Joanne Harris > Quotes

“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“I let it go. It's like swimming against the current. It exhausts you. After a while, whoever you are, you just have to let go, and the river brings you home.”
― Joanne Harris, Five Quarters of the Orange

“Children are knives, my mother once said. They don’t mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don’t we, we clasp them until the blood flows.”
― Joanne Harris, The Girl with No Shadow

“She always had that about her, that look of otherness, of eyes that see things much too far, and of thoughts that wander off the edge of the world.”
― Joanne Harris

“I could do with a bit more excess. From now on I'm going to be immoderate--and volatile--I shall enjoy loud music and lurid poetry. I shall be rampant.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“I'd rather be a freak than a clone.”
― Joanne Harris

“Death should be a celebration. Like a birthday. I want to go up like a rocket when my time comes, and fall down in a cloud of stars, and hear everyone go: ahh!”
― Joanne Harris

“Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul.”
― Joanne Harris

“Places have their own characters. . . . But the people begin to look the same.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“Love not often, but forever.”
― Joanne Harris, Holy Fools

“Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life.”
― Joanne Harris, Blackberry Wine

“After all, words are what remain when all the deeds have been done. Words can shatter faith; start a war; change the course of history. A story can make your heart beat faster; topple walls; scale mountains - hey, a story can even raise the dead. And that's why the King of Stories ended up being the King of the gods; because writing history and making history are only the breadth of a page apart.”
― Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki

“It's a feeling which tells me that any woman can be beautiful in the eyes of a man who loves her.”
― Joanne Harris, Five Quarters of the Orange

“Well, that's history for you, folks. Unfair, untrue and for the most part written by folk who weren't even there.”
― Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki

“A thing named is a thing tamed.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“In any case, fire burns; that's its nature, and you can't expect to change that. You can use it to cook your meat or to burn down your neighbor's house. And is the fire you use for cooking any different from the one you use for burning? And does that mean you should eat your supper raw?"

Maddy shook her head, still puzzled. "So what you're saying is . . . I shouldn't play with fire," she said at last.

Of course you should," said One-Eye gently. "But don't be surprised if the fire plays back.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“Everything comes home, my mother used to say; every word spoken, every shadow cast, every footprint in the sand. It can't be helped; it's part of what makes us who we are. ”
― Joanne Harris, The Lollipop Shoes

“I sell dreams, small comforts, sweet harmless temptations to bring down a multitude of saints crashing among the hazels and nougatines”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“I believe that being happy is the only important thing. Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or torturous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”
― Joanne Harris

“The dead know everything but they don't give a damn.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“The process of giving is without limits.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. A dangerous time; of violent rages and deceptive calm, of fireworks in the pockets and conkers in the fist.”
― Joanne Harris, Gentlemen and Players

“Some people spend the whole of their lives sitting waiting for one train, only to find that they never even made it to the station.”
― Joanne Harris, Peaches for Monsieur le Curé

“A man may plant a tree for a number of reasons. Perhaps he likes trees. Perhaps he wants shelter. Or perhaps he knows that someday he may need the firewood.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“A black cat crossed my path, and I stopped to dance around it widdershins and to sing the rhyme,

Ou va-ti mistigri?
Passe sans faire de mai ici.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“Wine talks; ask anyone. The oracle at the street corner; the uninvited guest at the wedding feast; the holy fool. It ventriloquizes. It has a million voices. It unleashes the tongue, teasing out secrets you never meant to tell, secrets you never even knew. It shouts, rants, whispers. It speaks of great plans, tragic loves, and terrible betrayals. It screams with laughter. It chuckles softly to itself. It weeps in front of its own reflection. It revives summers long past and memories best forgotten. Every bottle a whiff of other times, other places, everyone...a humble miracle”
― Joanne Harris

“I speak as I must and cannot be silent.”
― Joanne Harris, Runemarks

“Change isn't always comfortable, but it is a fact of life.”
― Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
― Joanne Harris, The Girl with No Shadow