Quotes about back
page 13

“The details are the life of it, I insist, say everything on your mind, don’t hold back, don’t analyze or anything as you go along, say it out.”

Jack Kerouac book The Subterraneans

Source: The Subterraneans

Life

“There is never any turning back Gemma. You have to go forward. Make the future yours.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Future

“We all have things that come back to haunt us. Some of us just see them more clearly than others.”

Jodi Picoult Plain Truth

Source: Plain Truth

“Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare and tropical fish.”

Raymond Chandler book The Simple Art of Murder

Source: The Simple Art of Murder

People, Fish

“Freedom begins way back. It begins not with doing what you want but with doing what you ought - that is, with discipline.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Let Me be a Woman

Way, Freedom

“One day soon you'll be in the world, and you'll have so many options you won't know what to do with them. Everyone will fall in love with you, because you're so beautiful and so charming, and you'll look back on high school as such a tiny blip.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Love, World, School, Beauty

“When the past is recaptured by the imagination, breath is put back into life.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Life, Imagination, Past

“You don’t have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

Home

“no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Variant: It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Source: The Great Gatsby

Past

“In the pool, on that last night of the last summer, we said we’d always come back. It’s scary how easy promises were broken. Just like that.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Summer, Night

“What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Variant: Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be...
Source: Ode: Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections Of Early Childhood

Flowers, Grass

“Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: It comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Faith, Support

“The spoken word converts individual knowledge into mutual knowledge, and there is no way back once you've gone over that cliff. Saying nothing was more amendable, and over time I'd come to see that it was usually your best course of action.”

Karen Joy Fowler book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Source: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Way, Knowledge, Time

“We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Love, Past

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”

Jodi Picoult Salem Falls

Source: Salem Falls

“Every road i traveled led back to you”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Travel

“I thought, my love is so good, why isn't it calling the same thing back.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Collected Stories

Love

“Time talks behind our back. To our face it's friendly and logical, never hesitating to give more of itself. But when we're not looking, it steals our lives and says bad things about us to the parts of us it's stolen”

Jonathan Carroll book A Child Across the Sky

Source: A Child Across the Sky

Time, Parting

“We are not wounded so deeply when betrayed by the things we hope for as when betrayed by things we try our best to despise.
In such betrayal comes the dagger in the back.”

Yukio Mishima book Thirst for Love

Source: Thirst for Love

Hope, Betrayal

“You remind me of myself ” Bes continued “back when I was a young dwarf. You got a stubborn
streak. When it comes to girl problems you’re clueless.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Girl, Problem

“My eyes rolled so far back in my head that I could see myself think”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Thinking

“Adrian," she interrupted. "Didn't you just say I'm brilliant and always know everything? Then trust me on this."
"Always," I said, letting her pull me back down to her. "Always.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: The Ruby Circle

“You never give away your heart; you lend it from time to time. If it were not so how could we take it back without asking?”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Written on the Body

Time, Heart

“Wroth, darling,” she purred, smiling so sweetly. “I can’t wait for the next time I get to put my mouth on you.” In an instant the smile faded and she snapped her teeth and yanked her head back as if she was chewing something free.”

Kresley Cole book The Warlord Wants Forever

Source: The Warlord Wants Forever

Smile, Time, Waiting

“Most of all, I want you to know without a doubt that I've got your back. And your front. And your sides. I've got all of you and I'm not letting go.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Fever

“When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it - don't back down and don't give up - then you're going to mystify a lot of folks.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Feeling

“Now, if you two will excuse us, we'll get back to the relatively simple business of planning a war.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Variant: Now, if you two will excuse us, we'll get back to the relatively simple buisness of planning a war," he said.
-Baron Arald
Source: The Burning Bridge

War, Business

“Sebastian lay a few feet away from her, on his back. There was a great blackened hole across the front of his chest. He turned his head toward her, his face taut and white with pain, and her heart contracted.
His eyes were green.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Pain, Heart

“Leap out the window, my inner Tigress cried. You aren't ready to face such a powerful Tiger. I frowned. I thought a true Tigress never backed down from a fight. Don't you know anything? When she's in heat, she avoids everything male. Now run!”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Animal Instincts

Fight

“About 10 minutes ago, we all woke up because of this strange roaring sound. We all raced toward the sound, which turned out to be the washing machine going back on.
Who knew the rinse cycle could be so scary?”

Susan Beth Pfeffer book Life As We Knew It

Source: Life As We Knew It

“I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Life, Learning

“Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly.”

Alan Lightman book Einstein's Dreams

Source: Einstein's Dreams

World, Time

“I reached into my pocket and triumphantly flashed the CR-V keys Iʹd swiped when weʹd come back inside. ʺThe driver,ʺ I said.

I DIDNʹT GET TO DRIVE.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“Wha-what?" Her eyes fluttered open.
"Nothing," I shouted. "We're being followed by a slaying machine. Go back to sleep.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Sleep

“I seek truth and beauty in the transparency of an autumn leaf, in the perfect form of a seashell on the beach, in the curve of a woman's back, in the texture of an ancient tree trunk, but also in the elusive forms of reality.”

Isabel Allende book Portrait in Sepia

Source: Portrait in Sepia

Truth, Beauty, Autumn, Reality

“Love is all right for those who can handle the psychic overload. It's like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Variant: Love is all right for those who can handle the psychic overload. It’s like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.
Source: Women

Love

“The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Variant: Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.

Life, Past, Future

“I can't promise I'll never kill anyone again," he once said, strapping a refrigerator to his back. "It's unrealistic to live your life within such strict parameters”

David Sedaris book Me Talk Pretty One Day

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Life

“Smirking, he says, "Whatever spell you just tried to cast on me, it didn't work, so I think you need to go back to Hogwarts.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Back To Work, Thinking

“Great. Lookout. I'm a lookout. Another thing to put on my college applications. What do I do if I see someone?"
Val looked back. "I'm not sure, actually.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

“I can only drive slowly."
"That's all right."
"And I can only do left turns."
Rose ran downstairs, grabbed a road atlas, and ran triumphantly back up again. "Wales is left! Look! It's left all the way!”

Hilary McKay book Saffy's Angel

Source: Saffy's Angel

Way

“You can’t undo something that’s happened; you can’t take back a word that’s already been said out loud.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

“Great,” Simon said. “Maybe I’ll even make it back before my mother notices I’m gone. What’s the time difference between here and Manhattan?”
“You have a mother?” Aline looked amazed.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Time

“It's settled, then," Grace said. She turned back to Nick. "Take the Jag to the car wash and for heaven's sake clean the McDonald's Happy Meal boxes out of it."

"Hey," Nick said, his face offended. "That's a low blow. Those boxes are collectibles.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Night Play

Cars, Box, Happiness

“I started after him… and the clown looked back. I saw Its eyes, and all at once I understood who It was."
"Who was it, Don?" Harold Gardner asked softly.
"It was Derry," Don Hagarty said. "It was this town.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

“My choices were to either give in and let them kill all of us or fight back with everything I had. I chose the second one, ’cause I’m just funny that way.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Way, Fight

“Cynicism was a one-way path, and once taken the way back was lost forever.”

Chris Wooding book Poison

Source: Poison

Way

“Underneath my lashes I watched him, and I thought, Come back. Be the you I love and remember”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Love

“And yet she could not forgive herself. Even as an adult, she wished only that she could go back and change things: the ungainly things she’d worn, the insecurity she’d felt, all the innocent mistakes she made.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book Unaccustomed Earth

Source: Unaccustomed Earth

Forgiveness, Change

“Chick Lit uses humor to reflect life back to us. It's a very comforting genre, and it's the first time our generation has had a voice. It's a very important genre for all of those reasons.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Life, Time

“She knows what it's like to love someone who cannot love you back. Someone who needs you, holds you, yes, but someone who will never know that love is the knife in your heart.”

John Dufresne (1948) Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright

Source: Love Warps the Mind a Little

Love, Heart

“You can go through your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Variant: You can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.
Source: For One More Day

Life

“The thing about light is that it really isn’t yours; it’s what you gather and shine back. And it gets more power from reflectiveness; if you sit still and take it in, it fills your cup, and then you can give it off yourself.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Light

“When someone dies, it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you
have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all the nerves are still a little raw.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Variant: when you [lose someone], it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all nerves are still a little raw
Source: House Rules

Feeling

“I don’t want to forget any of this. The way he’s looking at me at this very moment. How, when he kisses me, I still get shivers down my back, every time. I want to hold on to everything so tight.”

Jenny Han book Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Source: Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Way, Kiss, Time, Forgetting

“But we can't go back. We can only go forward.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Variant: One can never go back. One always has to move forward.
Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

“A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone. Go back to school, little Starling.”

Thomas Harris (1940) American author and screenwriter

School

“We took the elevator back down from the first observation level of the Eiffel Tower and started walking in he direction of the Taj Mahal”

D.J. MacHale The Soldiers of Halla

Source: The Soldiers of Halla

“Hit that back-stabber where it hurts, right in the ambition.”

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl

Source: Artemis Fowl

Hurt

“Reality denied comes back to haunt.”

Philip K. Dick book Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Source: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Reality

“I text tiny a minute later.

MADE NEW GAY FRIEND.

And he texts back

PROGRESS!!!”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“Now I wonder all the time how you go back after something like that. Whether we can ever be friends again, or if what we had is broken into pieces. Not because of her, but because of me.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Time

“No, he wasn't a pig. He was a lonely, hurt man who didn't know how to cope in a world that had turned its back on him. [Astrid]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

World, Hurt

“I'd like to be the sort of person who can enjoy things at the time, instead of having to go back in my head and enjoy them.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Time, Personality

“Jace threw himself against the door. It didn't budge. He cursed. "My shoulder will never be the same. I expect you to nurse me back to health."
-Jace to Clary, pg.284-”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Variant: My shoulder will never be the same. I expect you to nurse me back to health.'-Jace
'Just break the door down, will you?'-Clary
Source: City of Bones

Health

“There.” She tossed her hair back while he stared at her. “The sky did not fall, the world did not end, neither of us was struck by lightning or beamed straight to hell. I’m not your damn
sister, Delaney. That ought to make it clear.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Savor the Moment

World, Hell, Sister

“The whole family is a bunch of dangerous freaks… Most are ex-cons or junkies or deranged from inbreeding. Five have died violently, three are back in prison, two have gone insane from untreated venereal disease, and one writes book reviews.”

