Quotes about breath
page 5

“We’ve got to get these guys to Bubba’s. Anyone got a clue how to do it? (Nick)
They gotta be breathing? (Simi)
Yes. (Nick and Caleb)
Well, pooh. That just takes all the fun out of it. (Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Guy

“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.”

Annie Dillard book The Living

Source: The Living

Books, Reading

“I'll kiss you until we can't breathe. I'll strip you naked and taste every inch of you. Then I'll shag you until neither of us can see straight.”

Meljean Brook (1977)

Source: The Iron Duke

Kiss

“I like living, breathing better than working… my art is that of living. Each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral, it's a sort of constant euphoria.”

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor

Art

“Most of all she loved that when she hugged him her head would rest neatly just below his chin, where she could feel his breath lightly blowing her hair and tickling her head.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Love, Feeling

“she held her breath, and in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that for each second she didn’t breathe, God would grant her another day”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

God

“Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.”

John Stuart Mill book On Liberty

Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being

Freedom, Personality

“Trust me?" I held my breath for her answer. She had every reason not to trust me. I'd been her kidnapper, her captor, yet I'd rather have died than hurt a single hair on her head.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Source: Beastly

Hurt

“We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

World

“The delicious breath of rain was in the air.”

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) American author

“We could get kinky and see how bats and rats make love, he suggested in a whisper, warm breath against her neck.
You are a sick man, Jacques. Very, very sick.”

Christine Feehan book Dark Desire

Source: Dark Desire

Love, Making love

“I wonder that religion can live or die on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze. The scent trail shifts, causing the predator to miss the pounce. One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Life, God, Religion, Drawing

“He willed his body to remain unaffected. Sabin would fuss if Strider sported a hard-on around his precious. And, of course, "fuss" meant Strider would find his intestines wrapped around his neck, breathing a thing of the past.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Surrender

Sport, Past

“One day you may kiss a man you can’t breathe without, and find breath is of little consequence.”
“Right, and one day my prince might come.”
“I doubt he’ll be a prince, Ms. Lane. Men rarely are.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Men, Kiss

“I was running from one problem or place to another, with no time left to study, or sleep, or just breathe. I felt pulled in all directions, fighting to keep all these obligations circling in the air above me. It was only a matter of time before something fell.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

Problem, Sleep, Study, Time

“It's going to be a lot of work, Gideon," Eva warned him.

"I'm not afraid of work." He was touching me restlessly as if it were as necessary to him as breathing. "I'm only afraid of losing you.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“There's a ghost in this house! An unquiet spirit!"
Unquiet spirit?" Shane said under his breath. "Is that politically correct for pissed off? You know, like Undead American or something?”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Housing

“You, Lilah, scare the hell out of me."
"Why?" she whispered.
He met her gaze and held it. "Because I could fall for you, Lilah. Hard and deep and never want to come back up."
She could scarcely breathe. "What's wrong with that?"
"We'd drown.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Animal Magnetism

Hell

“They adore you beacause they think you offer up your friendship and ask for nothing in return. But that's not true-' He took a deep breath. 'You do ask for something. You ask that we never expect you to need us.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Source: Kartography

Friendship, Thinking

“One day you will kiss a man you can't breathe without, and find that breath is of little consequence.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Kiss

“See them together and you will feel a force that will take your breath away.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Feeling

“The world had taken a deep breath and was having doubts about continuing to revolve.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

World

“… to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Hate, Hell, Heart

“How to stop time: kiss.
How to travel in time: read.
How to escape time: music.
How to feel time: write.
How to release time: breathe.”

Matt Haig book Reasons to Stay Alive

Source: Reasons to Stay Alive

Music, Travel, Feeling, Kiss

“We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath of life. We die in order to live.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

Life, God, Dead

“Sometimes I breathe you in and I know you know.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

“But now it was spring again, and spring was almost unbearable for sensitive hearts. It drove creation to its utmost limits, it wafted its spice-laden breath even into the nostrils of the innocent.”

Knut Hamsun book Dreamers

Source: Dreamers

Spring, Heart

“Taking a deep breathe, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life.
I walked away.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Life, Decision

“Heartache, Daphne eventually learned, never really went away; it just dulled. The sharp, stabbing pain that one felt with each breath eventually gave way to a blunter, lower ache—the kind that one could almost—but never quite—ignore.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Duke and I

Pain, Way, Learning

“Why couldn't Jesus command us to obsess over everything, to try to control and manipulate people, to try not to breathe at all, or to pay attention, stomp away to brood when people annoy us, and then eat a big bag of Hershey's Kisses in bed?”

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

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

People, Kiss

“Sweet mother of chaos," he breathed. "Rachel, you are indeed one of us. Have your time in the sun. You're worth the extra wait.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

Time, Waiting, Sun

“Every story I've written was written because I had to write it. Writing stories is like breathing for me; it is my life.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Life

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

Juliet Marillier book Wildwood Dancing

Source: Wildwood Dancing

Tear

“Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Love, p. 167
Collected Poems (1993)
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Love, Life, Death, For Wife

“It’s just a mild disagreement, Papa. Remi has this whole need to breathe in and out, which annoys me. If he would just stop breathing, I’d be fine. (Aimee)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

“Spira, spera.

(breathe, hope)”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Hope

“This world, it breathes you in … it knows you, and then it breathes you out again, shares you.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Beauty of Darkness

World

“In Alexander's life there was one thread that could not be broken by death, by distance, by time, by war. Could not be broken. As long as I am in the world, she said with her breath and her body, as long as I am, you are permanent, soldier.”

Paullina Simons book Tatiana and Alexander

Source: Tatiana and Alexander

Life, Death, War, World

“And no matter what anybody says about grief and about time healing all wounds, the truth is, there are certain sorrows that never fade away until the heart stops beating and the last breath is taken.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Truth, Time, Heart

“Hark, his hands the lyre explore!
Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er
Scatters from her pictured urn
Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian

III. 3, Line 2 <br class="br"> The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?textpppo (1754) <br class="br">Source: Selected Poems

“You…you got rid of that dress fast," I pointed out between heavy breaths. "I thought you liked it."
"I do like it," he said. His breathing was as heavy as mine. "I love it."
And then he took me to the bed.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Love

“I will meet you on the nape of your neck one day, on the surface of intention, word becoming act.
We will breathe into each other the high mountain tales, where the snows come from, where the waters begin.”
-In the yellow time of pollen”

Luke Davies (1962) Australian writer

Mountain, Water, Time

“Nice creepy reptile,” Frank said, very aware of the driftwood in his coat pocket. “Nice poisonous, fire-breathing reptile.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“Not all monsters were three-ton reptiles with poisonous breath. Many wore human faces.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

“The dead are never far from us. They're in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.”

William Kent Krueger book Ordinary Grace

Source: Ordinary Grace

Heart, Dead

“Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
West Wind (1997)

Life

“… and the distance between them, millimeters only, the space of a breath, opened up and deepened, became a cavern at whose edge he stood.”

Kim Edwards book The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Source: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

“Well, you know, your mom gets like this sometimes," Simon said. "Like when she breathes in or out.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Moms

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Shadows

Love, Good Morning, love

“She died--this was the way she died;
And when her breath was done,
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Source: Selected Poems

Angels, Way, Sun

“You leave the phone on beside you as you fall asleep. I sit in my bed and listen to your breathing, until I know you are safe, until I know you no longer need me for the night.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Night

“The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.”

Steven Erikson book Toll the Hounds

Source: Toll the Hounds

Love, Soul

“Old Dan must have known he was dying. Just before he drew his last breath, he opened his eyes and looked at me. Then with one last sigh, and a feeble thump of his tail, his friendly gray eyes closed forever.”

Wilson Rawls book Where the Red Fern Grows

Source: Where the Red Fern Grows

“Filters are for cigarrettes and coffee," Simon muttered under his breath as they went inside. "Two things I could use right now, incidentally.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Coffee

“The song was born on her breathe and died at her lips.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Nykyrian gave him a feral grimace. But when he spoke, his soft, lilting tone belied his fierce expression. “Syn… what can I say? I love you, man. I can’t live without you. are the air I breathe.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Silence

Love

“I am alive, I live, I breathe, I put my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“Nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Nature and Selected Essays

Color, Nature, Holiday

“Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.”

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

“As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch. What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Pain, Question, Solitude, Silence

“Battle with unconditioned breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate slowly. Live a three-dimensional life; stay away from screens.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Life, Communication

“What one does in one's art, that is the breath of one's being. What one does in one's life, that is a bagatelle for the outsiders to fuss about.”

D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love

Source: Women in Love

Life, Art

“Warmblood now a bloodborne death,
Will rob your body of it's breath
Mark your skin and seal your fate
The Underland becomes a plate”

Suzanne Collins Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Source: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Death, Fate

“Hey, Ms. P," Tad called, "what's going on?"
She let out a slow breath before she answered. "You won't believe this… Brian Murrey tried to eat Scott Morgan."
Nick's eyes widened at the unexpected explanation. Had he heard that right?”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“When I can feel you breathing into me i, like a stone gargoyle
atop some crumbling building,
spring to life
a resuscitated
angel.”

Saul Williams (1972) American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor

Source: , said the shotgun to the head.

