Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
Barbara Kingsolver
Related To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES As human beings, we aren't as individual as we'd like to believe we are. And I think that... LUPITA NYONG'O Stand-up comedy is all you. It's your show, it's your game. You control every aspect of it -... BRYAN CALLEN Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's. BILLY WILDER The interpretive element of 'Lost' - the fact that you immediately need, as soon as the epis... DAMON LINDELOF Life is weird and wonderful like that, is it not. SONYA.E.WILLIAMS I think grieving is the same for everybody that lost someone you love deeply. It's the same. You... LEE RADZIWILL Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it appears to be. JEFFREY FRY What Fucks me... is that we both are the same... we all walk on the same path... but everything is a... DEYTH BANGER Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. As an actor, acting is like playing a sport. You do this thing that's intangible, and while it... CHRIS EVANS The biggest crime in Nabokov's 'Lolita' is imposing your own dream upon someone else'... AZAR NAFISI Horror as for me is the best choice, you can gain a lot of. I like to be afraid like to see this shi... DEYTH BANGER What people don't understand is that calling someone too skinny is the same as calling someone t... KENDALL JENNER It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these th... ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER I've always liked the idea of memoirs, going into someone else's life, going through someone... ISABEL GILLIES As long as you're centering back to home base, and that's the strongest magnet in your life,... CHARLIE EBERSOL There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain on... MILAN KUNDERA I think that one of the things that you do learn is that falling in love and being in love with some... JULIANNE MOORE Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER It's odd that you can get so anesthetized by your own pain or your own problem that you don'... LADY BIRD JOHNSON The battle is not physical, it is spiritual and your mind is the battleground. Keep your mind pure a... JEANETTE CORON Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs. That'... ALVIN DARK The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS Acting - you're taking someone else's visions and someone else's inspirations, and it... CAMERON DALLAS A big sacrifice is coming, and you won't have the courage to make it. That will cost you dearly. It ... RICK RIORDAN From the outset of the war, the Canadian people have clearly shown that it is their desire to help i... WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE KING I just want to say to women, 'Be yourself - it's the inner beauty that counts. You are your ... CHERIE LUNGHI That's why we seize the moment try to freeze it and own it, squeeze it and hold it. EMINEM I think there's such a fine line in a relationship. The role of imagination and privacy... how m... KATIE KITAMURA Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else's shoes for a while. MALORIE BLACKMAN Learn when and how to use different data structures and their algorithms in your own code. This is h... ROBERT LOVE It's always inspiring to me to meet people who feel that they can make a difference in the world... MARIA SHRIVER Empathy is about standing in someone else's shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with hi... DANIEL H. PINK That's SHIT! How do you remove it? You just put it inside the trash, easy as that. DEYTH BANGER Virtual reality is the 'ultimate empathy machine.' These experiences are more than documenta... CHRIS MILK If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of... HENRY FORD I'm someone who's done the opposite of whatever the received wisdom is, to keep your career ... ELIZABETH MCGOVERN That's the way I work and one day I won't have the energy to do it, so I think it's alwa... MARC ALMOND It still strikes me as strange that anyone could have any moral objection to someone else's sexu... RIVER PHOENIX Hollywood is great for entertaining people, it's a wonderful business but it's make-believe,... DOLPH LUNDGREN Marry someone who flatters you. Because I've written 80 books since 'War Horse' but when... MICHAEL MORPURGO You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert... ELEANOR ROOSEVELT There is a natural progression to 'Lost,' and as the story goes forward, it's going to c... CARLTON CUSE A little anger is a good thing if it isn't on your own behalf, if it's for others deserving ... DAVID SIMON Sketching is like dancing. It's process as much as product. You can turn your head off and just ... MOLLY CRABAPPLE One of the ultimate challenges for biology is to understand the brain's processing of unconsciou... ERIC KANDEL The thing is that war is the opposite of negotiation. It's when you cannot negotiate, when you c... INGRID BETANCOURT Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by ... STEVE JOBS There's definitely a delicate line you have to walk in telling someone else's story that'... BOX BROWN Showing young children in these communities, that there are outlets for their feelings, that there i... TOM HIDDLESTON Adapting a novel is not really about being faithful to every word and every moment the author has cr... PETER JACKSON I'd done a ton of movies here in Hollywood, and I realized that every movie I'd done was som... HARLAND WILLIAMS Sarah is very strong. She's really intelligent and she's very physically capable. I like to ... YVONNE STRAHOVSKI A tour of the Mexico City of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo led by Barbara Kingsolver would be nice. ... CATHY MARIE BUCHANAN It's difficult to keep that perspective, I think, as a parent: to know your boundaries as to wha... ANTHONY EDWARDS Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Sponsorship is about putting your name and reputation on the line for someone else. It could be as s... LYNNE DOUGHTIE It's never going to get better than working opposite an actor like Jeff Bridges. That's as g... SAM ELLIOTT Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart’s revelation that