So, asking a bibliophile and music obsessive for her favourite quotations is like asking a mother which child she loves the most. It was almost impossible to narrow it down, but I managed to decide, based purely on the first six lines that sprang to mind.
1. When I first read The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, I spent much of the time madly nodding in recognition. My copy is filled with pencil marks and underlinings - something I hadn't really done in a novel since I was a teenager - because the book is so full of relatable lines. My favourite is this, said by his teacher to narrator Charlie:
“Sometimes people use thought to not participate in life."
2. I didn't totally love the film Liberal Arts, but this quotation, which is not dissimilar to the one above, stuck in my mind:
"I just started to feel like reading about life was taking time away from actually living life, so I'm trying to, like, accept invitations to things, say "hi" to the world a little more... I keep thinking I'd be so much happier in bed with a book, and that makes me feel not super cool. I still read tons. I just feel like I'm more aware of a book's limitations. Does that make sense?"
When I heard this in the film, I felt like shouting "YES!" and doing a fist pump. Everything about it is just me, completely and utterly. This one line made up for the film in general being pretty disappointing.
3. The Smashing Pumpkins are pretty much my favourite band of all time, and I couldn't narrow it down to just one line. So first, we have (from Muzzle, on 1995's Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness album):
"I fear that I am ordinary just like everyone."
It's a ridiculous line, right? Typical Billy Corgan: overblown and juvenile, the sound of every teenage tantrum ever thrown. But also... isn't it just totally true? Don't we all fear, deep down, that we're ordinary and workaday and that there's nothing special about us in the least? Or maybe that's just me.
4. And secondly, from Siamese Dream track Rocket:
"I miss me, I miss everything I'll never be."
This is a line I love so much that I'm sorta/kinda/maybe planning on getting a tattoo of it.
5. I couldn't talk about favourite quotations without quoting The Smiths. From Handsome Devil, it is of course:
"There's more to life than books you know, but not much more."
I have this quotation framed in my front room, and I could not agree with it more.
6. Finally, I'm planning a whole post around this last one. From Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity:
"What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos... nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"
I'd love to hear about your favourite quotations, hit me up in the comments below.
I am rubbish at remembering quotations - they just don't stick in my head. But, now that I read this, I remember noticing all of these and liking them. Especially the first two.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird, I thought I was rubbish at remembering quotations too, but as soon as I had to think of some for this post I had these six in mind immediately (although I did have to rely on google for the precise wording of most of them).
DeleteWhen I was younger and had a better memory I loved quotes - I think there are some good ones like the above in Quentin Crisp's 'The Naked Civil Servant' a book that left a big impression on me when I read it in my late teens about Quentin loving going to the cinema and "living life by proxy." I must re-read - will put it on my list along with The Perks of being a Wallflower.
ReplyDelete"Living life by proxy" is a wonderful way to describe it; I am definitely guilty of that sometimes.
DeleteMy fave quote is from Gladiator (I know, I know - can't help it) - when Maximus addresses his troops at the beginning - "What we do in life echoes in eternity". Always liked it, can't quite say why....
ReplyDeleteI can see the appeal (although I've never seen Gladiator!)
DeleteOoh good quotes - I'm with Sarah tho, my memory for quotes sucks! Last year I read The Silver Dark Sea and it was full of lovely quotable lines that I had to write down, I've also not done that since being a teenager! :)
ReplyDeleteThat looks like an interesting book, I read her first novel and liked it so may have to seek out a copy of this one.
DeleteI love all of these. I have none to add right now but I might be stealing some of these for my collection x
ReplyDeleteI lobe the quotes you have chosen. I might have a go at this, I love keeping favourite quotes. I fear it might be full of David Lynch, The Smiths and Jostein Gaarder though! x
ReplyDelete