment where generations have earned their livelihood. But for some, it is the bloodstream that keeps India’s heart beating.” — Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains
“This was the beauty of train travel. Travelling companions come and go. Some stay for the duration of the journey, but others hop on, then hop off when they need to. We enjoy their company while they are there and we wave them off when they leave. We do not pine for them, or stay angry that they snored. We sit back, enjoy the scenery and wait to see who fills their seat.” — Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains
Did you read anything last year that has stuck with you?
xx
*I started this in September so 2023’s will be limited, but going forward I’ll do a better job of updating as I read. Thank goodness for Kindle highlights!