Spring is when I start to remember how to breathe again. It is when I return and when time begins to stretch out like a stiff body. There is hope, there is renewal, there is light. That is not all there is but because there is more of it than in the dark so let’s celebrate with some book quotes that blossom.

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‘The magic of my hope; the certainty of his belief.’ — The Night Lagoon by Jo Morey

‘The sticky evening light, clinging to me. Honey on my coat.’ — Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth

‘Thus begins the adventure, the high romance, the romance of seeking.’ — Bluets by Maggie Nelson

‘Spring had brought a shock of frost, a week of wet snow, and now — at the lip of summer — the vegetable garden was shrinking into itself.’ — The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

‘I heaved a sigh and filled my lungs, like I was testing them for leaks.’ — Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

‘The pale sun trembled over the lip of the horizon, moving up to the sky’s centre in a violent, majestic advance.’ — Human Acts by Han Kang

‘Blistering relief.’ — A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle

‘Moss revealing out from water… to glisten like fat on new-cooked meat.’ — Mere by Danielle Giles

‘My doubt scabbed over into acceptance, and then welcoming.’ — Spoilt Creatures by Amy Twigg

‘A flock of starlings… The sound of their wings all at once is soft and explosive. A hundred feathered concussions.’ — It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne De Marcken

‘What beautiful music I can hear in the depths of me. It is made of geometric lines crisscrossing in the air. It is chamber music.’ — Àgua Viva by Clarice Lispector

‘Puddles wobbled and the light cast on them through the clouds shimmered and they looked like tin cymbals.’ — Tinkers by Paul Harding

‘I felt a flash of happiness, like a match being struck.’ — Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

‘The earth is alive. I am alive. I wait to feel whatever I’m meant to feel.’ — Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

‘As her bare feet plunged into the earth, it seemed to respond in little groan-glop sucks, a water logged language, receiving her wild little body with pleasure.’ — Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer

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Happy Ramadan, Lunar New Year, Pancake Day and Valentine’s Day. Sure is a lot to celebrate in February (minus the weather). On the subject of romance, it’s been an interesting month for me. In fact, “On the subject of romance” was the opener of a not so exciting text I received from someone in February. I need reminding of how much of a hopeless romantic I am (and maybe you do too) with a collection of book quotes on love.

‘August. We are arguing. You want love to be like this every day, don’t you? 92 degrees even in the shade.’ — Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

‘It was a good thing, not having to rely on your partner for happiness but I’d always been clear about what I wanted: an obliterating symbiosis.’ — Spoilt Creatures by Amy Twigg

‘Learning him is a quiet and slow undertaking. And I am taken.’ — A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle

‘Giovanni looked at me. And this look made me feel that no one in my life had ever looked at me directly before.’ — Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

‘In the crook of Eva’s neck, she found a heartbeat to put her lips to.’ — The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

‘Their skin, when touching, less a border than a permeable membrane, a site of crossing.’ - Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal

‘I swallow her as if she were a sword, little by little and with enormous care.’ — Boulder by Eva Baltasar

‘How often I’ve imagined the bubble of body and breath you and I made.’ — Bluets by Maggie Nelson

‘Talking to her makes me feel interesting, like I’m two pints deep, all the time.’ - Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth

‘We huddled around the hour like a flame.’ — All Fours by Miranda July

‘My impression of L was one of scope, of amplitude; I had a sense, vertiginous, exhilarating, of the world suddenly gaining in dimension, becoming larger and deeper.’ — Small Rain by Garth Greenwell

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The cold and I have a fractured relationship. It likes to gnaw my joints and I like to tell everyone how much I hate it. Coats are heavy and I hate that too. But I’m learning to find solace in the burrowing. And I have a confession: I enjoyed an icy slap on my face this week. It grounded me. Other writers put it better, so let these quotes bundle you up or strip you cold.

