Karen Joy Fowler Quotes

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Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come.

Karen Joy Fowler

Tree, Immortality

Karen Joy Fowler (2004). “Sarah Canary”, Plume

46 Copy quote
Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.

Karen Joy Fowler

Letters, Underestimate, Wells

"The Jane Austen Book Club". www.imdb.com. 2007.

25 Copy quote
Arriving late was a way of saying that your own time was more valuable than the time of the person who waited for you.

Karen Joy Fowler

Arriving, Way, Punctuality

Karen Joy Fowler (2005). “The Jane Austen Book Club”, p.163, Penguin

29 Copy quote
I still haven't found the place where I can be my true self. But maybe you never get to be your true self, either.

Karen Joy Fowler

Self, Found, Stills

Karen Joy Fowler (2013). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel”, p.189, Penguin

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The sunset you see is always better than the one you don’t. More stars are always better than less.

Karen Joy Fowler

Stars, Sunset

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.36, Serpent's Tail

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In the phrase ' human being,' the word 'being' is much more important than the word 'human.'

Karen Joy Fowler

Important, Phrases, Humans

Karen Joy Fowler (2013). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel”, p.104, Penguin

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When there is an invisible elephant in the room, one is from time to time bound to trip over a trunk.

Karen Joy Fowler

Elephants, Rooms, Invisible

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.135, Serpent's Tail

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The spoken word converts individual knowledge into mutual knowledge, and there is no way back once you've gone over that cliff. Saying nothing was more amendable, and over time I'd come to see that it was usually your best course of action.

Karen Joy Fowler

Gone, Way, Saying Nothing

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.126, Serpent's Tail

4 Copy quote
In everyone's life there are people who stay and people who go and people who are taken against their will.

Karen Joy Fowler

Taken, People

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.271, Serpent's Tail

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When I run the world, librarians will be exempt from tragedy. Even their smaller sorrows will last only for as long as you can take out a book.

Karen Joy Fowler

Running, Book, Long

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.273, Serpent's Tail

6 Copy quote
I'm unclear on the definition of person the courts have been using. Something that sieves out dolphins but lets corporations slide on through.

Karen Joy Fowler

Dolphins, Definitions, Corporations

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.305, Serpent's Tail

7 Copy quote
I wonder sometimes if I'm the only one spending my life making the same mistake over and over again or if that's simply human. Do we all tend toward a single besetting sin?

Karen Joy Fowler

Mistake, Sometimes, Wonder

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.240, Serpent's Tail

4 Copy quote
Where you succeed will never matter so much as where you fail.

Karen Joy Fowler

Matter, Succeed, Failing

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.288, Serpent's Tail

5 Copy quote
In general, librarians enjoyed special requests. A reference librarian is someone who likes the chase. When librarians read for pleasure, they often pick a good mystery.

Karen Joy Fowler

Special, Likes, Mystery

Karen Joy Fowler (2005). “The Jane Austen Book Club”, p.213, Penguin

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Each of us has a private Austen.

Karen Joy Fowler

Austen

Karen Joy Fowler (2005). “The Jane Austen Book Club”, p.1, Penguin

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Antagonism in my family comes wrapped in layers of code, sideways feints, full deniability. I believe the same can be said of many families.

Karen Joy Fowler

Believe, Layers, My Family

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.20, Serpent's Tail

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The happening and telling are very different things. This doesn’t mean that the story isn’t true, only that I honestly don’t know anymore if I really remember it or only remember how to tell it. Language does this to our memories, simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An off-told story is like a photograph in a family album. Eventually it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.

Karen Joy Fowler

Memories, Mean, Doe

4 Copy quote
No Utopia is Utopia for everyone

Karen Joy Fowler

Utopia

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Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness.

Karen Joy Fowler

June, People, Mad

Karen Joy Fowler (2012). “Sarah Canary”, p.49, Hachette UK

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But no one is easier to delude than a parent; they see only what they wish to see.

Karen Joy Fowler

Parent, Wish, Easier

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There was something appealing in thinking of a character with a secret life that her author knew nothing about. Slipping off while the author's back was turned, to find love in her own way. Showing up just in time to deliver the next bit of dialogue with an innocent face.

Karen Joy Fowler

Character, Thinking, Finding Love

4 Copy quote
Every mother can easily imagine losing a child. Motherhood is always half loss anyway. The three-year-old is lost at five, the five-year-old at nine. We consort with ghosts, even as we sit and eat with, scold and kiss, their current corporeal forms. We speak to people who have vanished and, when they answer us, they do the same. Naturally, the information in these speeches is garbled in the translation.

Karen Joy Fowler

Mother, Children, Loss

Karen Joy Fowler (2015). “Black Glass: Short Fictions”, p.42, Penguin

8 Copy quote
Marriage seemed like such a small space whenever I was in it. I liked the getting married. Courtship has a plotline. But there's no plot to being married. Just the same things over and over again. Same fights, same friends, same things you do on a Saturday. The repetition would start to get to me.

Karen Joy Fowler

Fighting, Space, Plot

Karen Joy Fowler (2005). “The Jane Austen Book Club”, p.193, Penguin

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Sometimes you best avoid talking by being quiet, but sometimes you best avoid talking by talking.

Karen Joy Fowler

Talking, Quiet, Sometimes

Karen Joy Fowler (2014). “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves”, p.37, Serpent's Tail

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There's science and there's science, is all I'm saying. Where humans are the subjects, it's mostly not science

Karen Joy Fowler

Humans, Subjects

4 Copy quote

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Born: February 7, 1950
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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