Quotes by American Authors - Page 1641

One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large.
Douglas Preston
Believing takes practice.
Madeleine L'Engle
For he did not seem to know any way to do a person a kindness but by killing him.
Mark Twain
Great detectives are extremely rare. I believe they are the products of thousands of years of evolution. Their abilities to perceive and understand cannot be learned or taught. We can only wait for them to appear. It is unfortunate they are so few, and even more tragic that fewer still ever find their way into police work.
Laurence Giliotti
Have you kissed many boys before?" he asked quietly. His question brought my mind back into focus. I raised an eyebrow. "Boys? That's an assumption." Noah laughed, the sound low and husky. "Girls, then?""No.""Not many girls? Or not many boys?""Neither," I said. Let him make of that what he would."How many?" "Why—" "I am taking away that word. You are no longer allowed to use it. How many?" My cheeks flushed, but my voice was steady as I answered. "One." At this, Noah leaned in impossibly closer, the slender muscles in his forearm flexing as he bent his elbow to bring himself nearer to me, almost touching. I was heady with the proximity of him and grew legitimately concerned that my heart might explode. Maybe Noah wasn't asking. Maybe I didn't mind. I closed my eyes and felt Noah's five o' clock graze my jaw, and the faintest whisper of his lips at my ear."He was doing it wrong.
Michelle Hodkin
People withhold their forgiveness, thinking that it makes them badass. But really, the unwillingness to forgive is merely the wishing that things were better. You wish that you had better, you wish that someone else were better so they could have treated you better... it’s you making wishes. And that’s not badass. To forgive is to be able to look at the person and say “I accept that you weren’t any better than what you were”, “I accept what you were you and couldn’t have been what I wished you to be”, “I accept that things were the way they were and weren’t any better.” The ability to forgive is intertwined with the ability to accept the reality of the way things are/ the way a person is or was. You stop wishing things and you just accept. And hope is what says to you: “One day you’ll have what’s better.
C. JoyBell C.
Onward, then! To glory and some such nonsense.
Brandon Sanderson
His fangs sank deep into my heart. He made me his. He possessed me like a demon and loved me like his life depended on it.
Melody Lee
In your honesty, I saw a reflection of myself. Or rather, of the man I longed to be. So I failed you. I didn’t stay away. Then, later, I thought if I had answers, it would be enough. I would no longer care. You would no longer matter. So I continued failing you. Continued wanting more. And now I can’t find the words to say what must be said. To convey to you the least of what I owe. When I think of you, I can’t find the air to b r e a t h e.
Renee Ahdieh
There will never be another woman for me, Alexandra. You are my eternity. -Michael
Lynn Viehl
Life's too short not to forgive.
Miranda Kenneally
Thanksgiving at Sea"Most of us will enjoy Thanksgiving Day ashore in the comfort of our home but some will be at sea, because they are working on some boat, barge or ship. Others will be out on the brine by design as passengers, now considered guests on cruise ships. What came to mind however, was my father who was a ship’s cook in the 1920’s, and the stories he shared with us. Best as I can tell, the year must have been somewhere around 1924 when his ship was in Shanghai, which is now China’s biggest city. Tied up at a rickety dock on the Huangpu River, he could see the famed waterfront promenade lined with the now famed colonial-style buildings. The time had come to butcher one of the penned goats, brought along for this expressed purpose. Being on a German freighter, Thanksgiving Day had no special meaning but stew made of goat meat was always a treat for the crew. Fast forward to the present… almost every single cruise ship at sea or in a foreign port, will celebrate Thanksgiving Day with a marvelous turkey dinner, plus joyful entertainment. Whether you celebrate the day with your significant other, or take along an entire gang of friends and family; Thanksgiving Day at sea will be far from the lonely day it once was. Holidays, including Thanksgiving are always especially festive at sea.
Hank Bracker
There isn’t going to be a ‘next lover,’” Grant said automatically, outraged by the idea. “I’m the only man she’s going to have.
Lisa Kleypas
Real love finds you once, if you're lucky.
