Quotes
List here any quote, from Charles Baxter's book The Feast of Love. Quotes that inspire you,
or give you a strong visual image, or maybe you just admire the author's use of words . . .
poetic, lyrical, straightforward, cultural, etc . . .
We are reading The Feast of Love in celebration of Charles Baxter's birthday: May 13, 1947. "At its best, fiction is not a diversion but a means of knowing the world."
Every relationship has at least one really good day.
ReplyDeleteWhen you’re in love you don’t have to do a damn thing. You can just be. You can just stay quiet in the world. You don’t have to move an inch.
ReplyDeleteSome mistakes are both simple and huge. The worst mistakes I’ve made have been the ones directed by sweet-natured hopefulness.
ReplyDeleteHe had given up hyperrealism and gone in for social commentary in faded hues.
ReplyDeleteFor the first time in my life I felt myself hanging on to somebody’s words, hanging on for dear life. By her expression, you could tell she hung likewise on mine. Tightrope hanging, as we reached for each other’s hearts.
ReplyDelete. . . with pets, and for all I know, people too, intelligence and quick-wittedness have nothing to do with a talent for being loved, or being kind, nothing at all, less than nothing.
ReplyDeleteWords violate him.
ReplyDeleteTo have a son or daughter (like this) is to have a portion of the spirit shrivel and die, never to recover. You witness the lost soul of your child floating out into the ethers of eternity. Ethics is a dream, and tenderness a daytime phantasm, lost when night comes.
ReplyDeletePassion occupies a space that is not vacated until another passion occupies it.
ReplyDeleteSUCCESS: Every effort no matter how large or small contains the kernel of its own reward. In every inventory your greatest asset is you.
ReplyDeleteTHE FUTURE: I can go no higher than my hopes can take me. Therefore I must be defined by my hopes and the awe-inspiring practicality of my dreams.
ReplyDeleteDISCIPLINE: I am a peaceful man. Peace is my mission: I will not smite any customers today. That is sound business practice and a sure path to profits.
ReplyDeleteIf God appeared on this earth again, lawyers would sue Him.
ReplyDeleteThey’re quite crazy, dear—men are. What you look for is one of them whose insanity is large enough, and calm and generous enough, to include you.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn’t marry someone you don’t love. . . it’s a soul error.
ReplyDeleteThe empty air was unpleasantly interested in her.
ReplyDelete. . . all this love business is just nature’s way of getting more babies into the world. The rest of it is just all this romantic nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it is just superstructure.
In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people who are standing outside all that.
ReplyDelete. . . all happy couples are alike, it’s the unhappy ones that create stories.
ReplyDeleteLove has some ingredient for flat-out lunacy in it.
ReplyDeleteLove is the first cousin of death, they’re acquainted with each other, they go to the same family reunions.
ReplyDelete