Quotes from Gabrielle Zevin

The most annoying thing about it is that once a person gives a shit about one thing, he finds he has to start giving a shit about everything

Det vi tar till oss som tjugoåringar är inte nödvändigtvis samma saker som vi tar till oss som fyrtioåringar och vice versa. Detta gäller både böcker och livet i allmänhet (s. 51).

TAMERLANE AND OTHER POEMS. BY A BOSTONIAN. Crayon marks scar the cover. Lambiase doesn't know what to make of it. His cop brain clicks in, formulating the following questions: (1) Is this A.J.'s stolen Tamerlane? (2) Why would Tamerlane be in Ismay's possession? (3) How did Tamerlane get covered in crayon and who did the coloring? Maya? (4) Why would Tamerlane be in a backpack with Maya's name on it?

But me-also-thinks my latter-day reaction speaks to the necessity of encountering stories at precisely the right time in our lives. Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life. —

Infinite Jest is a masterpiece

We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone. My

Something I've learned is that when you don't have many resources, you have to be even more rigorous with your style. Limitations are style if you make them so.

Man vet allt man behöver veta om en person utifrån svaret på frågan: vilken är den bästa bok som du har läst? (s. 97)

Every word the right one and exactly where it should be.

A.J. feels for the engagement ring in his pocket. Is this the moment? No, too Jumbotron.

THAT NIGHT IN BED, A.J. is still talking about the e-reader. "Do you know the real problem with that contraption?

I worry for you. If you love everyone, you'll end up having hurt feelings most of the time.

Infinite Jest is an endurance contest. You manage to get through it and you have no choice but to say you like it. Otherwise, you have to deal with the fact that you just wasted weeks of your life," A.J. had countered.

probably going to fail and then I'll probably end up just like my mother." She stands up from

Maybe a bit long but basically average." "Do you think you should go in for a checkup?" "No," A.J. says. "You know I've had these since I was a chive.

This novel has humor, romance, a touch of suspense, but most of all love—love of books and bookish people and, really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory." —EOWYN IVEY, author of The Snow Child

W-MT: There was a book I read about in the New York Times Book Review. It had a red cover, maybe? A.J.: Yeah, that sounds familiar. [Translation: That is excessively vague. Author, title, description of the plot—these are more useful locators. That the cover might have been red and that it was in the New York Times Book Review helps me far less than you might think.] Anything else you remember about it? [Use your words.] A.J.

Maya, novels certainly have their charms, but the most elegant creation in the prose universe is a short story. Master the short story and you'll have mastered the world, he thinks just before he drifts off to sleep. I should write this down, he thinks. He reaches for a pen, but there isn't one anywhere near the toilet bowl he is resting against.

skims her predecessor's notes. "Island Books, approximately $250,000.00 per annum in sales, the better portion of that in the summer months to folks on holiday

Love you, Sammy," Dong Hyun said. "I love you, too, Grandpa." For most of his life, Sam had found it difficult to say I love you. It was superior, he believed, to show love to those one loved. But now, it seemed like one of the easiest things in the world Sam could do. Why wouldn't you tell someone you loved them? Once you loved someone, you repeated it until they were tired of hearing it. You said it until it ceased to have meaning. Why not? Of course, you goddamn did.

No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World

Ibland hittar böckerna inte fram till oss förrän tiden är mogen (s. 103).

It is twenty-two degrees out, and when he wakes his hand is blue where it had rested on the ice. He stands and warms his hands on his jacket. He has never passed out in the middle of a run before. "Madame Olenska," he says. DR. ROSEN GIVES him a full examination. A.J. is in good health for his age, but there's something strange about his eyes that gives the doctor pause.

Still, she is glad for the diversion and she doesn't want to become the kind of person who thinks that good news can only come from calls one was already expecting and callers one already knows.