beth_arnold's Reviews (779)

"Books don't make a home - they are one, in the sense that just as you do with a door, you open a book, and you go inside. Inside there is a different kind of time and space. There is warmth there too - a hearth. I sit down with a book and I am warm."

"I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things you must risk it."

"Love is vivid. I never wanted the pale version. Love is full strength. I never wanted the diluted version. I never shied away from love’s hugeness but I had no idea that love could be as reliable as the sun. The daily rising of love."

“There’s really no point in asking what if? The only question worth asking is: what’s next?”

“How boring does your sex life have to be for a blow job to count as the height of unimaginable depravity”

“I’ve played pianos, I’ve jumped on pianos, I’ve fallen off pianos and I’ve pushed a piano into the crowd, hit a member of the audience with it and spent the rest of the night frantically apologizing to them.”

“After a while, the only presents I wanted were records and books.”

“You may still be standing, dear,’ it read, ‘but the rest of us are on the fucking floor.”

“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.”

“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”