Lines in literature that are powerful and moving

If you love the classics, then you will love this list of powerful closing lines from some of the greatest literary pieces, curated by the Zonegem review team.

"I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran."

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

"For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration."

The Stranger, Albert Camus

"She opened the door wide and let him into her life again."

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Stieg Larsson

"Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, 'Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?'"

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

"I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be."

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

"My husband remained there some time after me to settle our affairs, and at first I had intended to go back to him, but at his desire I altered that resolution, and he is come over to England also, where we resolve to spend the remainder of our years in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived."

Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe

"And then, while the pretty brunette girl finished singing her verse, he buzzed me through like I was someone who mattered."

The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger

"We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long."

The Green Mile, Stephen King

"At that, as if it had been the signal he waited for, Newland Archer got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel."

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

"Her lips move and a moment before the door splinters off its hinges she says, her voice strong and quiet, 'My name is Alisa.'"

The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway

"I lost track after a while, happy to be home, weeping for my father, and thinking about what was next."

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

"The men began singing, a grave, slow song that drifted away into the night. Soon the road was empty. All that remained of the German regiment was a little cloud of dust."

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky

For more great classic reads, check out Zonegem.

Profound Words From Classic Literature That Will Change Your Day

Here are some positive words from classic literature that will help you change the outlook if you’re not having the best of days.

“’Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’” E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

“When a child first catches adults out—when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just—his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child’s world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.” – John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“We believe that we can change the things around us in accordance with our desires—we believe it because otherwise we can see no favourable outcome. We do not think of the outcome which generally comes to pass and is also favourable: we do not succeed in changing things in accordance with our desires, but gradually our desires change. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant to us. We have failed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us beyond it, and then if we turn round to gaze into the distance of the past, we can barely see it, so imperceptible has it become.” – Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

“Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.” Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“All grown-ups were once children…but only few of them remember it.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—’God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.'” – Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

“Isn’t it pretty to think so?” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

“All was forgiven. All living things were brothers, all dead things even more so.” – Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

“And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes. People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“In the mirrors of the many judgments, my hands are the color of blood. I sometimes fancy myself an evil which exists to oppose other evils; and on that great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on the day the world is utterly cleansed of evil, then I too will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Until then, I will not wash my hands nor let them hang useless.” ― Roger Zelazny, The Guns of Avalon

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The Best Short Books You’ll Ever Read

If you don’t have time for a lengthy classic such as War and Peace, then why not consider one or two of these great short books which are all under 150 pages?

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

This modern classic, about a Latina girl growing up in Chicago, has been translated and taught all over the world. At 110 pages, it packs a punch all out of proportion to its size. Not surprisingly, given the compression and power of her work, Cisneros is also a poet.

What’s to Become of the Boy? by Heinrich Boll

Boll (1917-1985) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1972, and this brief, wrenching account of growing up in Nazi Germany in a family that hated Hitler will leave you thinking of nothing else.

Natural Histories by Guadalupe Nettel

In a newly-released 128-page collection, Nettel offers five entrancing tales in which animals—even fish and insects—reflect hidden aspects of human nature. Like many of the best short books, this one is in translation. Not to worry: Nettel’s insights into marriage, family, and desire transcend borders and cultures.

The Possession by Annie Ernaux

In 62 laser-sharp pages, Ernaux zaps an obsessive, jealousy-fueled romance gone haywire. Is it truth or fiction? Probably a bit of both, and essential reading for anyone who’s ever messed up in love.

In the Orchard, the Swallows by Peter Hobbs

This novel about a Pakistani boy imprisoned for falling in love with the wrong girl is both exquisitely written and surprisingly inspiring. At 137 pages, it weighs in as one of the giants of the first part of the 2010s.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

For those who like their fiction hard-boiled, nobody did it better than Raymond Chandler, who died in 1959. The prolific master of the detective story turned to writing after he lost his job with an oil company during the Depression. The Big Sleep (134 pages) was his first novel to feature his famous P.I., Philip Marlowe.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin wrote only two novels before she died in 1904. The first is largely forgotten, but the second, The Awakening, is now considered a classic. At the time of its publication in 1899, it was widely condemned for portraying a woman who, trapped in a loveless marriage, has an affair. In the 1970s, the 120-ish page book (it depends on your edition) found—and held—its audience.

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Fascinating Literary Facts

Everyone knows the names, and their stories, but were you aware of these fascinating literary facts? More so than any other profession, it would seem as if writers were as fond of collecting eccentricities and quirks as they were pens and paper. And these facts help shed some light on the strange hobbies and anecdotes behind famous writers and books.

What The Dickens!

Whilst his work was known for its unflinching social realism, in his personal life, Dickens’ had some hobbies that were anything but. He was a known practitioner of mesmerism (Hypnotism in modern terms) as well as a keen aficionado of all things supernatural. He was also deeply superstitious, known to only sleep facing north as he believed it would improve his writing.

The Dog Ate My Masterpiece

With an excuse that would never fly with your school teachers, let alone a literary agent, John Steinbeck’s original manuscript for Of Mice and Men met an untimely and unfortunate end at the hands of his dog Fluff. As Steinbeck told his agent Elizabeth Otis “My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my manuscript”.

An Unsettling Twist

In a reveal that wouldn’t have been out of place for one of his own characters, science fiction master Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451 and other classics. Was actually descended from one of the original Salem witches, Mary Perkins Bradbury was sentenced to death in 1692 but fortunately managed to stage a daring escape.

If you want to read more of the great works produced by these fascinating figures, then head over to www.zonegem.com to browse their comprehensive selection of classic eBooks and audiobooks.