AtomicQuote

Carol Shields Quotes

The men, her husband and sons, leave for the quarry at seven o'clock sharp and return at five. What do they imagine she does all day? It makes her shiver to think of it, how not one pair of eyes can s...

Carol Shields

The men, her husband and sons, leave for the quarry at seven o'clock sharp and return at five. What do they imagine she does all day? It makes her shiver to think of it, how not one pair of eyes can s...

Tags: invisibility, routine of daily life

Bookish people, who are often maladroit people, persist in thinking they can master any subtlety so long as it's been shaped into acceptable expository prose.

Carol Shields

Bookish people, who are often maladroit people, persist in thinking they can master any subtlety so long as it's been shaped into acceptable expository prose.

Tags: books, readers, reading, subtlety

About Author
Carol Ann Shields (née Warner; June 2, 1935 – July 16, 2003) was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.

The recounting of a life is a cheat, of course.

Carol Shields

The recounting of a life is a cheat, of course.

The larger loneliness of our lives evolves from our unwillingness to spend ourselves, stir ourselves. We are always damping down our inner weather, permitting ourselves the comforts of postponement, o...

Carol Shields

The larger loneliness of our lives evolves from our unwillingness to spend ourselves, stir ourselves. We are always damping down our inner weather, permitting ourselves the comforts of postponement, o...

When we think of the past we tend to assume that people were simpler in their functions, and shaped by forces that were primary and irreducible. We take for granted that our forbears were imbued with...

Carol Shields

When we think of the past we tend to assume that people were simpler in their functions, and shaped by forces that were primary and irreducible. We take for granted that our forbears were imbued with...

He was discomfited to see how easily men (and women as well) stepped from the train to station platform, from platform to train – with ease, with levity, laughing and talking and greeting each other a...

Carol Shields

He was discomfited to see how easily men (and women as well) stepped from the train to station platform, from platform to train – with ease, with levity, laughing and talking and greeting each other a...

This last year she has been in danger of becoming an eccentric or else one of those persons who does not bother to put a saucer under her cup.

Carol Shields

This last year she has been in danger of becoming an eccentric or else one of those persons who does not bother to put a saucer under her cup.

He knows very well what underlies the compulsive side of his nature; it is the wish to escape that which he can't comprehend, seeking safety in an unbendable estrangement.

Carol Shields

He knows very well what underlies the compulsive side of his nature; it is the wish to escape that which he can't comprehend, seeking safety in an unbendable estrangement.

Curiously, she is not afraid, knowing as she does that love is mostly the avoidance of hurt, and furthermore, she is accustomed to obstacles, and how they can be overcome by readjusting her glance or...

Carol Shields

Curiously, she is not afraid, knowing as she does that love is mostly the avoidance of hurt, and furthermore, she is accustomed to obstacles, and how they can be overcome by readjusting her glance or...

How does a poet know when a poem is ended? Because it lies flat, taut; nothing can be added or subtracted. How does a woman know when a marriage is over? Because of the way her life suddenly shears of...

Carol Shields

How does a poet know when a poem is ended? Because it lies flat, taut; nothing can be added or subtracted. How does a woman know when a marriage is over? Because of the way her life suddenly shears of...

Tags: poetry

What I'd like is a lobotomy, a clean job, the top of my head neatly sawn off and designated contents removed.

Carol Shields

What I'd like is a lobotomy, a clean job, the top of my head neatly sawn off and designated contents removed.

I don't know how to get things started... It's like there's this great big wheel I've got to start rolling only I don't seem to have the muscles to get it going.

Carol Shields

I don't know how to get things started... It's like there's this great big wheel I've got to start rolling only I don't seem to have the muscles to get it going.

Tags: starting

We are too kind, too willing--too unwilling too--reaching out blindly with a grasping hand but not knowing how to ask for what we don't even know we want.

Carol Shields

We are too kind, too willing--too unwilling too--reaching out blindly with a grasping hand but not knowing how to ask for what we don't even know we want.

I presented him with an African violet, which I saw as symbolically useful, though I’m not sure the others understood the subtleties. (African violets must be watered from the bottom, not the top, and...

Carol Shields

I presented him with an African violet, which I saw as symbolically useful, though I’m not sure the others understood the subtleties. (African violets must be watered from the bottom, not the top, and...

Beauty takes courage. Courage itself takes courage.

Carol Shields

Beauty takes courage. Courage itself takes courage.

Tags: courage

Boiled down, isn't love just a form of vanity? You know, the wish to be adored. To be the absolute center for someone else.

Carol Shields

Boiled down, isn't love just a form of vanity? You know, the wish to be adored. To be the absolute center for someone else.

A thought comes into her head: that lately she doesn't ask herself what is possible, but rather what possibilities remain.

Carol Shields

A thought comes into her head: that lately she doesn't ask herself what is possible, but rather what possibilities remain.

Nothing she didor saidwas quitewhat she meantbut still her lifecould be called a monumentshaped in a slantof available light

Carol Shields

Nothing she didor saidwas quitewhat she meantbut still her lifecould be called a monumentshaped in a slantof available light

Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.

Carol Shields

Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve.

Routine is liberating, it makes you feel in control.

Carol Shields

Routine is liberating, it makes you feel in control.