"Her accent's funny, different from mine, different from anyone in Prentisstown's. Her lips make different kinds of outlines for the letters, like they're swooping down on them from above, pushing them into shape, telling them what to say. In Prentisstown, everyone talks like they're sneaking up on their words, ready to club them from behind."

Culture, Language, Difference, Expression

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"Her accent's funny, different from mine, different from anyone in Prentisstown's. Her lips make different kinds of outlines for the letters, like they're swooping down on them from above, pushing them into shape, telling them what to say. In Prentisstown, everyone talks like they're sneaking up on their words, ready to club them from behind."

Exlpore more Culture quotes

"Once we got out of Jefferson Park, we rolled down the one window that worked so the world would know we had good taste in music."

John Green, American Author

Culture, Music, Taste, Expression

"Amazing what the British do with language; the nuances of politeness. The world's great diplomats, surely."

Anne Rice, American Novelist

Culture, Language, Diplomacy, Communication

"Ram-fication of Ravan-ous thoughts is what Dussehra all about."

Vikrmn, Indian Author

Culture, Tradition, Reflection, Symbolism

"I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life."

Joyce Carol Oates, American Novelist

Culture, Memory, Childhood, Life

"Reading's not a luxury, art's not a luxury. It's about your soul, and it's about yourself. And if reading is a luxury, being human is a luxury."

Jeanette Winterson, British Novelist

Culture, Art, Soul, Reading, Self

"The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them there ought to be as many for love."

Margaret Atwood, Canadian Novelist

Culture, Snow, Language, Love

"We are nothing but bricks from our cultural molds."

Bangambiki Habyarimana, Rwandan Author

Culture, Identity, Tradition, Humanity

"To lose your own language was like forgetting your mother, and as sad, in a way."

Alexander McCall Smith, British Author

Culture, Language, Identity, Loss, Memory

"The problem with our culture is we cling to so many different truths. Yet, the truths that we cling to also depend on our point of view. Maybe, the journey to a truth that can be free of hatred, bias and injustice requires a journey of the soul to see all view points."

Shannon L. Alder, American Author

Culture, Truth, Wisdom, Life, Power

"For an idea ever to be fashionable is ominous since it must afterwards be always old-fashioned."

George Santayana, American Philosopher

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Explore more quotes by Patrick Ness

"If you ever want to see how small you are in the plan of God, just stand at the edge of an ocean."

Spiritual

"No one ever seems to wonder what happens if it turns out we hate living on a planet? What if the sky's too big? What if the air stinks? What if we go hungry?''And what if the air tastes of honey? What if there's so much food we all get too fat? What if the sky is so beautiful we don't get any work done because we're all looking at it too much?"

Philosophy

"There's a bunch od huge churchs clustered together, trying to blend in with all the family-themed restaurants, because salvation is as easy as chicken wings, I guess."

Society

"Blame is something that is shared and denied in equal measures."

Social

"Hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare in the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?"

Motivation

"Pity is an insult. Kindness is a miracle."

Virtue

"We're each other's questions, aren't we? The question that never gets an answer."

Philosophy

"Real life is only ever just real life. Messy. What it means depends on how you look at it. The only thing you've got to do is find a way to live there."

Life

"It's like he's my family, except better, because I've chosen him."

Love

"It felt like waiting for something to happen. Which has to be the worth part of being young. So many of your decisions aren't yours, they're made by other people. Sometimes they're made badly by other people. Sometimes they're made by other people who have no idea what the consequences of those decisions might be. The bastards."

Youth