Ok.“Call me Ishmael.” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” If you know the origins of any or all of these quotes, you probably have the smarts to ace a book quotes quiz!
Books give us the pleasure of language. They have great stories, but we can get those from movies and podcasts. Books, however, take our imaginations to different worlds and allow us to live outside our experiences. If you’re an avid reader, take a peek at these book quotes trivia questions and answers to test your knowledge.
Want to focus your knowledge to even more specific areas? Check out our quizzes on Charles Dickens, Lord of the Rings, and even children’s literature for those young at heart!
Which John Steinbeck novel features this line, ‘Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em.’?
Viva Zapata
East of Eden
The Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice and Men
Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning’ are the directions to where?
Darkest Peru
Wonderland
Mount Doom
Neverland
Complete the famous line from a JRR Tolkein classic: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a ….’?
elf
hobbit
dwarf
orc
What is the first name of the character in The Sixth Sense who utters the quote ‘I see Dead People’?
Connor
Carl
Callum
Cole
According to Jane Austen, a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of what?
Wife
Horse
Mansion
Carriage
Complete the title of the Judy Blume book – ‘Are you there God? It’s me, …’
Margaret
Susan
Judy
Carol
Whose book The God Delusion contains the line ‘We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in.’
Bill Bryson
Richard Dawkins
Stephen Hawkins
Ian Rankin
How many parts were there to the Shakespeare play Henry VI?
4
2
1
3
Which John Grisham thriller has the line ‘Any lawyer worth his salt knew the first offer had to be rejected’?
The Testament
The Firm
The Pelican Brief
A Time to Kill
A good countenance is a letter of recommendation’ is a line from which book, which shares its name with a famous singer?
Tom Jones
Taylor Swift
Madonna
Shirley Bassey
Complete the line from Green Eggs and Ham: ‘I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, …’
not a bit
Sam I Am
Cat in the Hat
I prefer chocolate
Lashings of ginger beer’ is often wrongly given as a quote from which children’s adventure series?
Alex Rider
Tracey Beaker
Secret Seven
Famous Five
Fill the blank in the Wizard of Oz quote: ‘Some people without … do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think’
ideas
tongues
hearts
brains
How many parts were there to the Shakespeare play Henry IV?
3
2
4
1
Complete the 1984 slogan : ‘War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is …’
bliss
freedom
peace
strength
Which teenager writes ‘My skin is dead good. I think it must be a combination of being in love and Lucozade.’
Phileas Fogg
Ginny Weasley
Adrian Mole
Hermione Granger
Who said at the end of the Wizard of Oz ‘Aunt Em! I’m so glad to be at home again!’
Lion
Dorothy
Scarecrow
Tin Man
Four legs good, two legs bad’ is a quote from which George Orwell classic?
Animal Farm
Burmese Days
1984
Coming up for air
To sleep, perchance to dream’ is a line from which work by William Shakespeare?
Macbeth
Taming of the Shrew
All’s Well That Ends Well
Hamlet
Complete the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory quote: ‘Rainbow drops – suck them and you can … in six different colors’
sleep
laugh
spit
sing
Complete the famous quote from a Clint Eastwood character ‘Go ahead, make my…’?
Life
Evening
Night
Day
Mrs. Lando, when your husband enrolled Mathilda at Spencer, he told us she had ‘problems’. Name the film?
Seven
Leon
Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
Which two-faced character says, ‘You must suffer me to go my own dark way’ in a Stevenson novel?
Lord Voldemort
Frankenstein
Dr Jekyll
Dracula
When Alice in Wonderland comes to a fork in the road and asks ”Which road do I take?’, who answers?
Mad Hatter
Cheshire Cat
Nobody
White Rabbit
In the The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the bunnies are told ‘Don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden: your Father had an accident there.’ What happened?
He got lost
The children kept him as a pet
He was put in a pie
He was chased by the cat
Complete the Les Miserables quote: ‘He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with ….’
food
two
another
it
Fill in the blanks of a famous quote from a Cher movie ‘_____ out of it’?
Leave
Get
Go
Snap
Shakespeare’s quote ‘there never was a story of more woe’ is about which of his works?
Macbeth
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Othello
Which book contains, ‘Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one’?
1984
Cujo
The Hunger Games
Killing Floor
The great fish moved silently through the night water’ is the first line of what book?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
Jaws
Moby Dick
The lady doth protest too much, methinks’ is often quoted, but what Shakespeare work is it from?
