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Quotes by Novelist
"In life there are no problems, that is, objective and external choices; there is only the life which we do not resolve as a problem but which we live as an experience, whatever the final result may be."
44
"It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled."
44
"I am tempted to think that to be despised by her sex is a very great compliment to a woman."
44
"An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through."
44
"People give us credit only for what we ourselves believe."
44
"The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot."
44
"The imagination is the spur of delights... all depends upon it, it is the mainspring of everything; now, is it not by means of the imagination one knows joy? Is it not of the imagination that the sharpest pleasures arise?"
44
"Everything that goes into my mouth seems to make me fat, everything that comes out of my mouth embarrasses me."
44
"The shame that tormented me was all the more corrosive for having no very clear origin: I didn't know why I felt so tainted, and worthless, and wrong-only that I did, and whenever I looked up from my books I was swamped by slimy waters rushing in from all sides."
44
"Part of their problem was Percy. He fought like a demon, whirling through the defender's ranks in a completely unorthodox style, rolling under their feet, slashing with his sword instead of stabbing like a Roman would, whacking campers with the flat of his blade, and generally causing mass panic."
44
"He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it."
44
"The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe."
44
"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges."
44
"The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly."
44
"The Unhappy may, possibly, by indulging Thought, hit on some lucky Stratagem for the Relief of his Misfortunes, and the Happy may be infinitely more so by contemplating on his Condition."
44
"When people tell me I've kept them up all night, I feel like I've succeeded."
44
"Because people don't believe it unless it happens to them."
44
"And so, at the age of thirty, I had successively disgraced myself with three fine institutions, each of which had made me free of its full and rich resources, had trained me with skill and patience, and had shown me nothing but forbearance and charity when I failed in trust."
44
"Self abandoned, relaxed and effortless, I seemed to have laid me down in the dried-up bed of a great river; I heard a flood loosened in remote mountains, I felt the torrent come; to rise I had no will, to flee I had no strength."
44
"To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible."
44
"Structure is one of the things that I always hope will reveal itself to me."
44
"Could an Olympian parent turn against his half-blood child? Would it sometimes be easier just to let them die? If there were ever any half-bloods who needed to worry about that, it was Thalia and me. I wondered if maybe I should've sent Poseidon that seashell pattern tie for Father's Day after all."
44
"For it cannot be denied that all over the world and in all ages there are beings who are perceived to be extraordinary, charming, and appealing, and whom many honor as benevolent spirits, because they make one think of a more beautiful, a freer, a more winged life than the one we lead."
44
"Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you."
44
"However, do you know what? I am convinced that fellows like me who live in dark cellars must be kept under restraint. They may be able to live in their dark cellars for forty years and never open their mouths, but the moment they get into the light of day and break out they may talk and talk and talk..."
44
"Any sufficiently badly-written science is indistinguishable from magic."
44
"Give me the comma of imperfect striving, thus to find zest in the immediate living. Ever the reaching but never the gaining, ever the climbing but never the attaining of the mountain top."
44
"An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers."
44
"I am going to kill you," he hissed.She gulped. "Don't you want to lecture me first?"He stared at her with a heavy dose of stupefaction."I take that back," he said with precisely clippedwords. "First I am going to strangle you, and then I am going to kill you.""Here?" she asked doubtfully, looking around. "Won't my dead body look suspicious in the morning?"
44
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