Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories.
We're so used to using military terminology in civilian speech that we forget those terms might mean something very specific.
Muddled syntax is the outward and audible sign of confused minds, and the misuse of grammar the result of illogical thinking.
God is forgiving or we would not still be walking this world. But to be moral is not to need his divine forgiveness, I think.
Sorry, is my new Djinn name Mushroom ? Because I don’t like being kept in the dark and fed bullshit, David. Just so you know.
There were so many layers of reality to the world. Nothing stopped for death; nothing stopped for grief or horror or tragedy.
In short, I'm pretty suspicious of the idea that there's a real and true and authentic world, and then a bunch of false ones.
I think my background in film taught me that a great book adaptation is not always slavishly faithful to the source material.
If you write a hundred short stories and they're all bad, that doesn't mean you've failed. You fail only if you stop writing.
Venice was and is full of lost places where people put up for sale the last worn bits of their souls, hoping no one will buy.
A labyrinth is a symbolic journey . . . but it is a map we can really walk on, blurring the difference between map and world.
We have only the language for fun and miserable, and maybe we need language for deep and shallow, meaningful and meaningless.
In the 5,000-year history of Jewish thought, the notion of a God-man is completely anathema to everything Judaism stands for.
For those you work with or interact with regularly .. get a notebook and write down positive aspects of each of those people.
Meditation on the majestic energyof the universe should increase our love for humanity, should widen, not narrow, our hearts.
It is injurious to the mind as well as to the body to be always in one place and always surrounded by the same circumstances.
Life is unjust, people can be cruel, and yet if you harden your heart, you will lose what little love there is in this world.
I'm not afraid of a world with less consumerism, less 'stuff' and no economic growth. I'm far more frightened of the opposite
If you make yourself indispensable to your employer, he is not going to part with you in a hurry no matter what it costs him.
The Kirov is a great ballet company because it has so many terrific dancers, but it doesn't always know what to do with them.
Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.
Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.
If you can get someone to laugh with you, they will be more willing to identify with you, listen to you. It parts the waters.
The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.
My parents were avid readers. Both had ambitions to write that had been abandoned early in life in order to get on with life.
The last sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost - to lie to oneself. Lying to other people - that's a small thing in comparison.
I am interested in intense, unbreakable emotional connections and oftentimes, such connections can be found between siblings.
People of color are not under any kind of obligation beyond working hard, doing their best, and learning from their mistakes.
Going to Vanderbilt did a lot of things for me, and one of the things it cured me of was the need to follow college football.
When a crew and a captain understand each other to the core, it takes a gale, and more than a gale, to put their ship ashore.
When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?.
Andrius, I'm...scared." He stopped and turned to me. "No. Don't be scared. Don't give them anything Lina, not even your fear.
We are living at a time when creeds and ideologies vary and clash. But the gospel of human sympathy is universal and eternal.
While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.
As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.
Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.
To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar
Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the future.
In bed we laugh, in bed we cry, and born in bed, in bed we die; the near approach a bed may show of human bliss to human woe.
Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.
In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness - inspissated gloom.
There's a lot that is awful. That's the struggle of getting old. To make sure you don't let what's hard...obscure the beauty.
I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.
My agent is so totally honest, which is just what every writer needs. She won't let me sell a crappy book, even if I want to.
I like the man, who faces what he must, with steps triumphant and a heart of cheer; who fights the daily battle without fear.
True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within.
I just realized that I never look at a painting and ask, 'Is this painting fictional or non-fictional?' It’s just a painting.
I have no problem with commenters stating strong opinions, except for my usual annoyance with people who don't agree with me.
For me, a memoir is supposed to be understood as a representation of your life, whereas a novel is self-consciously symbolic.
Do me a favor." "Don't lick your seat belt?" Ash's expression was total confusion. "Huh? where did that randomness come from?