Tim Dorsey book Triggerfish Twist

Source: Triggerfish Twist

Books, Disease, Family

“You can't really move forward until you look back.

[From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

Universe

“Here I am
leaving you clues. I am singing now while Rome
burns. We are all just trying to be holy. My applejack,
my silent night, just mash your lips against me.
We are all going forward. None of us are going back.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Singing, Night

“If I try to summon back his face, the sound of his voice, and the sensation in my stomach like a key turning in a lock when he touched me, I lose everything.”

Joyce Carol Oates book First Love: A Gothic Tale

Source: First Love: A Gothic Tale

“Dinner's in one hour. If you're not back, sitting at the table, I'll beat you all unconscious with a spatula.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Blue Smoke

“Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.”

Bob Newhart (1929) American stand-up comedian and actor

Moving On, Laughter

“If I don't have time to live my life well the first time, when am I going to find the time to go back and live it over?”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Source: Uh-Oh

Life, Time

“Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Love, Help, Personality, Despair

“You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.”

Jodi Picoult Salem Falls

Variant: A very wise man once told me that you can't look back-you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.
Source: Salem Falls

Missing You, Moving On, Past, Future

“Oh, that's just great. I come all the way back here, risking major brain cell burnout, and you don't even believe me? I'm basically guaranteeing myself a lifetime of heartbreak, and all you have to say is that you think I'm not right in the head?”

Meg Cabot book Twilight

Source: Twilight

Way, Thinking

“Remorse is a terrible thing to bear, Pam, one of the worst of all punishments in this life. To wish undone something you have done, to wish you could look back on kindness to someone you love, instead of on unkindness - that is a very terrible thing.”

Enid Blyton (1897–1968) author

Source: House at the Corner

Love, Life

“He leaned down and whispered to me: No matter how thin you get, no matter how short you cut your hair, it's still going to be you underneath. And he let go of my arm and walked back down the hall.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Love, Life, Dreams, Country

“I'm told there's no going back. So I'm choosing forward.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“You both… you both saved me?"

"Come on," said Luis. "You make it sound like it was hard for Val to go to the Unseelie Court, strike a deal with Roiben, challenge Mabry to a duel, win back your heart, and then get back here during rush hour.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

Heart

“All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn't your pet — it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Reddit IAmA (c. April 2012) http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/s2uh1/i_am_joss_whedon_ama/c4ao0m1

Back To Work, Art

“The past always seems better when you look back on it than it did at the time. And the present never looks as good as it will in the future.”

Peter Benchley book Jaws

Source: Jaws

Time, Past, Future

“Don't push me
I've got a corner at my back
I've nowhere to go except over you.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: See A Grown Man Cry/Now Watch Him Die

“Many a housewife staring at the back of her husband's newspaper, or listening to his breathing in bed is lonelier than any spinster in a rented room.”

Germaine Greer (1939) Australian feminist author

Loneliness

“I left him in his wheelchair, staring sadly into the fireplace. I wondered how many times he’d sat here, waiting for heroes that never came back.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Time, Waiting

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

Edward O. Wilson (1929) American biologist

World

“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French photographer

“Mortal fear is as crucial a thing to our lives as love. It cuts to the core of our being and shows us what we are. Will you step back and cover your eyes? Or will you have the strength to walk to the precipice and look out?”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film

Love, Fear

“Reminds me of the red dress you wore the first time I had you. That was it for me, you know. You devastated me. There was no coming back from that.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

Time

“Like anyone nostalgic for a time he didn't live through, I chose to weed out the little inconveniences: polio, say, or the thought of eating stewed squirrel. The world was simply grander back then, somehow more civilized, and nicer to look at.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

World, Time

“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character… Would you slow down? Or speed up?”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Death, Change, Speed

“It’s strange how things can change back as suddenly as they changed originally. When one thing happens and suddenly, things are back to normal.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Change

“She had found him and was bringing back his thanks. Nor did she forget to mention that he had assured her that she was indeed the most beautiful fairy he had ever set eyes on.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkdeath

Beauty, Forgetting

“… as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn't touch.”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

Love, Death

“Don't open that door," she said. "The hallway is full of difficult dreams." And I asked her: "How do you know?" And she told me: "Because I was there a moment ago and I had to come back when I discovered I was sleeping on my heart.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Olhos de Cão Azul

Source: Ojos de perro azul

Dreams, Sleep, Heart

“I want Jesus to come back and say 'THATS NOT WHAT I MEANT'" -”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

“So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Home

“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Variant: summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screeneed porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Color, Sleep, Summer, Season

“One fine day, in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other. They pulled out their swords and shot one another. One deaf cop, on the beat heard the noise, and came and shot the two dead boys.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

Boy, Fight, Night, Dead

Quotes about back page 13

Quotes about back
page 13