Quotes by American Authors - Page 2139

This was our last night. We only had one curtain call, Bree. And I thought they were going to give us a standing ovation, but no-o-o-. Do you know why half the audience stood up?""To get a head start on the traffic," Bree said."To get a head start on the traffic," Antonia agreed in indignation. "I mean, here we are, dancing and singing our little guts out, and all those folks want to do is get to bed early. I ask you, whatever happened to common courtesy? Whatever happened to decent manners? Doesn't anyone care about craft anymore? And on top of that, it's not even nice.
Mary Stanton
The medical profession's classic prescription for coping with such predicaments, Primum non nocere (First, do no harm), sounds better than it is. In fact, it fails to tell us precisely what we need to know: What is harm and what is help? However, two things about the challenge of helping the helpless are clear. One is that, like beauty and ugliness, help and harm often lie in the eyes of the beholder--in our case, in the often divergently directed eyes of the benefactor and his beneficiary. The other is that harming people in the name of helping them is one of mankind's favorite pastimes.
Thomas Szasz
I don't know what happened to me," he said, shaking his head. "I honestly don't." ... "You grew up, Alex.
Jennifer Egan
All right, the universe is energy. All of it. Everything is energy that can be altered simply by willing it to be altered. It's as if we are God's waking dream, each gifted with a small piece of his consciousness; the beauty of that arrangement is that we create the dream for him. If you can understand that, if you can wrap your mind around it, then you can conjure up anything you want from out of the ether. Provided this is material enough to do it.
C. Robert Cargill
Gossip is passing on information when you are neither part of the problem nor part of the solution.
Rick Warren
If you could figure out how to live with family then you'd gone a long way toward finding your peace.
Ben Fountain
You know I'd follow you anywhere. Even if it's straight to Hell.
Abigail Roux
Life just gets better when enthusiasm befriends inspiration and turns the mundane into a chemistry of excitement. Whether by the grace of god, character or determination, it seems that these budding whim's of excitement come as friends, to impart a little of themselves upon our hopes, dreams and desires.
Brian Edward Arsenault
Fifteen-year-old girls produce children with sixteen-year-old boys in the backseat of cars and in the stairwells of apartment buildings. Why can't two loving adults who have contemplated parenthood and are prepared to offer love, patience, and devotion come up with enough chromosomal matter to stick together and create a child?
Scott Simon
Will there be cheese?" asked Chisolm.
Nancy T. Lucas
People do incredibly stupid things when they are frightened
Kirsten Beyer
Jenna can't hear us, she's blind
Sara Shepard
It was a puzzle, a dark and lonely one, and if I were a piece in this puzzle, I did not know where it belonged. I needed to put myself aside, just for a little while, until I saw where I might fit in.
Lemony Snicket
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
nothing changes from one generation to another except the things seen and the things seen make that generation, that is to say nothing changes in people from one generation to another except the way of seeing and being seen.
Gertrude Stein
People always try to make self-published authors feel insignificant. I have more respect for self-published authors, because I know the adversity they faced. They didn't just write a manuscript, query letter, and blam book deal. These authors had to do it the difficult way. There is no publisher, or agents, investing time, and money into making their book. Just the indie author's manuscript, own currency, and persistence.
Mary Sage Nguyen
As sunlight is for flowers, and sustenance for the mortal shell, music is for the human soul.
Richelle E. Goodrich
If you are in a position where you can reach people, then use your platform to stand up for a cause. HINT: social media is a platform.
Germany Kent
Our sense of self, formulated in large part by the untold number of cross-related connections that we make with our physical, social, and family environments, is reliant upon fitting into our social fabric. The educational environment, family relationships, peer groups, books, television, films, music, along with an assortment of other cultural events shape our emergent persona. Our successes and failures interacting in the world leave their collective imprint upon the wet clay of our forming brains. We are sentimental creatures who cling to past memories. We are inquisitive critters who venture forth from our protective dens to explore new territory. We are perceptive organisms equipped with five basic senses. We are sentient beings who can consciously organize our sense impressions into guiding ideas and useful principles. Our survival responses form a central cord of our emotions. We are receptive, compassionate beings that respond with both body and mind to global stimuli.
