There’s nothing quite like reading a book quote without the context of the story or characters involved. Looking at those few words, without the background information clogging your senses, it almost feels like the author is talking directly to you. Sometimes, a quote can feel so personal or so irrationally perfect that you wonder how authors come up with these things. In honor of that feeling, in honor of the books that can feel so eerily like real life, or even just for the person looking to pick up a good book and escape to a world of wonders, here are some quotes that sometimes feel all too real.
1. “Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay. I tilted my head back. The stars looked like they were close together, when really they were millions of miles apart. In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.” – Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
2. “You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” – Looking for Alaska by John Green
3. “The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like clouds, and she would ring them out like the rain.” – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. “Why is straight the default? Everyone should have to declare one way or another, and it shouldn’t be this big awkward thing whether you’re straight, gay, bi, or whatever. I’m just saying.” – Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
5. “‘What if we go on,’ he said, ‘only to more pain and despair? What if we go on, only to find a horrible end waiting for us?’ Aelin looked northward, as if she could see all the way to Terrasen. ‘Then it is not the end.’” – Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
6. “Goodbye, I say, goodbye, as I disappear little by little into the middle of the middle of my own spectacular now.” – Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
7. “I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people—to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it’s the effect or vice versa.” – Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
8. “The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us.” – Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
9. “Once upon a time, there was a human girl stolen away by faeries, and because of that, she swore to destroy them.” – The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
10. “Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don’t know how lucky you are.” – The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
11. “The sky is always beautiful. Even when it’s dark or rainy or cloudy, it’s still beautiful to look at… it’ll be there no matter what… and I know it’ll always be beautiful.” – Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
12. “Don’t lock yourself away from those who care about you because you think you’ll hurt them or they’ll hurt you. What point is there in being human if you don’t let yourself feel anything?” – A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir