Quotes of Elizabeth McCracken - somelinesforyou

“ I had never wanted to be one of those girls in love with boys who would not have me. Unrequited love plain desperate aboveboard boy-chasing turned you into a salesperson, and what you were selling was something he didn’t want, couldn’t use, would never miss. Unrequited love was deciding to be useless, and I could never abide uselessness. Neither could James. He understood. In such situations, you do one of two things – you either walk away and deny yourself, or you do sneaky things to get what you need. You attend weddings, you go for walks. You say, yes. Yes, you’re my best friend, too. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ Despite popular theories, I believe people fall in love based not on good looks or fate but on knowledge. Either they are amazed by something a beloved knows that they themselves do not know; or they discover a common rare knowledge; or they can supply knowledge to someone who's lacking. Hasn't everyone found a strange ignorance in someone beguiling? . . .Nowadays, trendy librarians, wanting to be important, say, Knowledge is power. I know better. Knowledge is love. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ In the mornings he would walk…. At the start of a walk, alone or moving, the sun at his back or cold rain down his collar, he was more himself than under any other circumstance, until he had walked so far he was not himself, not a self, but joined to the world. Invisibly joined. Had a religion been founded on this, purely this, he would have converted….. Proof of God? Proof was in the world, and the way you visited the world was on foot…. Your walking was a devotion. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ Books remember all the things you cannot contain. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ Books remember all the things you cannot contain. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ The idea of a library full of books, the books full of knowledge, fills me with fear and love and courage and endless wonder. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ Books are a bad family there are those you love, and those you are indifferent to; idiots and mad cousins who you would banish except others enjoy their company; wrongheaded but fascinating eccentrics and dreamy geniuses; orphaned grandchildren; and endless brothersinlaw simply taking up space who you wish you could send straight to hell. Except you can't, for the most part. You must house them and make them comfortable and worry about them when they go on trips and there is never enough room. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ Library books were, I suddenly realized, promiscuous, ready to lie down in the arms of anyone who asked. Not like bookstore books, which married their purchasers, or were brokered for marriages to others. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken

“ Fire is a speed reader, which is why the ignorant burn books: fire races through pages, takes care of all the knowledge, and never bores you with a summary. ”

- Elizabeth McCracken
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