I recently noticed Goodreads and Amazon contain features that allow readers to highlight quotes from my novels. Seeing these snippets out of context is interesting, because in some cases they cease to be the thoughts of my characters and become statements of belief or insights into life.

For example, in the case of my most popular novel to date, Children of the Folded Valley, here are some out context thoughts:

On school:

“It was the culture of school I took a great disliking to; the idea that academic study is the be-all and end-all, and that to fail is to fail at life.”

On adolescence:

“When you feel the whole world wants you to act like an adult, but it continues to treat you like a child, you no longer trust the adult world.”

On selfishness:

“People often use childhood or adolescent trauma as an excuse for selfish decisions they take, and I for one refuse to offer such a simplistic explanation.”

On nostalgia:

“I do not long for the past, yet nor do I think of it as exclusively bad. I don’t ever want to go back, but I want things that are trapped there, lost forever.”

If any authors reading this have had a similar experience, by all means drop a few of your own out of context one-liners in the comments.