Kilroy J. Oldster
The average artist has a naïve, unrealistic, and disconnected view of what the music industry is, how it works, what is involved in “making it”, and what actually is happening behind the scenes. Too many artists take at face value what they see on some TV documentary or read in a fan magazine. Whether you are working with others in a band, looking to connect with a manager, an agent, a label, or an investor, or you just want to work in the industry, it is more crucial than ever to know what you are working for and toward.
Loren Weisman
Watch for the thing that will show itself to you. Because that thing, when you find it, will be your future.
Arthur Golden
Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything godlike about God, it is that. He dared to imagine everything
Henry Miller
Real leaders focus resources in areas that provide the greatest opportunity rather than making across-the-board decisions.
Frank Sonnenberg
I’ll deal with the consequences one way or another, but I’m sick and tired of sitting back and wondering ‘what if.’ I’ve been a puppet for too long. Now that I know I have the potential to fight, I need to cut the strings and do something about it. There’s a reason I was created the way I was. I have to believe that, and I have to seek out my purpose.
L.J. Kentowski
Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Half effort does not produce half results. It produces no results. Work continuous work and hard work is the only way to accomplish results that last.
Hamilton Holt
What’s the point in hating something if you aren’t proactive?
Kiersten White
Walk amongst the natives by day, but in your heart be Superman.
Gene Simmons
My father gave me these hints on speech making: Be sincere ... be brief ... be seated.
James Roosevelt
I am most interested in encouraging Christians to think and read well. Christians, of all people, should reflect the mind of their Maker. Learning to read well is a step toward loving God with your mind. It is a leap toward thinking God’s thoughts after Him.
James W. Sire
I am right. I`m always right. One time I thought I was wrong, I found out I was right.
Jerry Lee Lewis
I'd trapped myself in a script.... But to be scripted at all is to be prepackaged, programmed, pinned to a page. Only the unwritten can truly live a life. So who I was, what I was, had to be unwritten.
David James Duncan
What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the Serpents offer and had said to him instead, "Let me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be -- let me be a woman?
Elisabeth Elliot
Some day...as you grow older, you will find imagination sometimes produces a truth that is greater than any fact.
James Jones
Don't try to do great thing, but don't forget to do small things with great care and great love.
Debasish Mridha
Then we’re just sitting there, staring at each other. Which has been happening a lot lately. It’s likewhatever wall there was between us, however she was holding herself back from me . . . all of thatpretense is gone.“And when you find a soul mate,” Sara says, “it’s undeniable. You have to be together.”“That’s my philosophy.” I look back at her. “You have to go with the flow.”“Exactly. I think the universe guides you to make the right choices.”“Do you believe in fate?”“I guess, but . . . it’s more about creating the life you want so you can make that fate a reality. Youknow?
Susane Colasanti
Time was when much of lawyering consisted (according to turn-of-the-century lawyer and statesman Elihu Root) in "telling would-be clients that they are damned fool's, and should stop.
George F. Will
There are two types of limitations: those others place on us, and those we place on ourselves. One is more subtle. Both are equally dangerous.
Andrena Sawyer
It is a harsh reality that some of the most important and respectable jobs which deserve high salaries might be better off with low salaries. A politician, or a minister, or a teacher is sure to be working sincerely and selflessly for the good of the people when through and through there is little monetary reward guaranteed. This is how the charlatans are weeded out of the field.
Criss Jami
Bullets an stuff be flying all over. It is something I simply cannot understand - why in hell is we doing all this, anyway? Playing football is one thing. But this, I do not know why. Goddamn.
Winston Groom
Have you ever chopped down something with an ax? Not fun. I now have serious doubts regarding George Washington and his cherry tree.
Tammy Blackwell
In hindsight, I have no idea why he was ever with me. He thought highly of my breasts. And . . . that's it, I think.
