Quotes about closing
page 9

“The three girls were sitting and lying beside her, holding one another, weeping, their arms and legs and hair tangled like the roots of close trees, sobs shaking them like leaves in a high wind.”

Shannon Hale Forest Born

Source: Forest Born

Girl, Lying, Tree

“We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Life, Idea, Change

“I closed my eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m tired. My knee is hurting again and I’m trying to teleport myself upstairs.”
“Um, Kate, you can’t do that.”
“I know. But I’m trying very hard. Let me know if I start fading?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Hurt

“He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Wedding

“This word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
And soon after, all was close and I saw no more.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 68
Source: Revelations of Divine Love

Love, God, Strong, Affliction

“If, instead, you find yourself often pitying someone who consistently hurts you or other people, and who actively campaigns for your sympathy, the chances are close to 100 percent that you are dealing with a sociopath.”

Martha Stout (1953) American psychologist

Source: The Sociopath Next Door

People, Chance, Hurt

“Aren't you something," Grandma said. "I never saw a midget up close."
"Little person," Briggs said. "And I never saw anyone as old as you up close, either.”

Janet Evanovich High Five

Source: High Five

Grandma, Personality

“You are as close to God as you choose to be.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

God

“In the morning light, I remembered how much I loved the sound of wind through the trees. I laid back and closed my eyes, and I was comforted by the sound of a million tiny leaves dancing on a summer morning.”

Patrick Carman book The Tenth City

Source: The Tenth City

Love, Tree, Light, Dance

“Hard to sit here and be close to you, and not kiss you.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Source: Tender Is the Night

Kiss

“Believe nothing of me
except that I felt your beauty
more closely than my own.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Source: The Spice Box of Earth

Beauty

“Love. It's so close to hate, it's almost indistinguishable. But this is how it was for the two of them. Love and hate. Life and death. Joy and anguish.”

Melissa de la Cruz book Revelations

Source: Revelations

Love, Life, Death, Hate

“And how I watched my little sister become a human torch. Closing my eyes doesn't help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Sister, Help

“I don’t want the world. I want you,” Alec said, and Magnus closed his eyes, as if the words almost hurt.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

World, Hurt

“But it's writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can't or won't, it's time for you to close the book and do something else.

Wash the car, maybe.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Books, Cars, Business, Time

“I held her close for only a short time, but after she was gone, I'd see her smile on the face of a perfect stranger and I knew she would be there with me all the rest of my days.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Strange Dreams: Collected Stories & Drawings

Smile, Time, Perfection

“She closed her eyes; and in the sweet slumber lying
her spirit tiptoed from its lodging place.
It's folly to shrink in fear, if this is dying;
for death looked lovely in her face.”

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet

Love, Death, Fear, Lying

“The eyes mirror the heart of a person. An entire life can be seen through them. Love, sorrow, deceit, pain. If you look closely, it’s all there.”

Gail Tsukiyama (1957) American writer

Source: The Language of Threads

Love, Life, Pain, Heart

“Any man can fart in a closed room and say that he commands the wind”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

“I like that people can just look at you and know that you are taken, that you are mine.” He closed his eyes and laughed. “And yes, I know that sentiment is at the top of the Women’s Liberation Movement’s list of things not to say to a modern woman.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

Women, People

“How rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared the experience to gazing
at the radiance of the sun."
Jem still had his eyes closed. "If they mean it gives you a headache, they aren't wrong.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Sun

“Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Source: The Two Paths

Life, Sun

“A tall, straight-bodied, and by no means ill-favored young Highlander at close range is breath-taking.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

“When God closes a door, he opens a window, but it's up to you to find it.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

God

“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Variant: You should never be so involved with your position/job that when the position is gone your entire self image is gone with it.

“I have always been afraid… Always been pretending to follow you closely, alwyas been pretending to sharpen my teeth, when the truth is, I am… scared to death just treading on your shadow.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Death, Truth

“If you could hold your nose to avoid a stink, or close your eyes to cut out a sight, why not shut off your brain to avoid a thought?”

