Quotes by Barbara Kingsolver

As far as I’d seen, the basis of friendship for guys past the age of bedwetting is trash talk.

If the Lord hasn't got a boyfriend lined up for me to marry, that's his business.

Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace.

What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive.

Hope is a renewable option: If you run out of it at the end of the day, you get to start over in the morning.

The difference between a killer and a hero is just a matter of context.

Courage is a peculiar kind of fear.

What I know for sure is that whatever is on the other side of all those peaks and valleys will be more beautiful than anything I could imagine.

A novel captures essence that is sometimes more real than reality itself.

The writer's job is to make the ordinary come alive, to awaken ourselves to the specialness of simply being.

The important thing isn't that we can live on love alone, but that love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

The closest thing to God on Earth is a benevolent parent.

The truth needs so little rehearsal.

Stop a minute, right where you are. Tell that imperious voice in your head to be still.

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the Earth and be an atheist.

It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth.

The artist's task is to save the soul of mankind; anything less is a dithering while Rome burns.

It takes a mighty strong faith to keep loving the people around you.

There is no point in trying to reduce stress by being tough with yourself.

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.

There is no perfect time to write. There's only now.

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.

Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost.

The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.

I can think of no more worthwhile aim than to be the possessor of a mind of skill and beauty.

The most important part of our life's work is figuring out what we hope for.

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.

It’s surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier.

The essential dilemma of my life is between my deep desire to belong and my suspicion of belonging.

It's a funny thing about motherhood. You want to be everything to your child.

To make a difference in this world, you must not be afraid to be different.

You can tell yourself anything you want, but the truth comes out in the way you live.

We are, all of us, choosing from only a handful of stories every day.

Every family is a big small town, and sometimes your best friends are the ones you grew up with.

In a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is make things as right as we can.

I have to write hundreds of pages before I get to page one.