Quotes about back
page 17

“Our songs travel the earth. We sing to one another. Not a single note is ever lost and no song is original. They all come from the same place and go back to a time when only the stones howled.”

Louise Erdrich book The Master Butchers Singing Club

Source: The Master Butchers Singing Club

Travel, Singing, Time

“She went on because there was no going back.”

Juliet Marillier book Shadowfell

Source: Shadowfell

“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Light, Future, Night, Country

“You have to be with other people, he thought. In order to live at all. I mean before they came here I could stand it… But now it has changed. You can't go back, he thought. You can't go from people to nonpeople." - J. R. Isidore”

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

People, Change

“Stay with me." As the tendrils of sleep syrup pull me down, I hear him whisper a word back, but I don't quite catch it.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Sleep

“People with places to go and people with no place to go; people with a purpose and people with no purpose; people trying to hold time back and people trying to urge it forward”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

People, Time

“Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, / Shaped to the comfort of the last to go / As if to win them back”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Sadness, Home

“He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Way, Girl, Happiness

“Isabelle tugged her tank top back down and glared at her brother. “You don’t knock now?”

“It’s my bedroom!” Alec spluttered.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Fear, Anger

“she whispered.
I took a deep breath, I said, blinking back tears.”

Juliet Marillier book Wildwood Dancing

Source: Wildwood Dancing

Tear

“I'm talking about doing something good for mankind. Imagine how awesome everyone would feel if they knew all that holy stuff was real." -Gregori
"Stuff? Four years of giving sermons, and that what I get back? Holy stuff?”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: Vampire Mine

Feeling, Imagination

“A home to come back to every day of their lives.
Where they would all belong or long to be.
A place on the Jellicoe Road.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Home

“If you love something, set it free. If it was meant to be, it will come back to you.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Love

“Clary sat back. "You don't just get to say no."
"This plan involves me! I get to say no! No."
"Simon -"
Simon patted the seat beside him as if someone were sitting there. "Let me introduce you to my good friend No.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“… just a little touches her and there. He puts his hands on your arms or back, he stands close to you, getting you used to him… it's a mating ritual. Like March of the Penguins.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

“Will you follow me, Darsal? Will you Silvie? Will you both follow me to hell and back because two fuzzy white bats told me you should?”

Ted Dekker book Chosen

Source: Chosen

Hell

“This is what I wanted. This guy. This life. This me. I was never getting my old life back, and I didn't care. I was happy. I was safe. I was right where I wanted to be.”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

Life, Guy, Happiness

“What you buy is what you own, and sooner or later what you own will come back to you.”

Stephen King book It

Pet Sematary (1983)
Source: It

“What happens in the past, is in the past. But don't be surprised if it comes back and haunts you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Past

“Frank imitated the voice of Vitellius: 'They're wimps! Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Time

“As I looked back over my life, I realized that I enjoyed nothing--not art, not sex--more than going to the movies.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Life, Art, Sex

“… When I get you back, I’m gonna put that necklace back around your neck and pin you.” He tries to hold my eyes with his own. 'Like the 1950s.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

“You saved me," I said. Nathaniel put his hands on either side of my face. "I had to," he said. "So you could save me back.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

“Oh, God," I said.
"No, it's Dexter," he replied, offering me his hand, which I ignored.
He glanced behind him, then back at me. "I'll see you soon," he said, and grinned at
me.
"Like hell," I replied”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

God, Hell

“Boomerang arrow, Kate -- It comes back to you in the end. Boomerang. Respect it.”

Matt Fraction (1975) American comic book writer

Source: Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon

“What I needed with all my starved and silent soul was just that particular way of shouting back at the world.”

Iris Murdoch book The Sea, the Sea

Source: The Sea, the Sea

World, Way, Soul

“Empty pockets never held anyone back…it's only empty heads and empty hearts that do it.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

"Enthusiasm makes the difference" (2003), p. 58

Heart

“I’m not totally mad at you. I’m just sad. You’re all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go right back inside.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

World, Sadness, Madness

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Life, World, Literature, Sense

“T. V. has brought murder back into the home where it belongs.”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British filmmaker

National Observer (15 August 1966).
Variant: One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs
Context: One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.