Life, Angels, Feeling, Spring

“And she was terribly aware that she was alive. Not just living and breathing, but… alive.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: Simply Love

“It wasn't good, he wasn't good, he did not have good intentions. I stood there, and he stood there. He breathed out the bitter air that makes women doubt everything, and I breathed it in, as I had always done.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Women

“Whatever. Boris, must you constantly breathe on me?”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Princess in Love

“The Operative tried to implement the Purusey breathing technique, which has been proven effective at fooling polygraphs. There is no conclusive evidence as to
whether it is effective at masking the internal lie detectors of fifteen-year-old boys.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Lie, Fools, Boy

“I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing.”

Joan Didion The Year of Magical Thinking

Source: The Year of Magical Thinking

Imagination, Nature

“It's so quiet and peaceful out here I'm getting bored with breathing. Maybe we'll get lucky and the world will go to Hell again. Fingers crossed.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Aloha from Hell

World, Peace, Hell

“Imagine who she would be if we unleashed her onto the world. I think she would rip the breath from all of us.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

World, Imagination, Thinking

“However in the world did her skin come green?" Nanny wondered, stupidly, for Melena blanched and Frex reddened, and the baby held her breath as if trying to turn blue to please them all. Nanny had to slap her to make her breath again.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

World, Baby

“Breathe in, breathe out, move on…”

Jimmy Buffett (1946) American singer–songwriter and businessman

“Seven half-bloods shall answer the call
To storm or fire the world must fall
An oath to keep with a final breath
and foes bear arms to the doors of death”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Death, World

“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

“My heart skipped a beat and then flat-out tripped over itself and fell on its face. Then my heart stood up, brushed itself off, took a deep breath and announced: "I want a spiritual teacher.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Teachers, Heart

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live”

Andrea Levy book The Long Song

Source: The Long Song

Love, Good Morning, love

“Living was okay, but it wasn't the breaths people took that measured a life. It was the moments that took those breaths away that mattered the most. And Dev did that every time he looked at her. Naked or not.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: No Mercy

Life, People, Time

“breathe in experience breathe out poetry”

Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist

“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

“I shook my head no. For minutes, neither of us spoke a word. It breathed between us, what he had said, the pain of a life suppressed, of happiness never to be.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Life, Pain, Happiness

“So, does this make you visibly challenged? (Nick)
No, but if you don’t lay off me, I’m going to make you breathing impaired. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“"Oh," I say under my breath. "Tick, tock." My eyes sweep around the full circle of the arena and I know she's right. "Tick, tock. This is a clock."”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss, p. 325
The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)
Source: Mockingjay

“Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice… No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Freedom

“A book, I was taught long ago in English class, is a living and breathing document that grows richer with each new reading.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Books, Reading

“Breathing in, there is only the present moment.
Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

“Knowledge was not meant to be locked behind doors. It breathes best in the open air where all men can inhale its essence.”

Louis L'Amour The Haunted Mesa

Source: The Haunted Mesa

Men, Knowledge

“His heart was like a sensitive plant, that opens for a moment in the sunshine, but curls up and shrinks into itself at the slightest touch of the finger, or the lightest breath of wind.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. IV : The Party; Gilbert Markham about Frederick Lawrence

Heart

“Will looking after her, sighed. not for her, he said under his breath, though there was no one to hear him, for me…. And he leaned his head against the cold iron gate.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“Mahoney: "Thirty-seven seconds. Great, well done; now we wait."

Mr. Magorium: "No, we breathe, we pulse, we regenerate. our hearts beat, our minds create, our souls ingest. Thirty-seven seconds well used is a lifetime.”

Suzanne Weyn book Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Source: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Soul, Waiting, Heart

“Pooh hater,' I muttered under my breath.
'Winnie-the-Pooh was not a koala--why am I even arguing about this with you?”

Rob Thurman (1950) American writer

Source: Blackout

“To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French photographer

Source: Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers

Reality, Joy

“We all have such stories. It is a brutal arithmetic. But I - I am alive. You are alive. As long as we breathe, we can see and hear. As long as we can remember, all those gone before are alive inside us.”

Jane Yolen book The Devil's Arithmetic

Source: The Devil's Arithmetic

“Privacy — like eating and breathing — is one of life's basic requirements.”

Katherine Neville (1945) American novelist

A Calculated Risk: A Novel (1992) https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRDGCQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT56&ots=olyqo4o6dc&dq=%E2%80%9CPrivacy%20-%20like%20eating%20and%20breathing%20-%20is%20one%20of%20life%27s%20basic%20requirements%22&pg=PT56#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CPrivacy%20-%20like%20eating%20and%20breathing%20-%20is%20one%20of%20life's%20basic%20requirements%22&f=false

Life

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Undated letter to his daughter "Scottie" (Frances Scott Fitzgerald).
Quoted, Letters
Variant: All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

Water

“I’m not dangerous,” I breathed.

He brought his face toward mine. “You are to me.”

And somehow, against all reason, we were kissing.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Kiss