Quotes from book
The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees is a book by author Sue Monk Kidd. Set in 1964, it is a coming-of-age story about loss and betrayal. It received critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller. It won the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards , and was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

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“Did you know there are thirty-two names for love in one of the Eskimo languages?" August said. "And we just have this one. We are so limited, you have to use the same word.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“My mother's life was way too heavy for me.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“The whole problem with people is they don't know what matters and what doesn't.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“the redness had seeped from the day and night was arranging herself around us. Cooling things down, staining and dyeing the evening purple and blue black.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“I can't think of anything I'd rather have more than somebody lovin' me.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“It takes a bee 10,000,000 trips to collect enough nectar to make 1 pound of honey.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“It's your time to live, don't mess it up.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“Sometimes I didn't even feel like getting out of bed. I took to wearing my days-of-the-week panties out of order. It could be Monday and I'd have on underwear saying Thursday. I just didn't care.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“You think you want to know something, and then once you do, all you can think about is erasing it from your mind.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with the colony, but also require it's social companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and she will soon die.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it?”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“When it's time to die, go ahead and die, and when it's time to live, live. Don't sort-of-maybe live, but live like you're going all out, like you're not afraid.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“Everybody needs a seashell in her bathroom to remind her the ocean is her home.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“There's nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees