9 Quotes by Elizabeth Joy Arnold

  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    I'll probably never again feel as intensely about books, read as desperately, and fall as deeply in love with stories and characters as I did that summer. Now when I read, I'm continuously trying to bring back that same immersion, fall in love again, and I judge every book against that impossible ideal. The books I love now aren't necessarily those that are written best, they're those books, like The Thorn Birds and Clan Of The Cave Bear, that bring me closest to that magic.

  • Tags
  • Share


  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    Strong is on the inside, a root that keeps you standing whatever might hit you. But hard is only on the outside, this shield you put up to keep all the pain on the inside from showing. The soft inside is still there even when you don't let yourself see it. And the shell keeps you safe, but it also keeps the good things from penetrating; love and trust and joy.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled, “This could change your life.” – Helen Exley.

  • Share

  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    Strong is on the inside, a root that keeps you standing whatever might hit you. But hard is only on the outside, this shield you put up to keep all the pain on the inside from showing. The soft inside is still there even when you don’t let yourself see it. And the shell keeps you safe, but it also keeps the good things from penetrating; love and trust and joy.

  • Share

  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    How could the people around me not see that I’d been spending my day in nineteenth-century Kansas, or in the pit of a giant peach? It was like I was the only one living in the real world, and they were skating blindly over an opaque surface above me.

  • Share

  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    I loved the physicality of books just as much as the stories inside, the feel of pages between my fingers, the intricacies of classic fonts winding along the neatly lined rows of words.

  • Share

  • Author Elizabeth Joy Arnold
  • Quote

    I ran my finger over the text, then held the book up to my face, closed my eyes, and inhaled the sweet-sour scent of old paper and binding glue. Did everyone who loved books do this when they encountered a new one?

  • Share