Quotes about anything
page 17

“It doesn't matter how anything happens.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Variant: It doesn't matter what you do because it's going to happen anyway.
Source: The Favorite Game

“She taught me I should never do anything in private I did not want talked about in public, and cautioned me not to talk in my sleep.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Sleep

“Because, you see, you only need one friend for a party. One is enough. Two is enough. Anything is enough.”

Ann M. Martin A Corner of the Universe

Source: A Corner of the Universe, ~pg 107; Adam on friendship

Friendship

“You can’t concentrate on doing anything if you are thinking, “What’s gonna happen if it doesn’t go right?”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Thinking

“Life has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it…”

Erica Jong book Fear of Flying

Source: Fear of Flying

Life

“I mean, how would anyone learn anything if they weren't curious? How would scientists make discoveries? -- We all have the right to be different, don't we?”

Annette Curtis Klause (1953) American writer and librarian

Learning

“I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining.”

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) American science fiction writer

Science

“Plan?” Marasi asked.
“Not dyin’.”
“Anything more detailed than that?”
“Not dyin’ … today?”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Bands of Mourning

“I so rarely have the chance to field-test anything. Amelie is so conservative about these things -Myrnin”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bite Club

Chance

“Phury?"
"No, I'm not gay."
"Don't feel like you need to hide it or anything."
"I wouldn't. I'm just not."
"You bi, then?”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

Feeling

“If there is something comforting - religious, if you want - about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long.”

Thomas Pynchon book Gravity's Rainbow

Source: Gravity's Rainbow

“You like the party?
Is it in honour of anything?
My cat's birthday.
Where's your cat?
I don't know, he ran away.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Cats, Birthday

“… in an infinite universe, anything that could be imagined might somewhere exist.”

Dean Koontz book Dead and Alive

Source: Dead and Alive

Imagination, Universe

“It's just hard to see a friend hurt this much. Especially when you can't do anything except 'be there.' I just want to make him stop hurting, but I can't. So I just follow him around whenever he wants to show me his world.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

World, Hurt

“A strange, terrific force unlike anything I've ever experienced is sprouting in my heart, taking root there, growing. Shut up behind my rib cage, my warm heart expands and contracts independent of my will--over and over.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Heart

“No one does anything right in life, until they realize that they are making a mistake”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Life

“Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Thinking

“I looked at Rachel. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you? I mean…. you talked to Chiron, right?"
She managed a faint smile. "You're worried aboutdoing something stupid?”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Stupidity, Smile

“She didn't want to have anything to do with the party. She was tired of feeling like she didn't fit in, but she didn't want to go home, either, because she was a tired of being lonely and she was a little drunk.”

Candace Bushnell (1958) American author

Feeling, Home

“What good is knowledge if it just floats in the air? It goes from computer to computer. It changes and grows every second of every day. But nobody actually knows anything.”

Don DeLillo (1936) American novelist, playwright and essayist

Source: Don DeLillo's White Noise

Knowledge, Change

“This is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard flight… one, from… here to there. We'll be cruising at a height of ten feet, going up to twelve and a half feet if we see anything big. And our copilot today is a flask of coffee.”

Eddie Izzard (1962) British stand-up comedian, actor and writer

Coffee

“Don't get too attached to anything.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Sad

“Is she for real?” He paused and reconsidered. “Are you for real? Spells? Magic? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I drink blood and control people’s minds. But I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

People, Drink

“I'm going away," he said. "And I want you to know that I'm coming back. I love you because…."

"Don't say anything," Fatima interrupted. "One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Love

“As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“To get to a place where you could love anything you chose--not to need permission for desire--well now _that_ was freedom.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Beloved (1987)

Love, Freedom

“No sign, so far, of anything sinister—but I live in hope.”

Agatha Christie book Cat Among the Pigeons

Source: Cat Among the Pigeons

Hope

“I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

“Man, that did his ego good. Matter of fact, she hit him with anything like that again, he was going to feel like he could bench-press a city bus. With a jet plane on its roof.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

Feeling

“I know too well how dangerous hope can be, how it grows and sometimes dies, taking its host with it. It's more powerful than anything Dr. Fibs keeps in his labs, more precious than all the secrets inside Sublevel Two.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Secret, Hope

“The world is bigger than you know, and scarier than you might imagine. The only currency worth anything is being true to yourself, and the only goal worth seeking is finding out who you truly are.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

World, Imagination

“Maybe I was naïve to think that silence was implicit complacence, instead of a festering question. Maybe I was silly to believe that friends owed each other anything.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Question, Thinking, Silence

“You have to trust the words. They do not create anything more than themselves.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“The saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there's nothing to make it last.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Life, Happiness, People, Passion

“I've made mistakes. More than my share. Hopefully, I've learned from them, but can't guarentee anything. There's only one thing I can promise. I'm taking this to the end."
-Bobby Pendragon”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

Learning

“I'm an old, superstitious Arab, and I believe in our proverbs. There's one that says, 'Everything that happens once can never happen again. But anything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Time

“But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than anything and still not love the person all that much, if you were busy with other things.”

