Quotes about back
page 18

“Perhaps - I want the old days back again and they'll never come back, and I am haunted by the memory of them and of the world falling about my ears.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

World, Memory

“Half delirious, I slipped my hands around Whit's thick neck. The second Idid he got confident. His mouth moved over mine in a rough, unpracticed, awkward back-and-forth motion, so fast it was as if he was trying to create fire with our lips.”

Kieran Scott (1974) American writer

Source: Invitation Only

Confidence

“Life is a series of pulls back and forth… A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. Most of us live somewhere in the middle. A wrestling match… Which side win? Love wins. Love always wins”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Love, Life

“Evie ” came his faint whisper “I’m going to your mother see…she’s got ’em to leave a back door open…so I can steal into ’eaven.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Devil in Winter

“There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire

Time

“It is very hard to stay alive just for your own sake. It is very hard to stare into day after day without another familiar face staring back. It turns your heart into a purposeless muscle.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Heart

“And now I'm right back where I started. Sober and miserable.”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

“If so, then it was also here where I came to know I can survive what hurts. I believed in my capacity to stand back up and run into the waves again and again, no matter the risk.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Hurt

“It took hours to turn the clock back 30 seconds.”

Jonathan Franzen book Strong Motion

Source: Strong Motion

“Back in the time when life was easy, the Internet would have told me what I needed to know. The great thing about the Internet was it didn't care why you were asking.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

Source: This World We Live In

Life, Time

“Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Hyperion http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5436, Bk. IV, Ch. 8 (1839).

Fear, Past, Future, Heart

“Never depend on those luck moments – they are gifts – but instead always build your own back-up plan.”

Bear Grylls (1974) Chief Scout, adventurer, author

Source: Mud, Sweat and Tears

Dependency

“Mistress, I have never asked anything of you in my servitude. But now, I beg you this: do not make me keep passing these adolescent sentiments back and forth all night.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Shadow Heir

Night

“The simple things come back to us. They rest for a moment by our ribcages then suddenly reach in and twist our hearts a notch backward.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Heart

“At the most difficult moments of my life, when it seemed that every door was closed to me, the taste of those apricots comes back to comfort me with the notion that abundance is always within reach, if only one knows how to find it.”

Isabel Allende book Paula

Source: Paula

Life

“Prison for the crime of puberty—that was how secondary school had seemed, when he really thought back on it.”

David Brin book Earth

Part VIII (p. 462)
Source: Earth (1990)

School

“I used to think you were weak and just didn't fight back… but now, honestly, I think you're actually pretty tough. It takes a hell of a lot of strength to not complain and lash out.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Hell, Thinking, Fight

“While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Zorba the Greek

Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 6

Past, Happiness

“As I look back, I see that life is like a game of solitaire and every once in a while there is a move.”

James Salter book A Sport and a Pastime

Source: A Sport and a Pastime

Life, Game

“I hear a guttural sound followed by a weak sigh and look back at the bodies.
"I'm going to kill the kid," Barrons says faintly.
Ryodan makes a burbling sound like a bloody laugh. I don't think he even has the parts left to laugh with. "Get in line.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Thinking, Parting

“It costs me never a stab nor squirm

To tread by chance upon a worm.

"Aha, my little dear," I say,

"Your clan will pay me back some day."”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

First printed in New Yorker, (9 April 1927) p. 31
Sunset Gun (1927)

Chance

“I wrote back with a quick message:I hit send and received a response back from him almost immediately.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

“Girls can be so petty and jealous. I swear they're worse than guys sometimes. Except they're all quiet about it. They sugarcoat it or else they talk behind each other's backs. It's seriously twisted.”

Melody Carlson (1956) American writer

Source: The Jerk Magnet

Guy, Girl

“We say very little, for we do not need to. We are silent together, each in her own world, knowing the other is just at her back.”

Tracy Chevalier book Remarkable Creatures

Source: Remarkable Creatures

World

“There," she said. She rocked him back and forth. "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?”

Kate DiCamillo The Magician's Elephant

Source: The Magician's Elephant

Love, World, Beauty, Boy

“My eyes flew open, and I pushed back against rock-hard shoulders. I let out a little squeak of horror.

"It's me," said a familiar voice.

…"Eric, what are you doing here?"

"Snuggling.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

“It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out-and come back for more.”

Béla Lugosi (1882–1956) Hungarian actor

Love, Women, Cry

“The spirit of complaint is born out of an unwillingness to trust God with today.
Like the Israelites, it means you are spending your time looking back toward Egypt or wishing for the future all the while missing what God is doing right now.”

Priscilla Shirer (1974) American writer

God, Time, Future

“Hi,” Piper said, as casually as she could. “We’re back.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Hate, Girl, Sister, Tree

“At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what you've done with those accomplishments. Its about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It about what you've given back" (23).”

Denzel Washington (1954) actor, screenwriter, director, producer

Source: A Hand to Guide Me

“V?" Butch said. "Don't leave, okay?"
"Never." V brushed Butch's hair back with a gesture so tender it was out of place coming from a male.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed

Source: Lover Revealed

“A nun I know once told me she kept begging God to take her character defects away from her. After years of this prayer, God finally got back to her: I'm not going to take anything away from you, you have to give it to Me.”

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

Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

God

“I’ll take your bet,” he said grimly. “I’m going to win it. And in three months, I’m going to put this back on your finger, and take you to bed, and do things to you that are outlawed in the civilized world.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Devil in Winter

World

“Say you’ll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

God, Singing, Night

“… If you'd like to go back in there and try kicking him, I recommend aiming upward and a bit to the left”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“… because he had been waiting for someone to come back to him, so every time someone knocked on the door, he couldn't stop himself from hoping it might be that person, even though he knew he shouldn't hope.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Hope, Time, Waiting, Personality

“If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with.”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Heart

“People are best on records and books because you can turn them off or put them back on the shelf.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: Solipsist

People, Books

“I'll give you something to remember ME by… The back of my head!”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: The Coffin Club

“Besides, it's the first gift that's always the hardest to pay back. I wouldn't even have been here to do it if you hadn't helped me then.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Help

“Maybe all young men who love us become knights in shining armor when we love them back.”

Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer

Source: Golden: A Retelling of Rapunzel

Love, Men

“I felt like time was a great sea, and I was floating on the back of a turtle, and no sails broke the horizon.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Time, Sea

“Felix believed that the answer to every problem involved penguins; but it wasn't fair to birds, and I was getting tired of teleporting them back home. Somewhere in Antarctica, a whole flock of Magellanic penguins were undergoing psychotherapy.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Home, Problem, Bird

“I left her there crying as I walked toward the gate. A piece of my soul had died when Dimitri had fallen. Turning my back on her now, I felt another piece die as well. Soon there wouldn't be anything left inside me.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Soul, Cry

“I take back what I said about the donkey,’’ Ascanio said. ‘’She’s awesome”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

“I was a heartless, ungrateful wench of a girl who promised everyone who came into contact with me a one-way ticket to pain and hurt. I didn’t know how to love and I didn’t deserve to be loved back.”

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

Love, Pain, Way, Girl

“Believe me, It would be better if we didn't meet again. Go back to school. Go back to your life. And next time they ask you, say no. Killing is for grown-ups and you're still a child.”

Anthony Horowitz book Stormbreaker

Source: Stormbreaker

Life, School, Time

“I had always felt that mittens were a few steps back on the evolutionary scale-- why, I wondered, would we want to make ourselves into a less agile version of lobster.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“I wish they'd had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would've been straightened out.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

“I am sending back the key
that let me into bluebeard's study; because he would make love to me
I am sending back the key;
in his eye's darkroom I can see
my X-rayed heart, dissected body:
I am sending back the key
that let me into bluebeard s study.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Love, Making love, Study, Heart

“Men don't get knocked out, or I mean they can fight back against big things. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure. They get slowly scared. […]It's slow. It rots out your guts.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

Men, Failure, Fight

“Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Children, Home

“Then I let the stories live
inside my head, again and again
until the real world fades back
into cricket lullabies
and my own dreams.”

Jacqueline Woodson book Brown Girl Dreaming

Source: Brown Girl Dreaming

World, Dreams

“For twenty years I have ached to go back home, when there was nobody there to whom I could return.”

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

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Home

“The French have a new president, the British will soon have a new P. M., and we envy them as we endure the endless wait for this small dim man to go back to Texas and resume his life.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Life, Waiting, Envy

“storming, enjoying, planning, loving, cautioning,
Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing,
I tread day and night such roads.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

Love, Appearance, Night

“But Hale wasn't just a member of her crew who had messed up. He was Hale. Her Hale. And Kat just wanted him back.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Perfect Scoundrels

“The best way to write a novel is to do it behind your own back.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Way

“Ah, man, when Wolverine grows his face back, he's really gonna be pretty upset.”

Brian Michael Bendis (1967) American comic book writer and artist

Source: The New Avengers, Volume 2: Sentry

“Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

Suffering

“He lay back, put his arm over his eyes, and tried to hold onto the anger, because the anger made him feel brave. A brave man could think. A coward couldn't.”

Stephen King book Misery

Source: Misery

Feeling, Thinking, Anger

“Be happy, honey. No
one deserves it more. But don't forget… I'm
keeping one little piece of your heart for myself.
And if you ever want it back… you know
where to find it.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Heart, Forgetting, Happiness

“Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.”

Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies

Source: Bring Up the Bodies

Truth, Personality

“Average is very acceptable in our society but I don't think the angels are applauding. If you are determined to be excellent, to not back out of it, you will reap a harvest in your life.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Life, Angels, Thinking

“Back when I was on my first assignment as a seeker, I was way out in Arizona. Brought in this kid named Clarisse.”

“Clarisse?”

“Sibling of yours,” Hedge said. “Ares kid. Violent. Rude. Lots of potential.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Way, Siblings

“Good memories are like charms… Each is special. You collect them, one by one, until one day you look back and discover they make a long, colorful bracelet.”

James Patterson book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

Source: Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

Color, Memory

“I knit the afternoon away. I knit reasons for Elijah to come back. I knit apologies for Emma. I knit angry knots and slipped stitches for every mistake I ever made, and I knit wet, swollen stitches that look awful. I knit the sun down.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

Sun

“My mom beat me up," I informed my reflection. It looked back sympathetically.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Moms

“I was the basest of readers. All I wanted was my own world, and myself in it, given back to me in artful shapes and accessible form.”

Ian McEwan book Sweet Tooth

Source: Sweet Tooth

World, Art

“He continues to smile expectantly. I take a step back. I don't want to catch whatever he has. He is a disturbing out-of-uniform Santa.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Smile

“We laughed ourselves silly, taking back our shared past, gently, piece by piece.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

Past

“As far as he was concerned, there were only two good positions for a human. A female on her back. And a male facedown not breathing.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

“Piper!” Frank yelled. “Counter those empousai! We need some chaos.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” She started catcalling at the female demons: “Your makeup is smeared! Your friend called you ugly! That one is making a face behind your back!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Hell was not a pit of fire and brimstone. Hell was waking up alone, the sheets wet with your tears and your seed, knowing the woman you had dreamed of would never come back to you.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Seduce Me at Sunrise

Dreams, Hell, Tear

“Growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change -Clary Fray”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Change

“On your best day, you're only as good as I am on my worst with one arm tied behind my back.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

“The guy had literally been through hell and back. Even when he wasn’t trying, he made the toilets explode. What would Percy be like if he wanted to act scary?”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Guy, Hell

“fraught, adj.

Does every “I love you” deserve an “I love you too”? Does every kiss deserve a kiss back? Does every night deserve to be spent on a lover?
If the answer to any of these is “No,” what do we do?”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Love, Lovers, Kiss, Night

““Fifty years,” I hackneyed, “is a long time.”
“Not when you’re looking back at them,” she said. “You wonder how they vanished so quickly.””

Isaac Asimov book I, Robot

“Introduction”, p. 8
Source: I, Robot (1950)

Time

“I'll not deny I am impressed by your mastery of six warrens, Quick Ben. In retrospect, you should have held back on at least half of what you command." The man made to rise.
"But, Bauchelain," the wizard replied, "I did.”

Steven Erikson book Memories of Ice

Source: Memories of Ice

“As I walk back to the school on my own, I realise I'm crying. So I go back to the stories I've read about the five and I try to make sense of their lives because in making sense of theirs, I may understand mine.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

School, Understanding, Sense, Reading

“Yo can always take back the lost parts of yourself if you can find and recognize them.”

Jonathan Carroll (1949) novelist, short story writer

Parting

“Everyone had a forever, but given a choice, this would be mine. The one that began in this moment, with Wes, in a kiss that took my breath away, then gave it back - leaving me astounded, amazed, and most of all, alive.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Kiss

“It's so dark," she said lamely.

"You want me to hold your hand?"

Clary put both her hands behind her back like a small child.

"Don't talk down to me."

"Well, I could hardly talk up to you. You're too short.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“One can only walk so far from one's true self before the bond either snaps, or pulls one back.”

Robin Hobb book Royal Assassin

Source: Royal Assassin

“Finally the vampire released him with another groan, sitting back on his haunches. "Your blood isin power." Running his tongue over a fang, he said, "Among other things. I believe I might be high. But Iit.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

“He kissed me hard and I kissed him back harder, like it was the end of an era that had lasted all of my life.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Life, Kiss

“Now all the mute objects of my life seem to tell my story, to stretch back in time, if I look closely enough.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

Life, Time

“Can we go back to using Facebook for what it was originally for - looking up exes to see how fat they got?”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

“If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Tithe

Cats

“but back then, in those first days, I was so alone that every day was like eating my own heart.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

Heartbreaking, Heart, Sad

“Heroes aren't always the ones who win. They're the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Clary Fray, to Emma Carstairs, pg. 95
Variant: Heroes aren't always the ones who win. They're the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

Fight

“If it takes you apart, that's not love. Love puts you back together.”

Catherine Ryan Hyde (1955) American writer

Love