November Quotes | 2024

I’ve been keeping daily quotes in my notebooks since September 1st of this year and then sharing them here once the month is over. Inspired by the community at Noted who experimented with this in September, I meant to stop at the end of the month but had so much fun that I kept going! This practice will fade out at some point, I know, but I’m still finding it easy to find enough quotes to get me through a whole month.

One of the benefits of revisiting these quotes is seeing how inspired I was by what I was reading at the time. Sometimes it’s easy to forget those wonderful lines tucked away in the books we’re reading and this has helped bring them back to the surface and re-energize nuggets of inspiration.

For the last few months, I’ve been writing down quotes in my Hobonichi Techo A6. It’s a daily notebook where I jot down the structure of the day, to-dos, workouts, thoughts bubbling about books, reminders, etc. Here’s the fateful November 5-6 spread:

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As you can see, I had to give myself a long to-do list the day after the election to keep from sinking into a pit of despair!

I’ve liked putting my quotes in this notebook instead of my journal because it’s easier to stumble upon them in the course of my day. I’m much more likely to flip through this notebook for a tidbit of information than my journal pages! Also that pen? It’s a retractable fountain pen and an early Christmas present to myself. And I love it.

But I won’t keep rambling. Here are the quotes from the month:

11/1: “I want a readership that wants to read things because the work is difficult, not because it’s only fun. I want the fun to be figuring it out. That’s what reading is all about.” Percival Everett

11/2: “It was November — the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind songs in the pines.” LM Montgomery

11/3: “‘But what’s going to happen?’ Meg’s voice trembled. ‘Oh, please Mrs. Which, tell us what’s going to happen?’
‘Wee wwill cconnttinnue tto ffightt!’ Something in Mrs. Which’s voice made all three of the children stand straighter, throwing back their determination, looking at the glimmer that was Mrs. Which with pride and confidence.” A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle

11/4: “‘What day is it today?’ asked Pooh.
‘It’s the day we burn the motherfucking patriarchy to the ground.’ squeaked Pooh.”

11/5: “‘but remember,’ Mrs. Who said, ‘…Euripedes: Nothing is hopeless, we must hope for everything.'” A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle

11/6: “I long for a large room to myself, with books and nothing else, where I can shut myself up, and see no one, and read myself into peace.” Virginia Woolf, letter to Violet Dickinson, 10/30/1904

11/7: “I am so tired of waiting.
Aren’t you,
for the world to become good
and beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
and cut the world in two,
and see what worms are eating
at the rind.”
Langston Hughes

11/8: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” James Baldwin

11/9:”I wish human beings couldn’t have feelings. I am having feelings. They hurt.” A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L’Engle

11/10: “There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” Amanda Gorman

11/11: “Life was, after all, made up of tiny choices. Like a pointillist painting, no one dot, no one choice, defined it. But together? There emerged a picture. A life.” p2, The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny

11/12: “Despite himself, Armand laughed, and tried to think what the inside of Reine-Marie’s head would smell like. Roses, probably. The garden on a warm summer morning. And perhaps just a hint of dusty documents.” p 114, The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny

11/13: “That is to say, words are powerful, but more so when organized to tell stories.” p14, The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates

11/14: “And stories, because of their power, demanded rigorous reading, interpretation, and investigation.” p14, The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates

11/15: “The goal is to haunt — to have them think about your words before bed, see them manifest in their dreams, tell their partner about them the next morning, to have them grab random people on the street, shake them and say, ‘have you read this yet?'” p5, The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates

11/16: “We know that the house is haunted, that there is blood in the bricks and ghosts in the attic.” p59, The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates

11/17: “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.” Ralph Emerson

11/18: “What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out to indifferent middle age.” Sylvia Plath

11/19: “‘As I say, the important thing isn’t money,’ said his father. ‘It is when a man cooks and later makes heated and trustworthy love to her.'” The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich

11/20: “It is hard to keep a sense of proportion, a sense of humor, and yet I know that laughter is most necessary when things are difficult.” Madeleine L’Engle, Two Part Invention: The Story of Marriage

11/21: “If you ask me, what matters is how we treat others in this life. That’s the true memorial, and that’s what will count when Anubis weighs our souls.” Ra the Mighty: The Great Tomb Robbery, AB Greenfield

11/22: “We are at our best when we are disruptors.” Barbara Kingsolver, NBA Speech, 2024

11/23: “That which is weak in us gives us strength. This constant effort to compensate for weakness governs our entire lives.” The Empusium, Olga Tokarczuk

11/24: “All these unrecorded lives… And people just live them.” Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout

11/25: “How do you know what those people think about in the dark when they wake up in the middle of the night?” Tell me Everything, Elizabeth Strout

11/26: “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.” Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout

11/27: “…the full November twilight had fallen around Green Gables and the only light in the kitchen came from the dancing red flames in the stove.” LM Montgomery

11/28: “People are mysteries. We are all such a mystery.” Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout

11/29: “If you don’t think everyone is broken in some way, you’re wrong.” Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout

11/30: “People suffer. They live. They have hope. They even have love. And they still suffer.” Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout

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What’s your favorite from the month? Mine was on the 19th and from Louise Erdrich’s latest novel:

“‘As I say, the important thing isn’t money,’ said his father. ‘It is when a man cooks and later makes heated and trustworthy love to her.'”

I will leave you with that! Take good care.