Jonathan Franzen book Freedom

Source: Freedom

Love, Business, Personality

“I think about how people use the devil as an alias for the things they fear. The cause and effect is backward. The devil doesn't make anyone do anything. People just do things and blame the devil after.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

People, Fear, Thinking

“We didn't talk about anything heavy or light. We were just there together. And that was enough”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Light

“I didn't listen to her because she was my mother & wouldn't know anything until I was much older.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

“Anything seems possible at night when the rest of the world has gone to sleep.”

David Almond book My Name Is Mina

Source: My Name Is Mina

World, Sleep, Night

“Dreams reveal we never quite get 'over' anything: it's all still in there somewhere.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Dreams

“I'm so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything,' maybe that would have made the impossible possible. Maybe, but I couldn't do it, I had buried too much too deeply inside me. And here I am, instead of there.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Love

“Without commitment, you cannot have depth in anything, whether it's a relationship, a business or a hobby.”

Neil Strauss book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Source: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Business

“I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

People, Way

“The true roll in determing to embrace or reject anything is not whether it have any evil in it but whether it have more of evil than of good. There are few things wholly evil or wholly good.”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Evil

“Pain is the feeling. Suffering is the effect the pain inflicts. If one can endure pain, one can live without suffering. If one can withstand pain, one can withstand anything. If one can learn to control pain, one can learn to control oneself.”

James Frey My Friend Leonard

Source: My Friend Leonard

Pain, Feeling, Suffering, Learning

“The real hell of Hell is that it is forever.' Sula said that. She said doing anything forever and ever was hell.”

Toni Morrison book Sula

Source: Sula

Hell

“People who cling to their illusions find it difficult, if not impossible, to learn anything worth learning: a people under the necessity of creating themselves must examine everything, and soak up learning the way the roots of a tree soak up water.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

People, Way, Tree, Learning

“Are you getting your period?" She narrows her eyes.
No! God. I hate that. I hate when every negative act is blamed on your period." Sometimes bitchiness is just bitchiness, happily unattached to anything hormonal. It should get full credit.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Nature of Jade

God, Hate

“I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Wisdom, Books, Learning, Time

“My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before — a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Walking (June 1862)
Source: Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

Dreams, Intelligence, Knowledge

“There's a serendipity to real life that the Internet can't duplicate. Do you use the library? For anything? Well, sometimes you end up picking up the book next to the one you were looking for, and it's that book that changes your life.”

Laura Lippman (1959) Detective fiction writer

Source: Hardly Knew Her

Life, Books, Change

“Having not said anything the first time, it was somehow even more difficult to broach the subject the second time around.”

Douglas Adams book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Source: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Time

“He's got a great sense of humor for a guy who never says anything.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Guy, Sense

“You don't have anything
if you don't have the stories.”

Leslie Marmon Silko book Ceremony

Source: Ceremony

“I would have done anything for him. Maybe that was my sickness.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Twitter is the perpetual cocktail party where everyone is talking at once but nobody is saying anything.”

Teresa Medeiros (1962) American writer

Source: Goodnight Tweetheart

“I don't think I can do it alone," I said. I had a feeling thewasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

Truth, Feeling, Thinking

“I don't owe people anything, and I don't have to talk to them any more than I feel I need to.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

People, Feeling

“A duel, a duel, a duel. Is there anything more exciting, more romantic… or more utterly moronic?”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Duke and I

“Don't talk to my sister that way." Nico said. His voice quivered, but I was impressed that he had the guts to say anything at all. — Percy”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Way, Sister

“The story is one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Thinking, Memory

“Youth is still where you left it, and that's where it should stay. Anything that was worth taking on life's journey, you'll already have taken with you.”

Sophie Kinsella book Wedding Night

Source: Wedding Night

Life, Youth

“If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

“I wouldn't be able to do anything with my vampire horde except make it run around in a herd, but it would be a very impressive herd.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“I don't wish to be the symbol of anything. I'm only myself.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“If one can't be trusted in love, one can't be trusted in anything. Some things can't be forgiven.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Kiss of Deception

Source: The Kiss of Deception

Love

“Don’t take the high ground and assume you already know what you’ll do. The truth is, when it comes to someone you love, you’ll find there isn’t anything you won’t do.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Love, Truth

“Real life is messy, inconsistent, and it's seldom when anything ever really gets resolved. It's taken me a long time to realize that.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Life, Time

“anyone can understand anything. You just have to know how to present your information.”

