Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Being a divorcee in a small town is a little like playing Monopoly; eventually you land on all the properties.
I always say that in any roomful of people, I could hive a novel out of any one person's family or life story.
I prefer old books and find them more relevant. I dislike new books. It's like drinking wine that's not ready.
The history needs to serve the story, not the story the history. But at the same time you can't stray too far.
There are yawning gulfs into which large chunks of me have fallen. I do not always know where I am at present.
You know a relationship has deteriorated past the point of salvage when one person detests another's gestures.
Take them off!” I told him, grabbing the front of his jeans. “Take everything off!” “I’m trying!” “Try harder!
I'm afraid that the gift of visiting the past is all that we have. We can revisit it, but only as it happened.
It remains unbelievable to me that I have any readers beyond my own blood relations - it's a crazy, wild gift.
As long as I am on this little planet I expect to love a lot of people and I hope they will love me in return.
Though 'Fat City' was written long before cellphones or the Internet, its human apparatus is state of the art.
No one tells us, girls who don't go on dates, that remembering can be almost as good as what actually happens.
Got to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven. You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked.
Everytime you read, you are walking among the dead, and, if you are listening, you just might hear prophecies.
The alchemy of a fight card is a mysterious thing. Even the most meticulous matchmaking can sometimes misfire.
Nothing good came free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.
People in the countryside carry a sense of dignity. They wear it, don't they? Like a badge? I'm being genuine.
Someone needs to give the Pope thirteen babies. Just for a week or so. See how he likes no birth control then.
Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation.
The heaviest impact of the work of art is in the guts. Art does not reason. It manhandles you and changes you.
A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I've just gotten in the habit of forgiving.
He was the first, the only love her life, and in a nature like hers such passions take deep root and die-hard.
I went [to war] because I couldn't help it. I didn't want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done.
politics were as bad as mathematics, and that the mission of politicians seemed to be calling each other names
I wanted to write about this tropical honeymoon in part because I had the most drastically terrible honeymoon.
To me, there is nothing more soothing than the song of a mosquito that can't get through the mesh to bite you.
If you woke up each morning, and immediately dwelt on your ills, what sort of a day could you look forward to?
I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turn into confident ducks.
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
People can have many different kinds of pleasure. The real one is that for which they will forsake the others.
What foolsmiddle-classgirls are to expect other people to respect the same gods as themselves and E M Forster.
I have sinned enough against the world. Teaching magic to a kender would ensure my damnation. —Raistlin Majere
Slasher Hathaway marks his territory by spending money. He might as well have pissed on her. It means nothing.
Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.
Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.
I'm not afraid," Rafi said. "Why not?" "If I die tomorrow it will have been useless to have been afraid today.
Justice came from a fight amid complexities, and required all the virtues in the world merely to be perceived.
One of the things I worked very hard on all my life was to be like everyone else. I tried very hard to fit in.
Twenty years ago, I was living in a lovely cottage on the edge of Dartmoor but I couldn't afford to run a car.
There's a remarkable power about reading together, reading collectively, that's brought out by reading groups.
I sometimes get asked if I think about film stuff while I'm writing fiction, and the answer is, of course not.
It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.
Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.
I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognised by the world.
Many writers lay very great stress upon some definite moral purpose, at which they profess to aim their works.
Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are in which the ending is a surprise.
Relationship is about forgiveness and compromise. It is about balance where one person complements each other.
She leaned into me, and when I closed my eyes, I knew I wanted nothing more than to hold her this way forever.
Always stick to the story. It was when you started backtracking that people got in trouble. Interrogation 101.
I hope to be remembered as an author who defined and exemplified excellence in crafting the modern love story.