Home

“The problem with labels is that they lead to stereotypes and stereotypes lead to generalizations and generalizations lead to assumptions and assumptions lead back to stereotypes.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Problem

“Come back. Even as a shadow, even as a dream.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Heartbreaking, Dreams, Sad

“Must have been quite the culture shock, going there.”
“Yes it was.” Idris doesn’t say that the real culture shock has been in coming back.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“JACE WAYLAND," she said. "Explain yourself."
Jace was glaring at the cat. "I told you to bring me to Alec! Backstabing Judas."
Church rolled onto his back, purring contentedly.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Cats

“I noticed that once you realize
someone's watching you it's pretty hard not to find yourself
watching them back.”

Meg Rosoff book How I Live Now

Source: How I Live Now

“A boomerang returns back to the person who throws it.

But first, while moving in a circle, it hits its target.

So does gossip.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Personality

“Oh, Claire," he said. "You think me a far better man than I am. That's kind, and flattering."
"Are you saying that you -"

"Doughnuts!" Myrnin interrupted her and darted away, to zip back in seconds with an open box.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Thinking, Box

“Michael had once read to her how God had cast a man and woman out of paradise. Yet, for all their human faults and failures. God had shown them the way back in.”

Francine Rivers (1947) American writer

Source: Redeeming Love

God, Way, Failure, Reading

“If your going to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Nature, Time, Parting

“It hadn't been so long ago, yet sometimes she felt that she'd been an altogether different person back then.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Personality

“But Iget afraid. It's just that fear makes me sort of… angry and resentful, and I bite back at it. It's hard to describe."

It isn't hard to describe, you idiot," Aud said. "It's called courage.”

Jonathan Stroud book Heroes of the Valley

Source: Heroes of the Valley

Fear, Courage

“If, when you talk to people, they keep backing away from you, it's because you're TOO CLOSE, alright? SO DON'T KEEP ADVANCING ON THEM LIKE A HUMAN GLACIER.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

People

“We’ll be back!” he snarled.
It was really Ari’s voice.
Boy, you just can’t kill people like you used to,” said Fang”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

People, Boy

“Love the people who love you back.”

Laura Ruby American writer

Source: Bad Apple

Love, People

“Life is a gift and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Relationship, Life

“They were careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Variant: They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Source: The Great Gatsby

Money, People

“Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Time

“Now sod off back to your own world, you motherless scum, and save your threats for those who care.”

Darren Shan book Lord Loss

Source: Lord Loss

World

“You don't have to look back to see those children; part of your mind will see them forever. They are not necessarily the best part of you, but they were once the repository of all you could become.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It (1986)

Children, Parting

“I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

Time

“Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Patience

“People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.”

James Baldwin book No Name in the Street

No Name in the Street (1972)

People, Water

“He loved her beyond all reason and didn't expect her to love him back. He was just waiting for her to wise up.”

Patricia Briggs book Hunting Ground

Source: Hunting Ground

Love, Waiting

“The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert

Time, Future

“You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Sense

“When it's gone, you'll know what a gift love was. You'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.”

Ian McEwan book Enduring Love

Source: Enduring Love

Love, Suffering, Fight

“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 need to get ready. Ash? Touch the food and I won't take you for a driving lesson tomorrow. Dad? Touch it and I'll maketake him for a driving lesson tomorrow."

Dad backed away from the counter. Ash scowled. I laughed and continued upstairs.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Source: The Rising

Food

“Yesterday is another world. I want to go back there.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

World

“All the bright precious things fade so fast, and they don't come back.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

“Back in Khufu's day I knew a magician who parted the Nile just so he could climb to the bottom and retrieve a girl's necklace. Then there was that Israelite fellow, Mickey."
"Moses?"
"Yeah, him.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Girl, Parting

“There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over the Angers, and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back. Would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn't been trying to save her life.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Life, Anger

“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Communication

“Cary rocked back on his heels and twirled one index finger around another in a sign meaning, wrapped around your finger., I thought, since he was wrapped around my heart.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Heart

“Now I felt like I was drifting, sucked down by an undertow, and too far out to swim back to the shore.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

