Home > Author > Katherine Reay
41 " My childhood wasn't easy. I buried myself in books. I guess I'm a recovering book addict. "
― Katherine Reay , Dear Mr. Knightley
42 " I mean that reading forms your opinions, your worldview, especially childhood reading, and anything that does that has an impact. So call them friends, call some stories enemies if you want, but don’t deny their influence. "
― Katherine Reay , The Brontë Plot
43 " Self-protection keeps you from love, Mr. Knightley-all love. I am so sad at how I've kept them at a distance-the Muirs, Alex, Father John, Kyle, Hannah...Anyone and everyone who has ever stood by me. I played God in our relationships. I determined their value by how much I let them in, by how much I let them determine my worth. I'm not God. And I don't need to work so hard anymore... "
44 " Lucy reached in her bag and pulled out the book, knowing exactly where to search. I thank my Maker, that, in the midst of judgment, he has remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto. There it was. Mercy. Grace. And just as she’d told James, fiction conveyed change and truth and was loved and digested again and again because it reflected the worst, the best, and all the moments in between of the human experience. "
45 " That's what books do, Maddie used to say; they are a conversation, and introduce us to ourselves and others. "
― Katherine Reay , The Printed Letter Bookshop
46 " I'm not guaranteed a happy ending just because I make it to the last page. "
47 " It is nothing to say lovely things to someone who expects them, needs them. The beauty is when one who does not expect them comes to believe them - that only happens when the compliments and the love behind them are sincere. "
― Katherine Reay , A Portrait of Emily Price
48 " You learn drama from the Brontës; sense from Austen; social justice from Dickens; beauty from Wordsworth, Keats, and Byron; patience and perseverance from Gaskell; and don't even get me started on exercising your imagination with Carroll, Doyle, Wells, Wilde, Stoker-- "
49 " I’ll be there. I smiled. I’ll be there—when you call, when you’re hurt, when you’re sick, when you’re lonely, when life is overwhelming, when you’re scared. I’ll be there. "
― Katherine Reay , Lizzy and Jane
50 " He said that how people treat you is only 10 percent about you and 90 percent about them, so you need to be careful how you react and how you judge. You never know someone's story. "
― Katherine Reay , The Austen Escape
51 " Don't hang on to the past so tightly that you taint the future. "
52 " Samantha will be just as polite as I am, my dear. She won't be objective at all... no wait! She corrected my Shakespeare. Maybe she will give you an honest opinion. Let's keep her. "
53 " I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun. "
54 " How often it is a small, almost unconscious event that marks a turning point. "
55 " I mean, just because one soul will love another forever, doesn’t mean it should. It doesn’t always work out. But then, as you say, and I’ve come to agree, people change. And when two people figure out how to do that together, then yes, that can last forever. "
56 " Our understanding is so limited, Janet. Be careful not to assume God’s role or presume you understand his ways or the depth of his love. Promise me. "
57 " Music is math, and one you understand that…How can anyone not be in awe? It’s the audible expression behind the laws of the universe. It feels like the only thing, apart from God, that lives outside time. Once released, it lives on and it can make you laugh and cry, rip you apart and heal you, all withing a few discrete notes strung together. And while it follows rules, expression is limitless. "
58 " Good, fully dimensional characters let us live their lives vicariously, and bad ones tell us about the authors. "
59 " You know what he said to me just now? 'I know you.' Like he saw me, the real me, and I was just what he wanted... "
60 " The room was dark and crowded, and smelled like history and cheeseburgers. "