Give me a book, ” she said. “A book of sermons, anything.”“ What do you want a book for?”“ I want words. I’ve got to have more words. I was kept stupid on purpose.

Hilary Mantel
Give me a book, ” she said. “A book of...
Give me a book, ” she said. “A book of...
Give me a book, ” she said. “A book of...
Give me a book, ” she said. “A book of...
About This Quote

The quote is narrated by a woman who was kidnapped at the age of five and kept imprisoned for twelve years before she was rescued. Her captors did not want her to learn, so they made sure she would never read. No one had ever talked to her, so she had nothing to say. She was driven mad by the lack of communication and language.

After years of having no one speak to her, she discovered that books were full of words that people could use to communicate with each other. She wanted to learn more words, but she did not know how to ask for them since no one had ever spoken to her before. Now, in order for her to communicate, she needs things like reading material and dictionaries.

Source: Vacant Possession

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. - David Mitchell

  2. The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  3. It starts so young, and I'm angry about that. The garbage we're taught. About love, about what's "romantic." Look at so many of the so-called romantic figures in books and movies. Do we ever stop and think how many of them would cause serious and... - Deb Caletti

  4. I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."" Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes,... - Jane Austen

  5. Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you. - E. Lockhart

More Quotes By Hilary Mantel
  1. I think now that this is the great division between people. There are people who find life hard and those who find it easy. There are those who have a natural, in-built, expectation of happiness, and there are those who feel that happiness is not...

  2. If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go...

  3. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.

  4. Evidence is always partial. Facts are not truth, though they are part of it — information is not knowledge. And history is not the past — it is the method we have evolved of organising our ignorance of the past. It’s the record of what’s...

  5. When men decided women could be educated - this is what I think - they educated them on the male plan; they put them into schools with mottoes and school songs and muddy team games, they made them were collars and ties. It was a...

Related Topics