Ellen Hopkins
I once dreamt that the man in the moon took an interest in me and reflected the sun’s light directly in my path, lighting the way for my footsteps to sink themselves into the ground. It was wonderful to have my course illuminated by one with a grander perspective than my own. But when I awoke, realizing I could not call on the moon for guidance, my spirit sank until it occurred to me I could talk to the one who had created the moon. And He has lit my path ever since.
Richelle E. Goodrich
I can take care of myself,” I said hotly.“Darlin, you don't even know how to pleasure yourself.
Nenia Campbell
Its easy to be a show off, but it is hard to know how to show it off.
Daniel Kormendy
I wish on one of the stars for divine orchestration and save the rest of them for all of the other girls in the world who will feel like I do tonight.
Jennifer Elisabeth
You're a Black educated fool, son. These white folk have newspapers, magazines, radios, spokesmen to get their ideas across. If they want to tell the world a lie, they can tell it so well that it becomes the truth; and if I tell them you're lying, they'll tell the world even if you prove you're telling the truth. Because it's the kind of lie they want to hear.
Ralph Ellison
Ben had never seen his mother cry before, and it startled him, so he didn't ask again. Right afterward she'd put on her favorite record and played a mysterious song called "Space Oddity," about an astronaut named Major Tom who gets lost in space. She used to listen to the song over and over again. With her eyes closed, she'd place the palm of her hand against the fabric of the speaker, so she could feel it vibrate against her skin.
Brian Selznick
Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose.
Bo Bennett
The stronger that women grow, the more prestige, fame, and money is accorded to the display professions: They are held higher and higher above the heads of rising women, for them to emulate.
Naomi Wolf
If ever there was a plant that speaks to its connection to your heart, it is sweet blue violet. Not only does violet help your body dissolve cysts, lumps, and bumps, this plant’s soothing nature can help you dissolve the red-hot burn of anger, cool the draining white heat of frustration and resentment, and relieve the simmering roil of feeling stuck in separation when ruled by your judgmental mind.
Robin Rose Bennett
I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means someone's passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn't mind leading.
Amy Poehler
For all its ridiculous imperfections, life is pretty damn perfect sometimes.
Sarah Ockler
The trend in modern American culture is toward ever more individualized eating... and with every food added to the list of things one does not eat, the shorter becomes the list of people with whom one can enjoy table fellowship... for those of us whose health permits, partaking readily of whatever is offered can be a way of affirming that eating together is at least as important as whatever it is that is eaten.
Margaret Kim Peterson
Piano Man put up a fight but his resistance was futile. Hell hath no fury like a drunken girl at her bachelorette party in the mood to sing.
Vicki Lesage
He sits at the table and reads novels, old favorites of his, the words and plots and characters comforting and lived-in and unchanged.
Hanya Yanagihara
We can honestly say that everyone we've known who has used effective communication has been grateful for it in the long run. Often, effective communication brings about huge relief by showing you just how strongly your partner feels about you -- and by strengthening the bond between you two. And even though in some instances the response may not be what you hoped for and you'll be convinced that you've ruined everything -- if only you had said or done something else, he would surely have come around -- we've never heard anyone say in retrospect that they regretted raising an important issue in a dating or relationship setting. In fact, they overwhelmingly express gratitude that effective communication got them that one step closer to their long-term goal of either finding the right person or strengthening their existing bond.
Amir Levine & Rachel S.F. Heller
The Tyr had tried. It had really tried. It must have gone over every element of human psychology, tried desperately to understand the nature of human aesthetic sense … and then failed, miserably, in every regard.
C.S. Friedman
...no woman can love a weak man hard enough to make him strong.
Pearl Cleage
[God] created us free to choose how we would live . . . but leaves us free to pursue our own ends with tragic, natural consequences.
Billy Graham
It's fun telling you tall Texas tales. You always look like a little girl who's hearing Cinderella for the first time.
Edna Ferber
No trauma has discrete edges. Trauma bleeds. Out of wounds and across boundaries.
