Sophie Quotes

“Vianne didn’t hesitate. She knew now that no one could be neutral—not anymore—and as afraid as she was of risking Sophie’s life, she was suddenly more afraid of letting her daughter grow up in a world where good people did nothing to stop evil, where a good woman could turn her back on a friend in need. She reached for the toddler, took him in her arms.”

″‘But you should have told me where you were, love!’ Sophie knew she should have. She had taken Martha’s view of Fanny, whole and entire, when she should have known Fanny better. She was ashamed.”

“Most people seemed to have a hard outer shell that protected them from mean people, insults, bad memories.”

“I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was always a dark, sinister shape lurking just underneath the surface.”

“Death is at your side from the time you’re born, m’hija. You need to be friends with Death. That’s what makes you love Life. And when it’s your time to die, you won’t be scared. Because, m’hija, Death is your friend.”

“He was living proof of one of my worst fears: Your parents really could die and leave you alone in the world.”

“I thought of myself as a free-floating one-celled amoeba, minding my own business.”

″...being an amoeba and became part of the little cluster of cells in this van.”

“I figured if anything happened to Mom, I would be alone on this planet.”

“When I was little, something as small as Mom picking me up ten minutes late threw me into a wild panic.”

″...tired of making circles inside a fishbowl, watching life through cloudy glass. Would I ever be Sophie la Fuerte, the strong one, a salmon swimming up waterfalls, leaping over dams?”

“When Mom first announced that her Bosnian war refugee great-aunt was coming to live with us, I’d pictured a skeletal woman in a shawl, deep half-moon shadows beneath haunted eyes.”

“As long as I had water, I could forget about everything, imagine I was the only person on the planet, a stranger dropped into the desert”

“Both halves were there, in the bushes. I saved them as a kind of souvenir. At first, they reminded me that the night wasn’t a dream. As I got older, they reminded me of what mattered in life.”

“Somehow, long ago, my little kid’s brain had pasted together pieces of overheard conversations: When Mom was a teenager, I started making her belly fat.”″

“Pablo looked different, and it took me a moment to figure out how. He had a smile, a smile that showed his teeth, a smile that made his eyes scrunch up. He was making a little high-pitched chipmunk sound. Pablo was laughing.”

“In war, when soldiers come, they take everything. You must bury anything to save it. You must hide your childrens, also.”

“Surrounded by the music, I felt like someone else, riding into unknown territory, some adventurous woman in a movie.”

“Excuse me, but I’m very hungry. Do you think I could have tea with you?”

“Sophie found she couldn’t have her bath because the tiger had drunk all the water in the tap.”

″‘You is deaf as a dumpling compared with me!’ cried the BFG. ‘You is hearing only thumping loud noises with those little earwigs of yours. But I am hearing all the secret whisperings of the world!‘”

“I don’t know how it has come to this. But I do know that it started with him coming here. Moving into the third floor. Benjamin Daniels. He destroyed everything.”