“She would be a new person, she vowed. They said no matter how far a mule travels it can never come back a horse, but she would show them all.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Travel, Horse, Personality

“Both looked back then on the wild revelry… and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Solitude

“The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

Suffering, Time

“Looking back, I guess I used to play-act all the time. For one thing, it meant I could live in a more interesting world than the one around me.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

World, Time

“This is not a good time, Miss Implant." Roman felt Jean-Luc jabbing him in the back with his walking stick. "Uh, Porky. No, I mean--" Damn, what the hell was her name?”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

Hell, Time

“Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul”

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

Source: The Bob Dylan Scrapbook: 1956-1966

Death, Money, Soul, Forgiveness

“It seems to me that the less I fight my fear, the less it fights back. If I can relax, fear relaxes, too.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Fear, Fight

“Unfinished business always comes back to haunt you, and a man who swears he'll love you forever isn't finished with you until he's done.”

Alice Hoffman book Here on Earth

Source: Here on Earth

Love, Business

“The real alchemy consists in being able to turn gold back again into something else; and that's the secret that most of your friends have lost.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Secret

“Tyler lies back and asks, "If Marilyn Monroe were alive right now, what would she be doing?"

I say, goodnight.

The headliner hangs down in shreds from the ceiling and Tyler says, "Clawing at the lid of her coffin.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

Way, Knowledge, Thinking, Parent

“Some things don't need to be cut back. They need to be cut off.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Source: Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy - Member Book

“By looking far out into space we are also looking far back into time, back toward the horizon of the universe, back toward the epoch of the Big Bang.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Universe, Time

“The warlock's gaze, on the flames, was remote and distant, as if he were looking back into the past. Simon couldn't help but remember what Magnus had said to him once, about living forever:
Someday you and I will be the only two left.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Distant, Past, Help

“You learned this,” Kabsal said, lifting up her drawing of Jasnah, “from a book.”
“Er…yes?”
He looked back at the picture. “I need to read more.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Books, Learning, Reading, Drawing

“Yes, here I am returning, the woman who bore herself to the bottom and back. Who wanted to swim like dolphins, leaping waves and diving. Who wanted only to belong to herself.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Mermaid Chair

Source: The Mermaid Chair

“I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Christ

“What good is regret? It brings back nothing. What we have lost is irretrievable.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“They come in injured and mangled, we put them back together, then they stand inhalls making demands. A thankless lot to be sure.”

Kristen Britain book First Rider's Call

Source: First Rider's Call

“I hammered him with my fists. He just stood and took it. He didn't suffer graciously, he looked pissed off to no end. But he let me hit him. And he didn't hit me back.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Suffering

“We know there's going to be nothing but pain, but we go back again and again.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

Pain

“… no one who has passed through the storm has ever regretted the journey. No one stands here and wishes to go back to the other side.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

“Don't neglect the gold in your own back yard.”

Ben Okri (1959) Nigerian writer

“One day I’m going to find a way to rid you of that beast resting on your arm. (Artemis)
(He looked at her over his shoulder.)
And one day I’m going to find a way to rid myself of the beast resting on my back. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Way

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

As quoted in Grace Notes (1989) by Rita Dove

Water, Memory, Perfection

“Let me love you, but don't love me back. Do love me and let me hate you for a while. Let me feel like I have some control, because I know I never do.”

Ann Brashares (1967) American children's writer

Love, Hate, Feeling

“Men go where they will, they do as they must; it is not a woman's part to bid them to stay, nor yet to reproach them for being what they are-or for not coming back.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Fiery Cross

Source: The Fiery Cross

Men, Parting

“True. I'd always hoped that when I finally said 'I love you' to a girl, she'd say 'I know' back, like Leia did to Han in Return of the Jedi.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Variant: I'd always hoped that when i said 'I Love You' to a girl, she'd say 'I Know' like Leia did to Han in Return Of The Jedi
Source: City of Bones

Love, Hope, Girl

“And it was because of their long history that he searched for something to say, something that would get them back to where they had been.

All that came to him was…”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Mine

History, Search

“I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back the same day.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian