Quotes about back
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“So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Dreams

“The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Girl

“Like other ghosts, she whispers; not for me to join her, but so that, when I'm close enough, she can push me back into the world.”

Anne Michaels book Fugitive Pieces

Source: Fugitive Pieces

World

“You know when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs and you lean too far so you almost fall over but at the last second you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time…”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Feeling, Time

“Don't wrench your shoulder out of its socket trying to pat yourself on the back," Beldin said sourly.”

David Eddings (1931–2009) American novelist

Source: The Seeress of Kell

“Race you to the road?" I said.
"You are so going to lose." She (Annabeth) took off down Half-Blood Hill and I sprinted after her.
For once, I didn't look back.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“I keep coming back to you in my head, but you couldn't know that, and I have no carbons”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

“Out of the nursery into the college and back into the nursery; there’s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Past

“Looking back, it seemed like it should have been harder to lose someone, or have them lose you, especially when they were in the same state, only a few towns over.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“human relationships simply aren't
durable.
I think back to the women in
my life.
they seem non-existent.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Life, Women, Thinking

“When you come back you will not be you. And I may not be I.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

Source: The Life to Come and Other Stories

Sad

“When life gives you lemons, chunk it right back.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Life

“Friendship is like a glass ornament, once it is broken it can rarely be put back together exactly the same way.”

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) English clergyman, historian and novelist

Heartbreaking, Friendship, For Friend, For Bestfriend

“Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of the field in hope that the cow will back up to them.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Hope

“In her way, she was a hard one. Faith in any sort of natural justice was nothing but a night light; she knew of that. Whatever she did, she would end the same way with everyone does: flat on her back with a tube in her nose, wondering, "Is this all?”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

Faith, Justice, Way, Nature

“Wait!" Conrad said. "Did someone… one of my enemies set this fire?"
Nix turned back with a grin. "Unless you'd pissed off some wirring-hungry nutrias, then I'm going with no.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Needs at Night's Edge

Waiting

“They hurt you. You hurt 'em back. Or maybe it is the other way around. Whatever. Someday you might find a way to forgive each other. But it won't be like it used to 'cause that pain never really goes away.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future for You

Pain, Way, Forgiveness, Hurt

“Screw you," I told him in a low voice.
"Are you offering?”
"From what I've heard, there isn't much to screw," I shot back.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

“Remember that even in war there is a time for restraint. A time to hold back your sword.”

Suzanne Collins book Gregor and the Code of Claw

Source: Gregor and the Code of Claw

War, Time

“I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into myself.”

John Ciardi (1916–1986) American poet, professor, translator

Source: This Strangest Everything

Smile, Silence

“Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.”

Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright

The Zoo Story (1959)
Variant: It's one of those things a person has to do; sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.
Source: The American Dream & The Zoo Story

Way

“If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Way, Business

“Problems worthy of attacks, prove their worth by hitting back”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Problem

“What am I supposed to do,
Sit around and wait for you?
Well I can't do that,
And there's no turning back.
I need time to move on,
I need love to feel strong.
Cause I've got time to think it through,
And maybe I'm too good for you!”

Cher (1946) American singer and actress

Love, Feeling, Thinking, Strong

“Artemis Fowl grinned right back at him and pointed his index finger to the sky… from the tip of this finger sprang a small blue spark that exploded like a tiny firework.
“I know magic can be stolen,” said Artemis. “Because I stole some myself.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

“Can we go to work now? Because we're about a minute away from breaking out the
ice cream and talking about our feelings, and I don't think we can come back from that.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Feeling, Thinking

“I know, but no matter what I choose I have to live with it. Forever. I have to be able to go forward and not look back anymore. Can you understand that?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Understanding

“Body and soul, let's all go / transformed into arrows! / Piercing the air / body and soul, let's go / with no turning back.”

Ko Un (1933) korean poet

Soul

“He didn't look back. He never did”

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

“And the memories of all we have loved stay and come back to us in the evening of our life. They are not dead but sleep, and it is well to gather a treasure of them.”

Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Love, Life, Sleep, Memory

“By the time they got to Denholm Street, day had been beaten back and the night was soaking through the city.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Time, Night

“Haven't you ever wished that you could steal back just a few hours of your past?" she asked softly. "That's all I want… just a little taste of what might have been.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Again the Magic

Past

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Beyond This Horizon

Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 15, “Probably a blind alley—”, p. 147
Context: Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.

Life

“Yesterday's gone on down the river and you can't get it back.”

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove

Source: Lonesome Dove

“Are we going to New Orleans?"

"No", she said, backing out of the spot. "We're going to West Virginia."

"I assume by 'West Virginia,' you actually mean 'Hawaii,'" I said. "Or some place equally exciting.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“He always did the leaving. But not this time. She kept walking, and did not look back.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Time

“Take it back, Ed. Take it all back.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

“Forgiveness has its comforts, but it can never give you back what you've lost.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: One Last Thing Before I Go

Forgiveness

“They say - "they" being the great philosophers, or possibly the cast of Seinfeld - that breaking up is like pushing over a Coke machine. You can't just do it, you have to set the thing in motion, rock it back and forth a few times.”

Jennifer Weiner book Good in Bed

Source: Good in Bed

Time

“Every night when I go to bed I think, In the morning I will wake up in my own house and things will be back the way they were.
It hasn’t happened this morning, either.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Way, Thinking, Housing, Night

“The world rests upon a turtle, which itself stands on the back of an elephant!”
Alek tried not to laugh. “Then what does the elephant stand on, madam?”
“Don’t try to be clever, young man.” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s elephants all the way down!”

Scott Westerfeld book Behemoth

Source: Behemoth

World, Way

“Just because i know how to change a guys oil doesn't mean i want to spend the rest of my life on my back, staring up his undercarriage.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Source: Metro Girl

Life, Guy, Change

“Do act mysterious. It always keeps them coming back for more.”

Carolyn Keene book Nancy's Mysterious Letter

Source: Nancy's Mysterious Letter

“I have this strange feeling that I'm not myself anymore. It's hard to put into words, but I guess it's like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

Feeling

“The god's voice was tinged with disappointment. you"I've been to Tartarus and back," Nico snarled. "You don't scare me."”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

God, Disappointment

“Those were strange days, now that I look back at them. In the midst of life, everything revolved around death.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Life, Death

“He had everything a dream boy should have. Back, front, sides, Everything. A head.”

Louise Rennison book Withering Tights

Source: Withering Tights

Dreams, Boy

“Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”

Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books

As quoted in Questions to an Artist Who Is Also an Author : A Conversation between Maurice Sendak and Virginia Haviland (1972) by Virginia Haviland
Context: I believe there is no part of our lives, our adult as well as child life, when we're not fantasizing, but we prefer to relegate fantasy to children, as though it were some tomfoolery only fit for the immature minds of the young. Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.

Children, Way, Reality

“Shotgun!" announced Clary as Jace came back around the side of the van.
Alec grabbed for his bow, strapped across his back. "Where?"
"She means she wants the front seat," said Jace, pushing wet hair out of his eyes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“In a way, looking back, it seemed a long, long time since she had been eighteen, but in another way her memories were so clear and vivid that it seemed like yesterday.”

Helen Hooven Santmyer (1895–1986) American novelist

Way, Memory, Time

“Fifteen!" Dess's distant cry reached him. "Where the hell are you, Rex? Ten. You're-an-idiot-nine, get-back-here-eight, you-dimwit-seven…”

Scott Westerfeld book Blue Noon

Source: Blue Noon

Hell, Distant, Cry

“Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don't drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor's yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.”

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

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Time, Training

“Missing you?" she giggled incredulously. "I could cheerfully murder you."
"I'd come back to haunt you," he threatened with a grin.
"And that," she said, "is the only reason why I haven't tried.”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

“Do whatever you must, Karigan," he told her, his voice so quiet it would not carry, "to come back. You must come back. To me." ~King Zachary”

Kristen Britain book Blackveil

Source: Blackveil

“There is something incredibly arousing about being wanted. I pulled my hand back and sucked in a deep breath. “Adam,” I said.”

Patricia Briggs book Silver Borne

Source: Silver Borne

“I kept staring into the blackness of the woods, drawn into the darkness as I always had been. I suddenly realized how alone I was. (But this is how you travel, the wind whispered back, this is how you've always lived.)”

Bret Easton Ellis book Lunar Park

Source: Lunar Park

Travel

“She won't give him back his look.”

Raymond Carver book Cathedral

Source: Cathedral

“Happy birthday, Alexander," Magnus murmured.
"Thanks for remembering," Alec whispered back.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything

Birthday, Birthday, Happiness

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I want. To help my girlfriend get her old boyfriend back.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Help

“The world, like a great iris of an even more gigantic eye, which has also just opened and stretched out to encompass everything, stared back at him.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine

World

“And she would not hold back his limbs when his heart was gone to the woods, for it is ever the way of witches with any two things to care for the more mysterious of the two.”

Lord Dunsany book The King of Elfland's Daughter

Source: The King of Elfland's Daughter

Way, Heart

“Once heaven is done with grandma, we'd like her back, thanks.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Grandma

“He’s very pretty. For a human.”
“He’s very broken,” said Magnus. “Like a lovely vase that someone has smashed. Only luck and skill can put it back together the way it was before.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Way

“Give out what you most want to come back.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Greatness Guide: Powerful Secrets for Getting to World Class

“Larry is back in town… The wedding is set for October. Tammy is threatening to have me in the wedding. Some friends they are.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Cerulean Sins

Source: Cerulean Sins

Wedding

“Sometimes there's just no way to hold back the river.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Way

“But then Froi looked back to where his work lay unfinished and it made him sad because there had been something about the touch of earth in his hands that made him feel worthwhile.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Sadness, Feeling

“After a minute, Gat leaned back and let me go first. “Not because you’re a girl but because I’m a good person,” he told me.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Girl, Personality

“A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

“It's of no use to look back and say, "I should have been different." At any given moment, we are the way we are, and we see what we're able to see. For that reason, guilt is always inappropriate.”

Charlotte Joko Beck (1917–2011) US American Zen Teacher

Source: Nothing Special

Way

“You been down to the bottom with a bad man, babe
But you're back were you belong”

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

“It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness.
They're so hard to pull.
And grow back so easily.”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: The Running Dream

“But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Fate, Chance

“Holding a tear back makes them drain upward, higher and higher, until one day your head just explodes and you're left with a stub of a neck and nothing more.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Tear

“As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

A Note to the Reader
Source: The Historian (2005)
Context: As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching back that endangers us; sometimes history itself reaches inexorably forward for us with its shadowy claw.

History, Learning

“I am not sure I trust you."
"You can trust me with your life, My King."
"But not with my wine, obviously. Give it back.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Life, Wine

“In the final seconds before sleep, I wish I could go back and undo everything, give those little girls another chance.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

Girl, Sleep, Chance

“You loved me as hard as you knew how. I'd give anything to go back and love you better…”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: NOS4A2

Love

“Blue to get ready
Green to go
Yellow to guide you through the snow
Orange to warn you that over you’ll go
Then red will be the final glow
Now seek the black, there’s no going back.”

Angie Sage book Queste

Source: Queste

“You're not getting this back you know. Consider it an asshole tax.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

“Words. Borne on the ever swelling current of hatred, like flowers opening in the current, petals peeling back, then falling apart.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Lestat

Source: The Vampire Lestat

Flowers

“I never trust people with no appetite. It's like they're always holding something back on you.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 35, Nail Clippers, Butter Sauce, Iron Vase
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

People

“echo, the death of a sound that had nowhere to go but to come back.”

Janet Fitch (1955) American writer

Source: Paint it Black

Death

“Leeda knew friends never turned out to be what you expected. They came and went in waves, pulling away and coming back, leaving you feeling safe one minute and lost the next.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Peaches

Feeling

“Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. Yor rareley miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences.”

Richard Ford book The Lay of the Land

Source: The Lay of the Land

People

“There's a pleasure to loving someone even when you know there's no chance in them loving you back. The pain I felt let me know I was still alive.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: Margarettown

Love, Pain, Pleasure, Chance

“Yes, the stories are dangerous, she was right. A book is a magic carpet that flies you off elsewhere. A book is a door. You open it. You step through. Do you come back?”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Books

“He stepped closer to her. "Thank you for saving me," he said softly, and wrapped the bones of his arms around her. Valkyrie smiled and hugged him back.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Dark Days

Smile

“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.”

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

“Amy felt her phone vibrate. She held it up. It was from Ian.

DON'T ASK THE PRICE OF ANYTHING. DON'T SMILE. DON'T SAY "DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING CHEAPER?" DON'T

Amy shoved the phone back in her pocket. "Just pretend to be Ian," she told Dan.”

Jude Watson book A King's Ransom

Source: A King's Ransom

Smile

“He wanted to take his love back from her so badly. The old techniques didn’t work anymore. In fact, they’d never worked. How do you stop loving someone? It was one of the world’s more brutal mysteries. The more you tried, the less it worked.”

Ann Brashares (1967) American children's writer

Love, World

“I'll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I'm not crazy about. I'm pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro-death. I'm not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I…”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Death, God

“So what really happened to you? (Astrid)
Nothing. (Zarek)
Well, I hope I never come across Nothing then if it’s capable of putting a hole in my back. (Astrid)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Hope

“I hadn’t crossed the line. I’d ridden an elephant up to it and run back and forth along its edge while a mariachi band played in the background, but I hadn’t crossed it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Binds

“But paradise is locked and bolted….
We must make a journey around the world to see if a back door has perhaps been left open.”

Heinrich Von Kleist (1777–1811) German poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer

Source: On a Theatre of Marionettes

World

“He gripped her nape. "I fuckin' love you, Regin!" Rain spiked his lashes as he gazed down at her, commanding her,
"Love Me Back”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Love

“You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea and you always double knot your shoelaces.' I fight back. Then I dive back into my tent before I do something stupid like cry.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Variant: But more words tumble out. 'You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.'

Then I dive into my tent before I do something stupid like cry.
Source: Mockingjay

Stupidity, Sleep, Fight, Tea

“Take back the smile and the night, take it all back, I wish I could.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Smile, Night