Katherine Paterson book Jacob Have I Loved

Source: Jacob Have I Loved

“As many have discovered, it is entirely possible (although not particularly desirable) to love two people with all your heart. It is entirely possible to long for two lives, to feel that one life can't come close to containing it all.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Love, Life, People, Feeling

“Faith. Closely followed—in view of the overall shortage of time—by patience.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: Hitch-22: A Memoir

Faith, Time, Patience

“It’s the spirit here that counts. The time may be long, the vehicle may be strange or unexpected. But if the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand, everything is still possible.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Dreams, Imagination, Time, Heart

“If everyone in the world sat quietly at the same time, closed their eyes and concentrated as hard as they could on peace and goodwill, all the killing and cruelty in the world would continue. And probably increase.”

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

World, Peace, Time

“Um i'm happy to sit close to you and everything, but i had no idea you would like it so much,' Paris muttered.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Night

Idea, Happiness

“Okay. I've got a good one." Simon stroked Isabelle's hair feeling her lashes flutter against his neck as she closed her eyes. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Feeling, Time

“I'm still there, watching those possessed children, as far away from the mystery now as I was then. I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.”

Marguerite Duras book The Lover

Source: The Lover

Love, Children, Waiting

“If you zoom close-if you get really close to someone, if you really get close to yourself-then you lose the other person, you lose yourself entirely. You get so close you can't see anything anymore.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Personality

“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Men, Dreams

“I want you to know, my dear friend, that without you, I would not be the person I am today." He leaned in close and whispered, "I was a broken boy, and you fixed me. Thank you.”

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

Source: The Last Guardian

Boy, Personality

“Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when he looked closely into the darkness he might find the presence of a light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

World, Light

“Fine." Magnus stood up. "But," he added, pausing by Alec's chair and leaning in close to him, "you are not trivial."
Alec flushed. "If you say so," he said.
"I say so," said Magnus, and he turned to follow Isabelle out of the room.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“My grandmother told me that her father used to ask her a riddle: What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together?

Bread, of course.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Family

“More than anything, all I have ever wanted is to be close to someone. More than anything, all I have ever wanted is to feel as if I wasn't alone.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

page 80
Source: A Million Little Pieces (2003)

Feeling

“It is so good to have friends who understand how there is a time for crying and a time for laughing, and that sometimes the two are very close together.”

Lois Lowry book A Summer to Die

Source: A Summer to Die

Understanding, Time, Cry

“All the opportunities you let slip by! The idea, the inspiration just doesn´t come fast enough. Instead of being open, you´re closed up tight. That´s the worst sin of all - the sin of omission.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

Idea

“The other day I was playing Scrabble. I saw that I could close the space in D-E- -Y. I had an N and an F. Which do you think I chose? What was the word I made?”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Collected Stories

Thinking

“The older you get, the more you realize you need a handful of good, close, tight friends.”

Nicole Richie (1981) American television personality, musician, actress, and author

“When she comes
She pulls you close
She breathes in short bursts
Her eyes close
Her head tilts back
Her mouth opens slightly
Her thighs turn to steel, and then melt
She is perfect
And you feel like you are everything.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: The Portable Henry Rollins

Feeling, Perfection

“… and clung more closely to the dear human love, from which our Father never means us to be weaned, but through which He draws us closer to Himself.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Love, Drawing

“Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

“The missing aren't missing, they're only departed,
All minds keep all thoughts - so like gold - closely guarded”

Trenton Lee Stewart The Mysterious Benedict Society

Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society

“I spin worlds where we could be together. I dream you. For me, imagination and desire are very close.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

World, Dreams, Imagination

“You have to come to your closed doors before you’ll ever get to your open doors.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life

“HI. I’m from Arkansas, the cantaloupe state. And tonight, I hope you will hold my melons close to your heart and vote me your Miss Teen Dream.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Dreams, Hope, Heart

“I know about parabatai,” said Magnus, an angry, dark undercurrent to his voice. “I’ve known parabatai so close they were almost the same person; do you know what happens, when one of them dies, to the one that’s left —?”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Personality

“Elinor could sit still no longer. She almost ran out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed, burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Tear, Joy

“Gavriel closed his eyes, sooty lashes brushing his cheek. "I'll stay with you."

"What? No," she said automatically. "No! That's crazy."

"I'm crazy," he reminded her.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

“Everybody looks a little crazy if you're looking close enough and if you can't look that close, then you don't really love them.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Source: Romance

Love

“Amazing how he could make her feel. Safe in a vacant lot, warm in the middle of the night. Just being this close to him, being able to touch his thoughts and feel his presence, was comforting-and dizzying.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Visions

Feeling, Night

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

William Blake book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Source: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Appearance

“But after a moment a sense of waste and ruin overcame him. There they were, close together and safe and shut in; yet so chained to their separate destinies that they might as well been half the world apart.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

World, Sense

“There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.”

Harry Crews (1935–2012) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Hurtful, Beauty, Nature, Hurt

“Gideon was an untamed animal behind closed doors, a lover who bared me to the soul every time he made love to me.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

Love, Soul, Lovers, Time

“You cannot imprison me!" He bellowed. "I am Hyperion! I am-" The bark closed over his face.
Grover took his pipes from his mouth. "You are a very nice maple tree.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Tree

“The fact was that where Will is concerned, she was developing a new kind of sense, as if he were simply more in focus than anyone she'd known before. Everything about him was clear and close and immediate.”

Philip Pullman book The Subtle Knife

Source: The Subtle Knife

Sense

“all the time something within her was crying for a decision.
She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Love, Life, Money, Decision

“What girls do to each other is beyond description. No Chinese torture comes close.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

Source: Tori Amos: Piece by Piece

Girl

“And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.”

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

Love, Heart

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”

Gerry Spence (1929) American lawyer

Source: How to Argue and Win Every Time (1995), Ch. 6 : The Power of Prejudice : Examining the Garment, Bleaching the Stain, p. 98
Source: How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday

Faith

“Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

“It’s fun to think of the what-if. Scary, but fun. It’s like, I thought this door was closed before, but here it is open just the tiniest crack. What if?”

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

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Thinking

“I knew that I shouldn't have, but I did it all the same; and there you have my epitaph, or one of them, because my grave is going to require a monument inscribed on all four sides with rueful mottoes, in small characters, set close together.”

Michael Chabon book Wonder Boys

Source: Wonder Boys (1995)

“Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you/ That you may be my poem/ I whisper with my lips close to your ear/ I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Love, Women, Men

“I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But it was not until much later that I was able to get any real sleep. In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Sleep

“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

“I’ve seen your foot up close.”
Curran pointed to his chest. “I’ve seen it here.” He moved his hand to his jaw. “Here.” He touched the place over his cheek where my kick had cut him. “And here.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Source: A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

Love, Learning, Heart

“Children need close friends to help them grow up, to discover things about themselves and about life. They also need close friends to keep them sane”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Life, Children, Help

“It had to be one of the weirdest things in the universe that Lissa had never come close to suspecting my feelings for Dimitri but that Adrian had figured it out.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Feeling, Universe

“The best way of being kind to bears is not to be very close to them.”

Margaret Atwood book MaddAddam

Source: MaddAddam

Way

“I knew I had to keep him to myself, as I'd slowly begun to keep everything. We had secrets now, truths and half-truths, that kept her always at arm's length, behind a closed door, miles away.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You (1998)

Truth, Secret

“I understood we used to be close. But they were like books i'd read two summer ago; I knew I'd liked them, but I couldn't tell you now what they'd been about.”

Sara Shepard The Lying Game

Source: The Lying Game

Books, Reading, Summer

“The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to G. and F. Keats (December 21, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)

Truth, Beauty, Art

“I usually wouldn't be this close to you without a tetnus shot.”

Cecily von Ziegesar (1970) American writer

Source: The Complete Gossip Girl Series

“Look closely at the present you are constructing:
it should look like the future you are dreaming.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Dreams, Future

“I spent a long time trying to find my center until I looked closely at it one night & found it had wheels and moved easily in the slightest breeze. So now I spend less time sitting and more time sailing.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

Time, Night

“Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.”

Dorianne Laux (1952) American poet

Source: The Poet's Companion: A Guide To The Pleasures Of Writing Poetry

Way

“Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Context: Cartesian, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, Cogito ergo sum -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made.

Thinking

“It seemed as if some subtle current of recognition had passed between them… not as if they had met before… but as if they had come close several times until finally an impatient Fate had forced their paths to intersect.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Secrets of a Summer Night

Fate, Time