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‘January lowered itself over Amsterdam and would not rise again.’ — The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

‘I watched the white winter light spangle the cloudy blue and I knew together they made God.’ — Bluets by Maggie Nelson

‘I who want to feel the breath of my beyond. To be more than I am, since I am so little.’ — Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

‘The sky, low down as ever, is a large yawn.’ — Boulder by Eva Baltasar

‘The light — its reaching in each day to knead then stretch then knead then stretch the shadows across the dusty floors.’ — Sleep by Honor Jones

‘We huddled around the hour like a flame.’ — All Fours by Miranda July

‘Once the sky had been torn open, nothing seemed able to sew it back up.’ — Spoilt Creatures by Amy Twigg

‘This not-knowing was physically painful, like sleeplessness.’ — The Idiot by Elif Batuman

‘Wind sings but carries an axe instead of a note.’ — Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

‘Despair and doom galvanize.’ — The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

‘A fireplace whose mouth was agape in a grotesque belch and whose marble gums looked nicotine - stained against the ugly pink wallpaper.’ — The Ladie Upstairs by Jessie Elland

‘Not all dark places need light, I have to remember that.’ — Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

‘The house rattled like dice in the wind’s fist.’ — Small Rain by Garth Greenwell

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Welcome to Haute Quotes where I share my favourite book quotes. I’ve been writing these out in notebooks for 15 years, which is half of my life… If you’re a reader, just sit back and enjoy. If you’re a writer, use them as inspiration for how to write better. These notebooks are the first place I go when I’m feeling blocked or bored with my writing, I hope they can help you too!

Usually on the other app, I categorise these into character description, similes and metaphors, and setting. But I thought it would be fun to make more curated lists on here so ta-da…

How does the last month of the year make you feel? What follows you around? Here’s an end-of-the-year inspired collection of quotes tinged with celebration, melancholy, faith, reflection, family, and the cold.

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‘The air is heavy and edible.’ — Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken

‘Morning rose in the quiet chord of winter’s pink. The snow has silenced the world.’ — The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

‘The only thing we had in common was DNA, which gave us limited mileage conversationally.’ — Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

‘Each leaf, each blade, each twig… replicated itself, in frost.’ — Matrix by Lauren Groff

‘Your house is too quiet, or rather it is loud in the absence of others.’ — Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

‘A hug from her felt like the Heimlich manouver.’ — Heartburn by Nora Ephron

‘Each family functioned with its own impenetrable logic.’ — Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

‘The loaf is as yellow as the edge of a bible.’ — The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry

‘Lia’s father… kept his faith close always; he wrapped it about his body tightly so that it never snagged or frayed, tripped or slipped. Lia’s mother’s faith had a life of its own. It was huge, inscrutable. It entered rooms before she did, often announcing her arrival…’ — Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer

‘The corridor was deserted, glowing softly red at the end as though I were walking along a vein.’ — Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh

‘Family photos… snapshots of blissful moments, bright and glowing but long gone, like dead stars pulsing the last of their light.’ — The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

‘I noticed only the change in weather, the bitter wet breath and dark of winter.’ — The Island Child by Molly Aitken

‘I liked the quiet, the languor of a single hour, of a day when you are deliberate, thankful for what was made deliberately, retina and turnips and densely coiled stars, things so complex I could barely render them in paint.’ — Luster by Raven Leilani

‘These half-conversations with compliments stuck in them like pins.’ — The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes

‘Introspection is like cyanide.’ — Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

‘Profound prayer is a meditation upon the nothing. It’s the dry and electrical contact with oneself.’ — Água Viva by Clarice Lispector

‘The ground was no longer green and brown and sodden and rich; it had bled out all of its colours until it hardened to a bitter monochrome.’ — The Ladie Upstairs by Jessie Elland

‘It was a December of crows.’ — Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

‘The house is full of whispers, prayers, and arguments.’ — Sam by Allegra Goodman

‘The room was cold and dark, but inside I was fire, heat, blue, blue flame.’ — My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin

‘The ocean is eating the ice, licking and chewing on it.’ — Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

‘Black champagne bottles lay on their bellies like black dogs with wire muzzles.’ — The Idiot by Elif Batuman

‘Dawn… breaking as it had with such winter-bruised beauty… the billow of purple-pink welts splitting the sky; almost biblical.’ — Wild Moon Rising by Jenny Knight

‘Prayer was a means of mutely and hidden from others reaching myself. When I prayed I achieved an emptiness of soul - and that emptiness is all I can ever have.’ — Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

‘He looks suddenly tired in his poncho, like a folded up umbrella.’ — It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken

‘The startling metallic cold of early winter.’ — Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

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Happy celebrating and reflecting wherever you are in the world and wherever you are in your heart. If you’re grieving through this season, I’m sending love specifically in your direction x

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