Jodi Picoult book Songs of the Humpback Whale

Source: Songs of the Humpback Whale

Understanding

“Then I reckon we got ourselves a good old-fashioned standoff."
…
Nobody moved, or said anything, for the next few moments.
"Old-fashioned standoffs are mighty borin”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Faceless Ones

Fashion

“When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

People

“Must’ve been hard on your mom,” Frank said. “I guess we’ll do anything for someone we love.”
Hazel squeezed his hand appreciatively. Nico stared at the cobblestones. “Yeah,” he said bitterly. “I guess we will.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Love, Moms

“Its only after you've lost everything," Tyler says, "that you're free to do anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Variant: It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
Source: Fight Club

“The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.”

John Stuart Mill book On Liberty

Source: On Liberty

Feeling, Exercises

“Know all the Questions, but not the Answers
Look for the Different, instead of the Same
Never Walk where there's room for Running
Don't do anything that can't be a Game”

Zilpha Keatley Snyder book The Changeling

Source: The Changeling

Game, Question

“Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
Every time I look at you, I have to put a leash on myself. “No.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Bayou Moon

Time

“Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through anyone that suits you.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

“It's so easy to make a person who hasn't got anything seem wrong.”

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) novelist from Dominica

Source: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie

Personality

“Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?”

Aldous Huxley book Antic Hay

Source: Antic Hay

Life, Happiness, Art, Suffering

“If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer.”

David Deida (1958) American writer

Source: Blue Truth: A Spiritual Guide To Life & Death And Love & Sex

Love, Suffering, Waiting

“I hate it when she tabs a line," Ivy whispered to Kisten in the corner. "You ever see anything freakier than that?" "You should see the face she makes when she—"
"Shut up, Kist!" I exclaimed, my eyes flashing open to find him grinning at me.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Fistful of Charms

Hate

“God, of thy goodness, give me Thyself;
for Thou art enough for me,
and I can ask for nothing less
that can be full honor to Thee.
And if I ask anything that is less,
ever Shall I be in want,
for only in Thee have I all.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The First Revelation, Chapter 5
Context: Also our Lord God shewed that it is full great pleasance to Him that a helpless soul come to Him simply and plainly and homely. For this is the natural yearnings of the soul, by the touching of the Holy Ghost (as by the understanding that I have in this Shewing): God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I may nothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth, — but only in Thee I have all.
And these words are full lovely to the soul, and full near touch they the will of God and His Goodness. For His Goodness comprehendeth all His creatures and all His blessed works, and overpasseth without end. For He is the endlessness, and He hath made us only to Himself, and restored us by His blessed Passion, and keepeth us in His blessed love; and all this of His Goodness.

God, Art

“No,' he said, 'memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands I want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much…”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

Love, Memory

“You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Life

“The Night is young
& full of rest
I can’t describe
the way she’s dress’d
She’ll pander to some strange
requests
Anything that you suggest
Anything to please her guest.”

Jim Morrison book Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison

Source: Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison

Way, Night

“Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

Books

“Gazzy called over to me "I can't see anything!"
"I can't see anything either," Iggy complained.
"I'm rolling my eyes, Ig." I had to tell him that because he couldn't see me do it, what with his blindness and all.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Home, Perfection

“Did your mom ever tell you, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything’? She was right–and talking nicely also applies when you’re talking to yourself, even inside your head. (339)”

Victoria Moran (1950) American writer

Source: Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit

Moms

“His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

“The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don't look clearly and objectively at situations, they don't recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

Source: The Tao of Pooh

World

“To become really good at anything, you have to practice and repeat, practice and repeat, until the technique becomes intuitive”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph (2011)
Context: Routine has nothing to do with repetition. To become really good at anything, you have to practice and repeat, practice and repeat, until the technique becomes intuitive.

“All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was it expecting people to exceed what they had just accomplished; it was simply feeling so complete.”

John Irving book A Widow for One Year

Source: A Widow for One Year

Love, Life, People, Feeling

“By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being. Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 268)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 390; closing words of the epilogue)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years.
But there are much worse games to play.

Pleasure, Feeling

“All is going well, very well, I couldn’t ask for anything better—
So why do I hate my life?”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Life, Hate

“Does anything on you work properly?" Asked ter Borcht.
"Well, I do have a highly developed sense of irony." Replied Iggy.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Sense