another person is every ... JONATHAN FRANZEN You know how when you're alone with your cat, your cat is kind of silly and goofy and kind of cr... MICHAELA WATKINS The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while q... MICHAEL KORDA You release the pain of the past and press on. It's a new day, and God is doing a new thing. He want... CRAIG GROESCHEL Slums could be thought of as the development of a special organ, or they could be thought of as a tu... GEOFFREY WEST My personal life is lived as 'me,' but my professional life is lived as other people. In oth... WALLACE SHAWN Martin Freeman is a genius, he really is. He gives you every color of the rainbow in every take and ... LARA PULVER You just try to absorb as much as you can from someone who has won as many races and championships a... LARRY DIXON I really try to have fun. If I don't have fun, you won't have fun. That's what my gift i... LOUIE ANDERSON When he entered the anteroom, two women looked up at him. One was Miss Robertson, the governor's sec... GEORGE P. ELLIOTT This is too much reality for a Friday. AS GOOD AS IT GETS There's so much more to life than that, though I think that acting is fascinating because you ca... BEATRICE WOOD If there is anything about your 'self' of which you can be sure, it is that it is anchored i... VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN Find and use your passion, and you'll have a great career. Don't do it, you won't. It... LARRY SMITH Pleasure that isn't paid for is as insipid as everything else that's free. ANITA LOOS One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. It'... RICHARD STALLMAN Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past. PETER CAREY Awakening your spiritual side is really what artists do. When you hit a groove, it's not you; it... TOMMY CHONG People remember the different variations of stuffed cabbage based on their mothers and grandmothers.... GIL MARKS You can cry about death and very properly so, your own as well as anybody else's. But it's i... DAVID ATTENBOROUGH I think there's nothing better than laughing in life, so that's nice, to be thought of as so... JOAN CUSACK Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters. JEFFREY FRY The pain of childbirth is not remembered. It's the child that's remembered. FREEMAN DYSON It is what it is, it is what you make it. JAMES DURBIN There's a difference between someone who's 'harsh' and someone who is 'hard.'... CLARENCE THOMAS I think it's important to keep your personal life to yourself as much as you can. It protects yo... DIANNA AGRON I look for someone whose upbringing was somewhat similar to mine because they can understand me - lo... MAKSIM CHMERKOVSKIY Because you basically won a close re-election, your first task is to unify the city. And it's do... MARC MORIAL The only time the private parts of someone's life are relevant is when they're affecting pub... RUDY GIULIANI I remember very little about writing the first series of 'Hitchhiker's.' It's almost... DOUGLAS ADAMS That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else. SAOIRSE RONAN I don't care if it's somebody else's song. Most of the time, you'll find that I'... TAJ MAHAL People don't understand that that's really what it is. They're looking for a magic phone... TODD BARRY A war is justified if you're willing to send your son. If you're not willing to send your so... JESSE VENTURA We need to accept that we won't always make the right decisions, that we'll screw up royally... ARIANNA HUFFINGTON I do understand that not everyone is going to sit and listen to an Enya album. When someone says it&... ENYA Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. Ther... DALTON TRUMBO Prayer's important, not just as some kind of a metaphysical exercise, but I think it's a way... MIKE HUCKABEE I feel that the music that I do is somewhat of a lost art and it's not as popular as dance or po... JAZMINE SULLIVAN I really think that it's disgusting that Paris is the only place where it is illegal for paps to... CARA DELEVINGNE
More Barbara Kingsolver
Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that g... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaki... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your bra... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The first sentence of a book is a promise. BARBARA KINGSOLVER For me, writing time has always been precious, something I wait for and am eager for and make the be... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Terms like that, 'Humane Society,' are devised with people like me in mind, who don't ca... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brav... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What you lose in blindness is the space around you, the place where you are, and without that you mi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on be... BARBARA KINGSOLVER To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another that is surely the basic instinct - crying o... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the l... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of a... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin. BARBARA KINGSOLVER What a writer can do, what a fiction writer or a poet or an essay writer can do is re-engage people ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the mor... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, 'There no... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is l... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It is surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Until that moment I'd thought I could have it both ways; to be one of them, and also my husband's wi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style. She knew. BARBARA KINGSOLVER People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The older I get, the more I appreciate my rural childhood. I spent a lot of time outdoors, unsupervi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The truth needs so little rehearsal. BARBARA KINGSOLVER As a biologist, I can't think of myself as anything but an animal among animals and plant. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I can count all the ways in which being a mother has enriched my understanding of the world, of char... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Southern Appalachians have been ridiculed since the country began. In fiction, they're usually d... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Like kids who only ever get socks for Christmas, but still believe with all their hearts in Santa. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I used to think religion was just more of the same thing. Dump responsibility on the big guy. Now I ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Hallie and I... were all there was. The image in the mirror that proves you are still here. We had e... BARBARA KINGSOLVER That would be Axelroot all over, to turn up with an extra wife or two claiming that's how they do it... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The last generations's worst fears become the next one's B-grade entertainment. BARBARA KINGSOLVER My morning begins with trying not to get up before the sun rises. But when I do, it's because my... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory BARBARA KINGSOLVER Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization. BARBARA KINGSOLVER When something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name an... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction -... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who sta... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But newspapers have a duty to truth,' Van said. Lev clucked his tongue. 'They tell the truth on... BARBARA KINGSOLVER In a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is make things as right as we can. BARBARA KINGSOLVER You always need that spark of imagination. Sometimes I'm midway through a book before it happens... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white cros... BARBARA KINGSOLVER So you make this deal with the gods. You do these dances and they'll send rain and good crops and th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combina... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Shoes would interfere with her conversation, for she constantly addresses the ground under her feet.... BARBARA KINGSOLVER To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals r... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known. BARBARA KINGSOLVER No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and forei... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I live in southern Appalachia, so I'm surrounded by people who work very hard for barely a livin... BARBARA KINGSOLVER We're animals. We're born like every other mammal and we live our whole lives around disguis... BARBARA KINGSOLVER God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Everything you're sure is right can be wrong in another place. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brains and ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Close the door. Write with _no one_ looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other p... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Terms like that, "Humane Society," are devised with people like me in mind, who don't care to dwell ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A first child is your own best foot forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike o... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf... BARBARA KINGSOLVER People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits wil... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentenc... BARBARA KINGSOLVER He spoke for an hour on the nonviolent road to independence. The crowd loved it so much they rioted ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Patriotism threatens free speech with death. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidati... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Come to think of it, just about every tool was shaped like either a weenie or a pistol, depending on... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’ve seen how you can’t learn anything when you’re trying to look like the smartest person in ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sympathizing over the behavior of men is the baking soda of women's friendships, it seems,the thing ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Do you think its possible to live without wanting to put your name on your paintings? To belong to a... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If men only knew, modesty makes women fall in love faster than all the cock-a-doodling in the world. BARBARA KINGSOLVER It occurs to her that there is one thing about people you can never understand well enough: how enti... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Anybody can get worked up, if they have the intention. It's peacefulness that is hard to come by on ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The thing is, it's my own fault. I just can't put up with a person that won't go out of his way for ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER No matter what kind of night you're having, morning always wins. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Last time I talked to her she didn't sound like herself. She's depressed. It's awful what happens wh... BARBARA KINGSOLVER God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Soon the maroon-throated howls would echo back from the other trees, father down the beach, until th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When people are frightened about going hungry and paying their mortgages, a scarcity model begins to... BARBARA KINGSOLVER WOMEN ON THEIR OWN RUN in Alice’s family. This dawns on her with the unkindness of a heart attack ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Then again, do you have to be told every single thing about the world before you know it? BARBARA KINGSOLVER The backs of his hands remind him of paper burning in the fireplace, the moment the taut membrane go... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Cash misses his wife with a blank pain in his chest, and he misses his sisters and cousins, who have... BARBARA KINGSOLVER She told him television was a bad influence. Probably she was right. Like those white birds he's bee... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Let's go take a walk down to the blue hole. You need to look at some water. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She climbs down and pours half an inch of Jim Beam into a Bengals mug that came free with a tank of ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER They rock against each other, holding on, and the birds in the forest raise their voices to drown ou... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've just fallen on some bad luck and landed jelly side down. BARBARA KINGSOLVER The clock gulps softly, eating second whole while she waits... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You talk about her as if she is the Notre Dame Cathedral!" "She is. And the Statue of Liberty and Ab... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I was so depressed I stopped using hair spray for three weeks. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She married him two years ago for love, or so she thought, and he's a good enough man but a devotee ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’m always looking at the dialectic between the truth we believe exists outside ourselves and the ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Alice hands Annawake a handkerchief. Young people never carry them, she's noticed. They haven't yet ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER She understands all at once, with a small shock, exactly what it is she always needed to tell Harlan... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The obstinate practicality of old women pierces and fortifies these families like the steel rods bur... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A woman knows she can walk away from a pot to tend something else and the pot will go on boiling; if... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's monstrous, what one person will do to another. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She has changed in this way that motherhood changes you, so that you forget you ever had time for sm... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You could love your crazy people, even admire them, instead of resenting that they're not self-suffi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Be sweet and carry a sharp knife, was her motto. BARBARA KINGSOLVER He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I know what it is: it's a green mamba snake away up in the tree. You don't have to be afraid of them... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from ach... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What there is in this world, I think, is a tendency for human errors to level themselves like water ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Finally Cub said, "They don't call it global weirding." "I know. But I think that's actually th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER restraint equals indulgence BARBARA KINGSOLVER It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their wri... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time BARBARA KINGSOLVER Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when they t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Why does a person even get up in the morning? You have breakfast, you floss your teeth so you'll hav... BARBARA KINGSOLVER In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I was trained in classical piano, but it kind of dawned on me that classical pianists compete for si... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Mistakes wreck your life. But they make what you have. It's kind of all one. You know what Hester to... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There can be no greater spiritual accomplishment than to come through brutal trials and then look ba... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If you can't live by the laws the LORD God made for the world, they'll go into effect regardless. BARBARA KINGSOLVER always tried to be positive with her, although I’d learned BARBARA KINGSOLVER A disappointed-looking Jesus eyed her from the wall...Look, look, her steps called out, here is a re... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If people really gave it full consideration, I mean, like if you could return a baby after thirty da... BARBARA KINGSOLVER She made it plain that her fondest wish was to have a grandbaby. Whenever fat Irene would pick up th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Do you know, I spent the first half of my life avoiding motherhood and tires, and now I’m counting... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There is no point in treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, There ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I was Turtle’s age I had never had anyone or anything important taken from me. I still hadn�... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I never could figure out why men thought they could impress a woman by making the world out to be su... BARBARA KINGSOLVER We do have some strong traditions of community in the United States, but it’s interesting to me th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER That means you're my kid," I explained, "and I'm your mother, and nobody can say it isn't so. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt H... BARBARA KINGSOLVER So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flap... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It was hard to feel the remotest sympathy for any of the different fools she'd been. As opposed to t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Whatever you want the most, it’s going to be the worst thing for you. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Mi'ija, in a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is to make things as right as we can. BARBARA KINGSOLVER You think you're the foreigner here, and I'm the American, and I just look the other way while the P... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I’ve been thinking about that. About how your kids aren’t really yours, they’re just these peo... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is li... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You're asking yourself, Can I give this child the best possible upbringing and keep her out of harm'... BARBARA KINGSOLVER That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we s... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Tortolita, let me tell you a story,” Estevan said. “This is a South American, wild Indian story ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's terrible to lose somebody, but it's also true that some people never have anybody to lose, and ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I had decided early on that if I couldn’t dress elegant, I’d dress memorable. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer. BARBARA KINGSOLVER A human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me. And the other is th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The flowers were beaten down, their bent-over heads bejeweled with diamond droplets like earring on ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The longer I think about a food industry organized around an animal that cannot reproduce itself wit... BARBARA KINGSOLVER If it crosses your mind that water running through hundreds of miles of open ditch in a desert will ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most of us are creatures so comforted by habit, it can take something on the order of religion to in... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Every time I write a new novel about something sombre and sobering and terrible I think, 'oh Lor... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tra... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Why is it that only girls stand on the sides of their feet? As if they're afraid to plant themselves... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You think you're no good, so you can't do good things. Jesus, Codi, how long are you going to keep l... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Awareness is everything. Hallie once pointed out to me that people worry a lot more about the eterni... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Memory runs along deep, fixed channels in the brain, like electricity along its conduits; only a cat... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't just some fine destination but the road you're on and the fact you know h... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Perhaps growing up meant we put our knives away and feigned ignorance of the damage. BARBARA KINGSOLVER There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physi... BARBARA KINGSOLVER You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhe... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Insomnia’s different,” I said. It was hard to explain this to people. “You know the light that... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Sometimes I still have American dreams. I mean literally. I see microwave ovens and exercise machine... BARBARA KINGSOLVER To people who think of themselves as God's houseguests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyon... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't expect to see perfection before I die. Lord, if I did I would have stuck my head in the oven... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But children robbed of love will dwell on magic. BARBARA KINGSOLVER You're thinking of revolution as a great all-or-nothing. I think of it as one more morning in a mugg... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I thought: this is how life is, ridiculous beyond comprehension. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've about decided that's the main thing that separates happy people from the other people: the feel... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do i... BARBARA KINGSOLVER At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I live... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, it's not separate from your life. It grows right up out... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Emelina and I took each other in. All morning I'd felt the strange disjuncture that comes from recon... BARBARA KINGSOLVER A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from th... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. BARBARA KINGSOLVER She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on. BARBARA KINGSOLVER He warned Mother not to flout God's Will by expecting too much of us. "Sending a girl to college is ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER ....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday ... BARBARA KINGSOLVER But I'll tell you a secret. When I want to take God at his word exactly I take a peep out the window... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When you're given a brilliant child you polish her and let her shine. Pigs in Heaven BARBARA KINGSOLVER As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer's long hair in water. I kne... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to inv... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Nonfiction requires enormous discipline. You construct the terms of your story, and then you stick t... BARBARA KINGSOLVER When I sit down to write, I consider myself an artist. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I know I'm a rare person, a trained scientist who writes fiction, because so few contemporary no... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort! BARBARA KINGSOLVER After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were mis... BARBARA KINGSOLVER It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to unde... BARBARA KINGSOLVER At home, growing up, we weren't really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn't hav... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I suppose that is my central obsession. What we owe to society, what we owe to ourselves. BARBARA KINGSOLVER Being a novelist and being a mother have exactly coincided in my life: the call from my agent saying... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I'm not pretending to be ingenuous; I know what I'm doing. BARBARA KINGSOLVER