Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Yes. Do you know people who are really nice, but when they get together with somebody in particular, they become obnoxious jerks?
At the top of the iron staircase leading to the stage, the good, dry, dusty warmth wraps me round like a comfortable dirty cloak.
Thus Carol hit upon the tragedy of old age, which is not that it is less vigorous than youth, but that it is not needed by youth.
Hysteria is something that I've been interested for a very long time. I thought I might have it, but it seems that it's unlikely.
It's not as if I've been unlucky. My books have been published and reviewed. I haven't lived through terrible literary suffering!
The free, independent spirit who commits himself to no dogma and will not decide in favor of any party has no homestead on earth.
I love my mom. And this time, I told her I loved her. And she told me she loved me, too. And things were okay for a little while.
In essence I'm really a very traditional writer. I subscribe to the notion that, ultimately, characters do drive everything else.
What a nasty act of cruelty, giving a dying man his last wish. Don't you realize he doesn't want it? His real wish is not to die.
But then I had long mistaken being spoiled for being strong, being defiant for being independent, being reckless for being brave.
But why?" "You heard the pay, right? And also, to be near you." Thumbing a tear from my cheek, he added, "Mostly, to be near you.
She shuddered. “What is it with slobbery kissers? Are they trying to drown us in spit? I mean, Jesus, swallow every now and then.
Everyone else we knew growing up is the same: image of their parents, no matter how loud they told themselves they'd be different
Dreiser wanted to write the next great American novel, and his desperation pervades [ Sister Carrie ] like an unsavory pit stain.
Let me enjoy the earth no less because the all-enacting light that fashioned forth its loveliness had other aims than my delight.
Time, the foe of man's dominion, Wheels around in ceaseless flight, Scattering from his hoary pinion Shades of everlasting night.
There are two reasons for drinking: one is, when you are thirsty, to cure it; the other, when you are not thirsty, to prevent it.
I have actual dreams of Bruce Springsteen calling me up on stage to wear a bandanna and play rhythm guitar next to Little Steven.
The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things.
I didn't move. I've learned from years of experience that dogs and falcons and ladies come back to you if you stay where you are.
Well, technology is supposed to make life better," she says. "No matter what you believe, there's a technology out there for you.
I glance at Tris. She grins at me, then leans in to whisper something to Christina. "Are you here to help or what, Stiff?" I say.
I wonder how I seem to them. They must see someone I don't see. Someone capable and strong. Someone I can't be; someone I can be.
I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write.
The crack of the bat, the sound of baseballs thumping into gloves, the infield chatter are like birdsong to the baseball starved.
A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one’s accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes.
It's the old case against symbols: if you get them, they seem obvious and artificial, and if you don't, you miss the whole point.
I have teken refuge in the doctrine that advises one not to seek tranquility in certainty but in permanently suspended judgement.
Despotism increases in severity with the number of despots; the responsibility is more divided, and the claims are more numerous.
I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the novel is a local thing.
Where would we be without inhibitions? Theyre quite useful things when you look at some of the things humans do if they lose them.
You're my all-in Della. I'll throw it all away for you. I just want you. I'm all in, baby. This life with you, I'm planning on us.
Um,i'm going shopping for a dress for the Homecoming Dance with Miranda,Wyatt and Leif." Dank chuckled."So,Leif's wearing a dress?
I won't leave you but you need to go on up and say your goodbyes. I'll stand right here behind you," Beau whispered from beside me
The good things that happen to us were meant to happen, and the bad things that happen are lessons meant to teach us to be better.
I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?
The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul...
I have always had that inner drive, since my birth. And I have always devoted myself gladly to work - to work and to the struggle.
Half of our sorrows come from setting exalted standards for people and then breaking our hearts when they fail to live up to them.
Mrs. Wiggs was a philosopher, and the sum and substance of her philosophy lay in keeping the dust off her rose-colored spectacles.
When you start writing the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words for themselves.
My father has a great love of science, and he indoctrinated me into it early. I think I was 12 or so when we designed a moon base.
Hollywood... was the place where the United States perpetrated itself as a universal dream and put the dream into mass production.
Women's sexy underwear is a minor but significant growth industry of late-twentieth-century Britain in the twilight of capitalism.
Grace means you're in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own.
Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?
...after a few days at the desk, telling the truth in an interesting way turns out to be as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat.
The beauty of modesty ... a virtue the world doesn't have much truck with: one ordinary flower in a vase, as opposed to a bouquet.
My favorite part of writing a book is thinking up the ideas, and that can start a long time before I actually sit down at my desk.
Authors have odd relationships with their creations They owe their fame and fortune to their characters but feel enslaved by them.