Top 80 E.L. Konigsburg Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “I waited for her to catch up, and when I did, she slowed down, and I missed seeing the light in her hair. I never told Nadia how much I liked seeing the halo the sunlight made of her hair. Sometimes silence is a habit that hurts.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

52. “Nathan, how can you stand playing the same piece over and over again?” And Grandpa Nate answered, “Why don’t you ask me how I can stand making love to the same woman over and over again?”

— E.L. Konigsburg

53. “I’m not sure that love and like aren’t like cats and dogs: One can’t grow up to be the other, but they can be taught to live under the same roof.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

54. “Good explanations are like bathing suits, darling; they are meant to reveal everything by covering only what is necessary.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

55. “It is sometimes necessary to use unnecessary words like thank you and please just to make life prettier.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

56. “Sixth graders had stopped asking “Now what?” and had started asking “So what?” She had not been sorry to retire when she did.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

57. “Every job in the world has some built-in boredom. No man can stay excited about something every minute he is doing it. Routine is as necessary to life as water is to beer; it is the base that holds the flavors and spices together.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

58. “She was bored with simply being straight-A’s Claudia Kincaid. She was tired of arguing about whose turn it was to choose the Sunday night seven-thirty television show, of injustice, and of the monotony of everything.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

59. “Always use good grammar. It’s like wearing designer clothing. People may not like your style, but they will pay attention to the cut of your cloth.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

60. “He stopped thinking “why pick on me?” and started thinking “I am chosen.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

61. “Having words and explanations for things is too modern.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

62. “Becoming a team didn’t mean the end of their arguments. But it did mean that the arguments became a part of the adventure, became discussions not threats. To an outsider the arguments would appear to be the same because feeling like part of a team is something that happens invisibly. You might call it caring. You could even call it love.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

63. “It takes more courage to disturb the neighborhood than it takes to disturb the universe. And the price is often higher.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

64. “During her lifetime Eleanor of Aquitaine had not been a patient woman. While she had lived, she had learned to bide her time, but biding one’s time is a very different thing from patience.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

65. “The girl clones at Singer Grove were just like the ones in Texas; they knocked themselves out to be like everyone else and then bragged about how they were different. All their differences put into a pot and boiled down wouldn’t spice baby food. By trying to brag about how different they were, they just really showed how alike they were, because all their differences were alike.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

66. “Let me first talk about our brains as a personal radio telescope. Let me talk first about its wonderful built-in wiring for tuning out the static of our civilization in order to better tune in its symphony.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

67. “I have such faith in words that when I read about such families as a child, I thought that they were the norm and that the way I lived was subnormal, waiting for normal.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

68. “The way I see it, the difference between farmers and suburbanites is the difference in the way we feel about dirt. To them, the earth is something to be respected and preserved, but dirt gets no respect. A farmer likes dirt. Suburbanites like to get rid of it. Dirt is the working layer of earth, and dealing with dirt is as much a part of farm life as dealing with manure. Neither is user-friendly but both are necessary.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

69. “If you really want to be a witch, nothing you have to do will seem like too much. If you don’t really want to be a witch, everything will seem like too much.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

70. “Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that’s why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

71. “Next to any kind of elegance, Claudia loved good clean smells.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

72. “Tell how it is normal to be very comfortable on the outside but very uncomfortable on the inside. Tell how funny it all is. But tell a little something else, too. What can it hurt? Tell a little something else – about how you can be a nonconformist and about how you can be an outsider. And tell how you are entitled to a little privacy. But for goodness’ sake, say all that very softly.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

73. “Ninety percent of who you are is invisible.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

74. “Jamie, you know, you could go clear around the world and still come home wondering if the tuna fish sandwiches at Chock Full O’Nuts still cost thirty-five cents.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

75. “Even after more than five hundred years in Heaven, Eleanor of Aquitaine still missed quarreling and dressing up. Eleanor missed strong, sweet smells. Eleanor missed feeling hot and being cold. Eleanor missed Henry. She missed life.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

76. “A happy person strikes a balance between doing good and doing well.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

77. “Claudia began her studies never doubting that she could become an authority that morning. She had neither pencil nor paper to make notes. And she knew she wouldn’t have a lot of time to read. So she decided that she would simply remember everything, absolutely everything she read. Her net profit, therefore, would be as great as that of someone who read a great deal but remembered very little.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

78. “In some way, every creative action disturbs the universe.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

79. “Uncle had learned long ago that obeying a rule in fact but not in spirit was very hard on people who say we for I and who do not allow dogs on their premises.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

80. “You must thing of those six steps not as preparation for the beginning but as the beginning itself” p10.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

81. “I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

82. “Finding a secret can make everything else unimportant, you know.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

83. “Nouilles et fromage en casserole,” Parks answered. Claudia showed interest. “I’ll have some, please. Sounds like something special.” Parks served. Claudia looked down at her plate, looked up at me and moaned, “Why, it’s nothing but macaroni and cheese.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

84. “I never really look past my eyes. That way I always feel pretty. Windows of the soul, you know.”

— E.L. Konigsburg

85. “The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you. It’s the same as going on a vacation. Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”

— E.L. Konigsburg