Top 40 Janet Skeslien Charles Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The Outsiders. “It’s about family, the one you’re born with, and the one you create with kindred souls. It’s about how we make a place for ourselves in this world.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

2. “Love is accepting someone, all parts of them, even the ones you don’t like or understand.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

3. “GRIEF IS A sea made of your own tears. Salty swells cover the dark depths you must swim at your own pace. It takes time to build stamina. Some days, my arms sliced through the water, and I felt things would be okay, the shore wasn’t so far off.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

4. “You’re nothing without principles. Nowhere without ideals. No one without courage.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

5. “GRIEF IS A sea made of your own tears. Salty swells cover the dark depths you must swim at your own pace. It takes time to build stamina. Some days, my arms sliced through the water, and I felt things would be okay, the shore wasn’t so far off. Then one memory, one moment would nearly drown me, and I’d be back to the beginning, fighting to stay above the waves, exhausted, sinking in my own sorrow.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

6. “People are awkward, they don’t always know what to do or say. Don’t hold it against them. You never know what’s in their hearts.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

7. “All good things come to an end, bad things, too.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

8. “Give a man a centimeter and he’ll think he’s a ruler.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

9. “Sometimes, when people have gone through tough times, or been betrayed, the only way for them to survive is to cut off the person who hurt them.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

10. “But seriously, why books. Because no other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people’s eyes. The Library is a bridge of books between cultures.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

11. “Kissing was the prologue of a marvelous book, one I wanted to read until the end.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

12. “A friend said she believes that in reading stories set in World War II, people like to ask themselves what they would have done. I think a better question to ask is what can we do now to ensure that libraries and learning are accessible to all and that we treat people with dignity and compassion.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

13. “Without toi, there’s no moi.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

14. “Be grateful for what people tell you, when they’re ready to talk. Try to accept their limits, and understand that their limits usually have nothing to do with you.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

15. “Then, with a handful of pages left, I started to dread the fact that this world that I loved was coming to an end. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I read slowly, just savoring the scenes.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

16. “The Library is my haven. I can always find a corner of the stacks to call my own, to read and dream. I want to make sure everyone has that chance, most especially the people who feel different and need a place to call home.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

17. “Love is like the sea. It’s a moving thing, but still and all, it takes shape from the shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

18. “It takes just a few ingredients to make a healthy meal, yet industrial food companies have Americans convinced there’s no time to cook. You eat bland soup from a can, even though leeks browned with butter taste like heaven.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

19. “Sometimes I like books more than people.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

20. “Some people are exactly what they present to the world.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

21. “What if you don’t receive anything in return?” “I’m not sure one should expect something when giving.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

22. “Books and ideas are like blood; they need to circulate, and they keep us alive.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

23. “First because I was happy to have read it. Second because the story was so moving. Third because I’ll never again experience the discovery of it.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

24. “Some days, my arms sliced through the water, and I felt things would be okay, the shore wasn’t so far off. Then one memory, one moment would nearly drown me, and I’d be back to the beginning, fighting to stay above the waves, exhausted, sinking in my own sorrow.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

25. “Love isn’t rationed. Ellie can care about all of you.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

26. “Was it hard to take the first step?” I asked. “It would have been harder to lose a friend.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

27. “Each person is responsible for their actions.” “Generally, I’d agree,” she said, “but not in this case. The stakes were too high. I put Margaret in danger. I never breathed a word of this to anyone, not even Buck.” She looked me straight in the eye. “But I’m telling you because I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Control your jealousy, or it will control you.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

28. “As a reader, she was an omnivore, devouring science, math, history, plays, and poetry. Her bookshelves ran over, so her vanity table was a mixture of pink blush and Dorothy Parker, mascara and Montaigne. Her armoire held Horace and high heels, stockings and Steinbeck. Her love of books and her love for me imbued my being like the amber scent of Shalimar she dabbed behind our ears.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

29. “Like book covers, some leather, some cloth, each Parisian door led to an unexpected world.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

30. “I was skeptical about soulmates, but could believe in bookmates, two beings bound by a passion for reading.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

31. “You made it through a war; I can’t even make it through Junior High.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

32. “The third computer technician I’d hired walked in wearing Ukrainian cool circa 1996 – carefully ironed jeans that came up past his navel and a brown leather jacket – and introduced himself with the easy smile of a man who still lived with his mother.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

33. “Your father’s old, he won’t change. And dogs don’t have kittens, so you’re as stubborn as he. The only thing you can change is the way you see him.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

34. “I remembered was: “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

35. “Books the fresh air breathed in to keep the heart beating, to keep the brain imagining, to keep hope alive.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

36. “Jane Austen’s. Though the authoress wrote in the nineteenth century, the situation for many of today’s women remained the same: futures determined by whom they married.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

37. “It’s important to remember how hard it is to ask for help,” she reminded me. “Never be impatient; all questions have value.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

38. “I want you to know. There are things that happened during the war that no one talks about, not even today. Things so shameful we buried them in a secret cemetery, then forever abandoned the graves.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

39. “And I need you. Without toi, there’s no moi.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

40. “Libraries are lungs,’ she scrawled, her pen barely able to keep up with her ideas, ’books the fresh air breathed in to keep the heart beating, to keep the brain imagining, to keep hope alive.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

41. “Of course, he knew something was wrong, he was a librarian – part psychologist, bartender, bouncer, and detective.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles

42. “We can’t see what’s coming. All we can do is hold the line.”

— Janet Skeslien Charles