Richard III
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Othello
Hamlet
Finish the following quote from The Great Gatsby: ‘that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little….’?
friend
sister
fool
companion
Who ‘ate someone’s liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone’?
Hannibal Lecter
Dracula
Vito Corleone
Lord Voldemort
In the Three Musketeers, Dumas says which is ‘the most selfish of all the passions’?
love
jealously
anger
bitterness
Da-da da-da da da. I am your singing telegram’ comes from which film?
Tricks
Moonstruck
Gladiator
Clue
Which Lord of the Rings character refers to a valuable item as ‘My Precious’?
Gollum
Frodo
Gimli
Bilbo
What race of being says ‘Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.’ to Frodo in Lord of the Rings?
Elf
Dwarf
Human
Orc
Complete the famous quote from Jaws ‘You’re gonna need a bigger…’?
Rod
Boat
Gun
Wire
Complete the last line of Cecelia Ahearn’s novel P.S. I Love You: ‘In the meantime, she would just …’?
dream
make a cup of tea
live
go to sleep
What is the first name of the character in Jerry Maguire who says the famous line ‘Show me the money’?
Tod
Brad
Clive
Rod
How old was Shakespeare when he married Anne Hathaway?
15
31
18
21
Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need’ is a line from which watery book?
Three Men in a Boat
Swallows and Amazons
Jaws
Titanic
Complete the famous quote from the Marathon Man ‘Is it…’?
Today
Here
Safe
Now
Who wrote that there was ‘no place like home’ in the Wizard of Oz?
C S Lewis
Charles Dickens
Frank L Baum
A A Milne
Who wrote the line in the Godfather ‘Great men are not born great, they grow great ‘?
Mario Puzo
J J Connolly
Iain Parke
Graham Greene
Which singer writes in his autobiography ‘There are lots of things I really like besides girls’.
Ronan Keating
George Michael
Harry Styles
Justin Bieber
Fill in the blanks of this famous movie quote ‘I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little ____ too’?
Friends
Lion
Dog
Cat
Complete the famous quote from ‘The Sixth Sense’: ‘I see ____ people’?
Real
Invisible
Dead
Many
According to Robert Louis Stevenson in Treasure Island, ‘dead men don’t…’
carry treasure
tell secrets
bite
sail ships
Two rights don’t equal a ..’ what, according to Roald Dahl’s BFG?
another right
chicken
left
wrong
Beatrix Potter writes ‘Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were–Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and …?’
Susan
Bobby
Jimmy
Peter
Who is described as ‘the girl who was on fire’ in The Hunger Games?
Katniss
Effie
Peeta
Primrose
As well as plays, Shakespeare wrote many sonnets. How many lines are there in a sonnet?
7
4
21
14
The quote ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is from a book written by which author?
John Dalberg
John Stuart Mill
Tony Blair
Karl Marx
Which author wrote, ‘Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.’?
Alice Sebold
George Orwell
Harper Lee
Stephanie Meyer
Finish the quote from Wuthering Heights ‘Honest people don’t hide their ….’
deeds
thoughts
family
money
What kind of beans are mentioned in the famous Hannibal Lector quote regarding a census takers liver?
Runner
Fava
Baked
Green
How far does big nut brown hare say she loves little nutbrown hare in ‘Guess How Much I Love You’?
Over the fields
To the stars
As far as I can reach
To the moon and back
The line ‘All morons hate it when you call them a moron’ is from Catcher in the Rye by which author?
Holden Caulfield
Jane Austen
Charlotte Bronte
JD Salinger
What ‘drowns out all but the brightest stars?’ according to Lord of the Rings?
sunshine
moonlight
fear
darkness
Fill in the blanks of this famous quote ‘Nobody puts ___ in the corner’?
Baby
Them
Us
Lady
Which spell are the Hogwarts’ students learning when they are told to ‘Swish and flick’?
Lumos
Accio
Wingardium leviosa
Avada Kedavra
Complete the famous movie quote: ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing…’?
Soon
Ever
Yet
As Good
The line from Treasure Island is ‘yo ho ho and a bottle of…’ what?
rum
beer
gin
whisky
One you are real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’ Who wrote this book?
J. K. Rowling
Margery Williams
Jodi Picoult
Roald Dahl
To be, or not to be: that is the question’ is the most famous line in which Shakespeare work?
Othello
Macbeth
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Complete the title of the play by William Shakespeare- As You ??? It
Wish
Like
Saw
Want
Which author wrote, ‘When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.’?
Stephen Chbosky
John Green
Annabell Pitcher
Yann Martel
Which book contains the line ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’?
Animal Farm
Love in the Time of Cholera
1984
Brave New World
Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash’ is a quote from which J G Ballard novel?
The Burning World
Hig Rise
Crash
Empire of the Sun
Who wrote ‘The universe doesn’t allow perfection’ in ‘A Brief History of Time’?
Charles Darwin
Stephen Hawking
Albert Einstein
Isaac Newton
Which scientist logically argues, ‘If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future?’
Isaac Newton
Stephen Hawking
Albert Einstein
Bill Gates
Which sport is referred to in the quote ‘Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion’?
Cricket
Polo
Tennis
Gold
In Animal Farm, George Orwell says which animal ‘is the only creature which consumes without producing’?
man
pigs
ducks
dogs
What book is this quote from: ‘what a slut time is. She screws everybody’?
The Fault In Our Stars
Game of thrones
Life of pi
The hunger games
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre says ‘I would always rather be happy than ….’?
married
lonely
dignified
selfish
Which author wrote in Anna Karenina, ‘if you look for perfection, you’ll never be content’?
Solzhenitsyn
Nabokov
Tolstoy
Brodsky
Which character in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is told: ‘you’re turning into a penguin. Stop it.’
Arthur
Marvin
Trillian
Ford
What is the first name of the character who utters the line ‘I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse’?
Dito
Nito
Tito
Vito
One plus two plus two plus one’ is a famous line from which movie?
Gladiator
Moonstruck
Tricks
Clue
Which author wrote, ‘Maybe okay will be our always.’?
John Grisham
John Green
Irvine Welsh
Andy McNab
Complete the quote from Girl With A Pearl Earring ‘I did not mind the … so much when he was there’.
house
company
cold
summer
According to the title of the book. ‘Highly Successful People’ have how many habits?
18
7
5
10
Complete the Samuel Becektt quote: ‘Let’s go.’ ‘We can’t.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘We’re waiting for….’
a bus
Susan
Christmas
Godot
Who wrote the oft quoted lines ”He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest.’
Enid Blyton
W H Auden
Agatha Christie
JB Priestley
Which Stephen King horror novel has the line ‘High school isn’t a very important place. When you’re going you think it’s a big deal, but when it’s over nobody really thinks it was great’?
Misery
It
The Shining
Carrie
Fill in the blank in the quote from the novel Cloud Atlas ‘What is a BLANK, but a multitude of drops’
waterfall
river
ocean
stream
Everyone loves a …’ what, according to the Da Vinci Code?
winner
conspiracy
holiday
good story
What book is this quote from: ‘I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free’?
Wuthering Heights
Animal Farm
Pride and Prejudice
To Kill A Mockingbird
Fill in the blanks in this famous movie quote ‘This is another fine _____ you’ve gotten me into’?
Mess
Fight
Blunder
Scrap
Snap out of it’ appears in Moonstruck. Who is the popstar actress who says this line?
Cher
Etta James
Beyonce
Madonna
According to Douglas Adams, what is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?
42
68
19
35
The quote ‘All children, except one, grow up’ refers to which character?
Winnie the Pooh
Peter Pan
Heidi
Harry Potter
Which teenager says ‘Pandora! My lost love! Now I will never stroke your treacle hair!’?
Winston Smith
Adrian Mole
Ron Weasley
Katniss Everdeen
Who tells Charlie ‘I’ve heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true’ in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?
Augustus Gloop
Veruca Salt
Grandpa Jo
Willie Wonka
Nothing captures human interest more than human ________ ‘ in ‘Angels and Demons’?
love
friendship
compassion
tragedy
Something is rotten in the state of ….’ where, according to William Shakespeare?
France
Scotland
Denmark
England
Complete the famous quote ‘Forget it ____, Its Chinatown’?
Jake
Jack
James
Jimmy
Complete the famous line from Casablanca’ ‘Here’s looking at you…’?
Lover
Darling
Doll
Kid
What season is said to be like ‘sun shining on the rain and rain falling on the sunshine’ in The Secret Garden?
winter
autumn
spring
summer
What career is mentioned in Oliver Twist with: ‘We won’t make …. of you, while there’s an honest trade to be learnt, or brick-making to turn to’
a teacher
a policeman
an author
a politician
You can do better
Not bad
Great!