Notebooks of Quotes
I found my old notebooks where I wrote down quotes from literature I’d read. This was decades ago.
I still read a fair amount, but back then, my desire to read was endless. I lived in Barcelona at the time. I felt the pull of the next book I could read, and once I finished one, I quickly picked up another. Finished books piled up.
Before I left Spain, I pulled out many quotes I liked from my marked-up books. I filled three notebooks. The first one was 198 pages.
The quotes I took down are often mundane – akin to nondescript pedestrians who wouldn’t leave a trace in anyone’s memory. But these quotes still amuse me a lot. It’s as if I’d stopped one of those pedestrians to chat, and they turned out to be compelling, sharing funny and interesting tidbits. Memorable and unexpectedly interesting.
As I read over my notebooks, I decided I wanted to bookend my day with a bit of reading literature. Not non-fiction. Not technical books. Just literature. Maybe 5 pages, maybe 20, depending on how early I got up or how badly I wanted to sleep. Sometimes, just a single page would do. That’s fine. Literature is like a boat that carries me along a river through my inner world. As I float along, the regions of the land connect, somehow.
Below are some of the quotes I pulled out.
Edith, Father would have said, think a little. - Anita Brookner in 'Hotel du Lac', p88 (notebook p31)
… she asked me to think about it. - Peter Høeg in 'Borderliners', p140 (notebook p48)
Maxim took my arm and made a little speech of thanks, perfectly easy and free from embarrassment… - Daphne du Maurier in 'Rebecca', p73 (notebook p131)
I’ll finish these letters and then I’ll come up and join you. - Daphne du Maurier in 'Rebecca', p75 (notebook p131)
It is not easy to understand. That it can be so important for someone to ask a question and receive an answer; that it is more important than anything else. Maybe more important than love. - Peter Høeg in 'Borderliners', p157 (notebook p49)
“I think clouds should stay in the sky where they belong,” Clara said. “Don’t you?”" And Bennet had laughed.
Clara held a relentless view of the world. There were no visible principles. Everyone of her moods and feelings was intense and true to itself - if not to the one before or the one after. She lighted and darkened like times of the day. - E.L. Doctorow in 'Loon Lake', p101 (notebook p49)
I’ve recently met a person like this. Emotions and feelings guide everything for them. No guiding principles have emerged in their mind to smooth out daily life. It’s interesting.
His natural shyness was looked on aloof superiority. It frightened off the simple, but not the hypocrites and the flatterers. - François Mauriac in 'The Frontenac Mystery', p123 (notebook p96)
I wish that I had a mother who handed down maxims on tablets of stone… she bequeathed to me her own cloud of unknowing. - Anita Brookner in 'Hotel du Lac', p104 (notebook p35)
This is both tragic and funny. Over the years, after meeting many families, you come to realize something: some parents distill their experiences into wisdom to pass on, while others inadvertently transfer their confusion to the next generation. They might try, albeit unintentionally, but the outcome varies. Sometimes it influences the child, and other times it only serves to sharpen a kid’s clarity.
“I had a friend who ate frogs.” I said. “He was dangerous as well, but that wasn’t the main thing. If you’re alone it doesn’t matter how dangerous you are. The main thing was the frogs. The growing ups know about them, too. It’s hard to touch a man you’ve seen eat a frog. That was his strategy.” - Peter Høeg in 'Borderliners', p71 (notebook p37)
You know, one of them would pull out a piece of paper with his little local grievances listed on it, and the next would have his piece of paper, and so on. They all came with their private agendas. We had told them to resolve these things at the regional level. But they can’t think nationally. - Salman Rushdie in 'The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey', p85 (notebook p125)
Martínez Rivas was thought by many to be the most innovative, fresh poet in Nicaragua. ‘He hates being translated,’ Cardenal told me. ‘He thinks translation is a form of assassination!’ - Salman Rushdie in 'The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey', p83 (notebook p120)
I sense I’ve met these quotes, though I have little memory of most of them.
Phrases like the “team spirit” are always employed to cut across individualism, love, and personal loyalties. - Muriel Spark in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', p79 (notebook p157)
This quote is snappy and smart. I can imagine it being popular with other readers and making most highlighted lists.
Anyway.
These quotes capture parts of life I was figuring out. Sometimes I’m still grappling with something they touch upon, and I think, “I came across the perfect expression so long ago! Why hadn’t I held on to it tightly?”
Also, these quotes remind me of writers such as Anita Brookner and Peter Høeg, whom I haven’t read in a while but now want to revisit.
How idiotic to say literature has no value. Literature has all the value. If I want to sharpen my mind for anything strategic or practical, I mix in literature.