top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by Novelist
"At times, he admitted, he had been very happy in the apple business. He knew what Larch would have told him: that his happiness was not the point, or that it wasn't as important as his usefulness."
38
"A day without an argument is like an egg without salt."
38
"Those who can least bear a jest upon themselves, will be most diverted with one passed on others."
38
"It was cruel. Like opening a birdcage to let the bird fly out, whilst all the while it's tethered by the leg, and freedom is only an illusion."
38
"To discover the mode of life or of art whereby my spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom."
38
"Already, I seemed to feel my intellect deteriorating, my heart petrifying, my soul contracting; and Itrembled lest my very moral perceptions should become deadened, my distinctions of right and wrong confounded, and all my better faculties be sunk, at last, beneath the baneful influence of such a mode of life. The gross vapors of earth were gathering around me, and closing in upon my inward heaven; and thus it was that Mr. Weston rose at length upon me, appearing like the morning star in my horizon, to save me from the fear of utter darkness; and I rejoiced that I now had a subject for contemplation that was above me, not beneath."
38
"I think you're a fairy tale. I think you're magical, and brave, and exquisite. And I hope you'll let me be in your story."
38
"The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever."
38
"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working."
38
"What do you think I live on, rainwater and daydreams?"
38
"Thought you could kill my Snow-on-the-Mountain, did you? Well, Jessie says that the top's growing back out. Next time you'll know how to do it right, won't you? You'll pull it up by the roots, won't you?"
38
"And maybe it was fair; if a book was any good, it was a slap in the face to someone."
38
"The unexpected moment [is] always sweeter."
38
"One summer at the fag end of the nineties, I had to go out of London to talk to a literary society, of the sort that must have been old-fashioned when the previous century closed. When the day came, I wondered why I'd agreed to it; but yes is easier than no, and of course when you make a promise you think the time will never arrive: that there will be a nuclear holocaust, or something else diverting."
38
"I finally had what I'd wantes all those years. Except now that I had it, i felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into."
38
"I thought the morning would bring change. But I should have known that it doesn't take that long for change to happen - it takes a second. A moment. In a single breath, reality as you know it can simply fall away."
38
"Don't be so hard on yourself, You're doing the same thing, trying to reconcile all the moms that Mom ever was - The one you wanted, the one she was when you needed her and she was there, the one she was when she didn't understand. Most of us don't live our lives with one, integrated self that meets the world, we're a whole bunch of selves. When someone dies, they all integrate into the soul - the essence of who we are, beyond the different faces we wear throughout our lives. You're just hating the selves you've always hated, and loving the ones you've always loved. It's bound to mess you up."
38
"Success is a relative thing-and the victory of a boy at marbles is equal to the victory of an Octavius at Actium when measured by the scale of cosmic infinity."
38
"She whirled when the monster was almost on top of her. I thought the thing in her hands was an umbrella until she cranked the pump and the shotgun blast blew the giant twenty feet backwards, right into Nico's sword. "Nice one," Paul said. "When did you learn to fire a shotgun?" I demanded. My mom blew the hair out of her face. "About two seconds ago. Percy, we'll be fine. Go!"
38
"Writing the book was itself a process of concealing and revealing."
38
"Oakley won't," the duke said.She turned and blinked. "I beg your pardon.""Lord Oakley. He won't forget to find us rooms. I've known him for years. The only thing that is making this bearable is that he must be dying inside over all this.""You don't like him?""On the contrary. I've long considered him a friend. It's why I enjoy his misery so much."
38
"I'll bet every fucking one of your angels is going to be terrifying!"
38
"Nothing gives a sadder sense of decay than this loss or suspension of the power to deal with unaccustomed things, and to keep up with the swiftness of the passing moment."
38
"You confused your father with God. You never saw him as a man with a man's heart, and a man's failings " I'll grant you it may have been hard to see, he makes so few mistakes, but he makes 'em like all of us. You were an emotional cripple, leaning on him, getting answers from him, assuming that your answers would always be his answers."
38
"You're just begging for a piece of me, you know that? she growled. "I don't know what gave you the idea I've lowered my standards, but I assure you, I haven't. I want no part of you."
38
"But never had their youthful beauty seemed so pure and high, as when its glow was chastened by adversity."
38
"What if - is more complicated than that? What if maybe opposite is true as well? Because, if bad can sometimes come from good actions-? where does it ever say, anywhere, that only bad can come from bad actions? Maybe sometimes - the wrong way is the right way? You can take the wrong path and it still comes out where you want to be? Or, spin it another way, sometimes you can do everything wrong and it still turns out to be right?"
38
"Annabeth looked at me. " We have to get out of here." " You think I want to be in the girls' restroom?" " I mean the ship, Percy! We have to get off the ship." " Smells bad," Tyson agreed. " And dogs eat all the eggs. Annabeth is right. We must leave the restroom and the ship."
38
"Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost."
38
"Sometimes I think that when people become famous, there's a public perception that they are not human beings any more. They don't have feelings; they don't get hurt; you can act and say as you like about them."
38
"'s one of the perversities of the age: I'm embarrassed by its success, but I'm happy it's selling."
38
"Among many of my friends and acquaintances, I seem to be one of the very few individuals who felt or feels no ambivalence about my mother. All my feelings for my mother were positive, very strong and abiding."
38
"I have never been one to fall when I can jump."
38
"Tis a dainty thing to command, though twere but a flock of sheep."
38
"The question is: will I get used to a menu with kilojoules instead of calories? I mean, I don't think anyone even knows how many kilojoules are in a calorie. I had to break out a whiteboard this morning and do calculus just to figure out how many calories were in a glass of water Down Under."
38
"Say you'll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won't go. I'll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you'll have to marry me to save your reputation."
38
bottom of page