Leslie Jamison
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.
Mark Twain
I don't think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.
Jonathan Safran Foer
(...)And what did I want? (...)A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. (...) There were old wants too, to be loved for who I was, not what I could do, to lie in a meadow with a boy's arms around me and WATCH THE WIND MOVE THE CLOUDS. (...)
Leigh Bardugo
I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future
FM-2030
Speculation, movements having abandoned rational thought, echo chambers, projection, hypocrisy by little to no self-awareness, bewildering minds brainwashed and manipulative hearts manipulated - one is sure to find these à la people cock-sure in their biased and fanatical, immovable despising of persons. We would all do well to humbly re-think from time to time: 'Whom do I really hate? For what purpose?
Criss Jami
People who use snark attacks confuse cleverness with cruelty.
Debra Crown LPC-S LCDC
Celine snorted. “Never have I ever had a thing for blondes,” she said. And then, her eyes on Sloane, she shot our statistician a dazzling smile and lowered her own finger —meaning that she did have a thing for blondes.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
True friends will always push you towards the great possibilities of your future, false friends will always chain you to the mistakes in your past.
Seth Brown
There were three, very large males standing above her, staring. She started from left to right. Big green-eyed male, big green-eyed male and, hey, lookie there, another big green-eyed male. Dear gods. Did I fall so hard that now I am seeing three of them?
Madison Thorne Grey
My advice is to make a point of apologizing to your child about something at least twice a month. Why twice a month? I don't know. It sounds about right to me. (Almost all the specific advice in parenting books is similarly arbitrary. At least I admit it.)
Alfie Kohn
If you have a choice, choose kindness.
Mary Meade Eastman
No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you've got, say "Oh, my gosh," and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop. It's not a question of choice.
Marisa de los Santos
I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.
Stephen Sondheim
It's easier to start over than to work to make something last.
Rachel Hawthorne
An invisible, yet active current of mental energy, underscores any book as well as any other form of artistic creation. A creative burst of psychological energy ignites any creative project. The emotional energy that underlies the artistic work propels it forward endowing it with articulation, texture, rhythm, and movement. When the expressive energy of the artist flags, the work comes to a stopping point and it takes on its final composition.
Kilroy J. Oldster
Through my history's despiteand ruin, I have cometo its remainder, and herehave made the beginningof a farm intended to becomemy art of being here.By it I would instructmy wants: they should belongto each other and to this place.Until my song comes hereto learn its words, my artis but the hope of song.(Part 2 from History is Clearing, p 174)
Wendell Berry
Blessed is the nightbird that sings for joy and not to be heard.
Marty Rubin
It may upset my secret sisters that I say this, but between you and me, if you're so fortunate as to have captured the perfect male, peeling off that chain-mail bikini and becoming a part-time Amazon is not so bad after all.-Author's Note, Anne Fortier
Anne Fortier
In a time where everyone is searching for success, it's easy for other so called entrepreneurs to live off them because they haven't learned patience when it comes to money.
James Jean-Pierre
It’s a strange moment when you realize that you don’t want to be alive anymore.
Allie Brosh
You have to do what your heart dictates," Vivian says. "Do you believe that?""Not sure, actually. It's always annoyingly inconvenient, isn't it, the thing about the heart?
Anita Shreve
Terrified, yes. But I run toward the fire now. Not away.
Todd Crawshaw
Naive inflationism demands an increase in the quantity of money without suspecting that this will diminish the purchasing power of the money.
Ludwig von Mises
It is always the first and last steps that are the hardest to take. We walk away and try not to turn back, or we stand just outside the gates, terrified to find what's waiting for us now that we've returned. In between, we stumble blindly from one place and life to the next. We try to do the best we can. There are moments like this, however, when we are neither coming nor going, and all we have to do is sit and look back on the life we have made.
Dinaw Mengestu
Doodling is the brooding of the hand.
Saul Steinberg
God measures people by the small dimensions of humility and not by the bigness of their achievements or the size of their capabilities.
Billy Graham