Emma Forrest
Faith is a process of leaping into the abyss not on the basis of any certainty about where we shall land, but rather on the belief that we shall land.
Carter Heyward
Mental illness" is among the most stigmatized of categories.' People are ashamed of being mentally ill. They fear disclosing their condition to their friends and confidants-and certainly to their employers.
Elyn R. Saks
Sometimes ... God answers our prayers in the way our parents do who reply to the pleas of their children with "Not just now" or "I'll have to think about that for a little while."
Roy M. Pearson
Recognize the remarkable individuals in your life who help you envision a world far beyond yourself.
Bill Courtney
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Hubert Humphrey
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.
Ellen Goodman
Education enhances the beauty of the mind by learning to see the beauty in every little thing.
Debasish Mridha
A group of giant insectoid creatures floated to the area near the stage. One of them spoke in a series of clicks that the language master knew instantly."Play hard and fast hairless monkeys!"Greeg shouted, "We're Transmitted Infections from the inner-worlds and this is punk fucking rock!"Crash hit a crunching , distorted guitar note. the Slugs spit in happiness at the sound of the guitar. Greeg liked a species with a love for badass music. He was sure this would be a great show.
David Agranoff
Why didn't Jacob simply refuse to go along with this bold, obvious swindle? Again, Robert Alter's insights are invaluable. When Jacob asks, 'Why have you DECEIVED me?' the Hebrew word is the same one used in chapter 27 to describe what Jacob did to Isaac. Alter then quotes an ancient rabbinical commentator who imagines the conversation the next day between Jacob and Leah. Jacob says to Leah: 'I called out "Rachel" in the dark and you answered. Why did you do that to me?' And Leah says to him, 'Your father called out "Esau" in the dark and you answered. Why did you do that to him?' His fury dies on his lips. He sees what it is like to be manipulated and deceived, and he meekly complies with Laban's offer.
Timothy J. Keller
By what criteria can one decide which of a person's countless beliefs are primitive? The essential factor is that they are taken for granted: a person's primitive beliefs represent the basic truths he holds about physical reality, social reality, and himself and his own nature. Like all beliefs, conscious or unconscious, they have a personal aspect: they are rooted in the individual's experience and in the evidence of his senses. Like all beliefs, they also have a social aspect: with regard to every belief a person forms, he also forms some notion of how many other people have the experience and the knowledge necessary to share it with him, and of how close the agreement is among this group. Unlike other beliefs, however, primitive beliefs are normally not open to discussion or controversy. Either they do not come up in conversation because everyone shares them and everyone takes them for granted, or, if they do come up, they are virtually unassailable by outside forces. The criterion of social support is totally rejected; it is as if the individual said: "Nobody else could possibly know or have experienced what I have." Or, to quote a popular refrain: "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen." A person's primitive beliefs thus lie at the very core of his total system of beliefs, and they represent the subsystem in which he has the heaviest emotional commitment.
Milton Rokeach
Never believe anything you hear at a woman’s tit.
George R.R. Martin
A woman's eyes cut deeper than a knife.
Robert Jordan
We will need to find people who will provide a safe writing space for us, where criticism comes late and love and delight come early.—from Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing
L.L. Barkat
There is supercomputer somewhere in the Nevada desert whose sole function is to count the number of times that I have said the following, because it is unquantifiable by human minds at this point, but this time it’s really true: I should have stayed home.
David Rakoff
down. There just was no way someone that good looking was getting made fun of. Plus guys could sleep with a whole team and it would be okay. Talk about double standards.
J.L. Beck
Think of them like gods, Janice said, because that’s what they are. The nape of a human neck is especially easy to see through – that’s why they love it when we bow our heads. It doesn’t have anything to do with praying. Prayers bore them.
Kathryn Davis
Big government = oligarchy. Simple equation. Big government = loss of representation.
A.E. Samaan
There is a strange moment in time, after something horrible happens, when you know it's true, but you haven't told anyone yet.
Barbara Kingsolver
enjoying life should be of much greater concern than understanding it.
Will Fetters