Quotes about doing
page 64

“Sit down every day and DO IT. Writing is a self-taught craft; the more you work at it, the more skilled you become. And when you're not writing, READ.”

Lois Duncan (1934–2016) American young-adult and children's writer

Reading

“Isabelle: Do you want some soup?
Jace: No
Isabelle: Do you think Hodge will want some soup?
Jace: No one wants soup
Simon: I want some soup!
Jace: No, you don't. You just want to sleep with Isabelle”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Variant: Do you want any soup?"
"No," said Jace.
"Do you think Hodge will want any soup?"
"No one wants any soup."
"want some soup," Simon said.
"No you dont," said Jace. "You just want to sleep with Isabelle.
Source: City of Bones

Thinking, Sleep

“I get glimpses of the horror of normalcy. Each of these innocents on the street is engulfed by a terror of their own ordinariness. They would do anything to be unique.”

Katherine Dunn book Geek Love

Source: Geek Love

“Going back after a long time will make you mad, because the people you left behind do not like to think of you changed, will treat you as they always did, accuse you of being indifferent, when you are only different.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

People, Thinking, Change, Time

“It can’t eat him. I forbid it. (Artemis)
She can do as she pleases. I taught her to waste not, want not. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

“It made me start to wonder if there were other people so lonely so close. I thought about “Eleanor Rigby.” It’s true, where do they all come from? And where do they all belong?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

People

“Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“Why do we have such a finite capacity for pleasure but an infinite one for pain?”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: The Other Side of the Story

Pain, Pleasure

“But America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Special Message to the Congress: The President's First Economic Report (1947)
Source: https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/4/special-message-congress-presidents-first-economic-report

Courageous, Fear, Imagination, Courage

“Money is for doing things, my love. Don't sit on it like a hen sits on an egg. It doesn't hatch. I should know. I've made enough of it.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Last Little Blue Envelope

Love, Money

“I do not know everything; still many things I understand.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Understanding

“I will have you know I practiced that speech. In front of a mirror before you got here."
"So what do you think it meant?"
"I'm not sure," Jace admitted, "but I know I look damn good delivering it.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Thinking

“Butch put his hand on his roommate's nape and murmured, "I'll do the saving until you get your head back, how about that? I'll keep you safe.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed

Source: Lover Revealed

“I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves.”

Louise L. Hay (1926–2017) American writer

Problem, Thinking

“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?"
Yes… the same age you will be if you don't.”

Julia Cameron book The Artist's Way

Source: The Artist's Way

Age, Learning, Time, Painting

“Because I don’t do things in halves, Mom. Especially when it comes to love.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Love, Moms

“He thinks Goliath can end the war," Alek managed at last. "The man wants peace!"

"As do we all," Count Volger said. "But there are many ways to end a war. Some are more peaceful than others.”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

War, Peace, Way, Thinking

“Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Personality

“Of offering more than what I can deliver,
I have a bad habit, it is true.
But I have to offer more than I can deliver,
To be able to deliver what I do.”

Ken Kesey (1935–2001) novelist

“And now I know it is perfectly natural for me not to look at someone when I talk. Those of us with Asperger's are just not comfortable doing it. In fact, I don'treally understand why it's considered normal to stare at someone's eyeballs.”

John Elder Robison (1957) American writer

Understanding, Nature

“I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

Mood, Waiting

“They've arrested Sebastian! For m-murder! You've g-got to stop them! He d-didn't do it! He can't have done it! He doesn't believe in murder! He's a v-vegetarian!”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Big Boned

“Someday, I'd like to live a life based on doing good stuff instead of just not doing bad stuff.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Life

“The feel of them (books) and the smell of them. A bookshop was like an Aladdin's cave for me. Entire worlds and lives can be found just behind that glossy cover. All you had to do was look." Claire (Watermelon)”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Watermelon

Books, World, Feeling

“Sam doesn't hesitate for a minute.
'You say, "Mr and Mrs Tavish, you're making me feel inferior. Do you really think I'm inferior or is it just in my mind?”

Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number

Source: I've Got Your Number

Feeling, Thinking

“The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Leigh-Cheri to Bernard, in Phase III, Ch. 46.
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
Context: I’m not quite twenty, but, thanks to you, I’ve learned something that many women these days never learn: Prince Charming really is a toad. And the Beautiful Princess has halitosis. The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love. Wouldn’t that be the way to make love stay?

Love, People, Making love, Way

“Her eyes burned, her muscles ached, but in some strange and secret place, she was happy to finally be doing something that wasn't just protecting herself, but protecting other people, too.”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

People, Secret, Happiness

“Saying that you love is easy, but living up to those simple words is the most difficult thing you'll ever do.”

Kay Hooper (1957) American writer

Source: What Dreams May Come

Love

“How much longer are we going to do this? We have to talk about what happened."
With a harsh laugh, he'd turned to me. "It's very simple. I want you, you want another, and I'm owed a wife.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Endless Knight

“I can DO ANYTHING I want, but I can't DO EVERYTHING I want.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“It's a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

Life, Idea, Decision

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent to concentration camps or being attacked in the street and do nothing, that's being dead.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

US News & World Report (27 October 1986)

Love, Life, Death, Hate

“Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

Education, Reading, Wise

“Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles,
Victim of your folly.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Life, Dreams, Sleep, Time

“There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Love, People, Idea

“Aren't you afraid of dying?
Not really. I've watched lots of good-for-nothing, worthless people die, and if people like that can do it, then I should be able to handle it.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

People

“Praying's not going to help. Too late for that, Jane… I gave you a chance to have it on your terms. Now we'll do this on mine”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

Chance, Help

“Whither thou goest, I will go;
Where thou diest, will I die
And there will I be buried:
The Angel do so to me, and more also,
If aught but death part thee and me.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Death, Angels, Parting

“But what could I do? Be stupid for a while? I wasn't sure I knew how, even after so many years of careful observation.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Stupidity

“Complex problems do not demand complex solutions.”

Charles Allen Kollar

Solution-Focused Pastoral Counseling: An Effective Short-Term Approach for Getting People Back on Track

Problem

“That's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and WORTH the doing.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

“Nom, do say something funny so she can admire!”

Shannon Hale River Secrets

Source: River Secrets

“I’m not attached to anything.
I’m attached to what it feels it's my duty, to do my duty.
I think that I will die with the boots on.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Feeling, Thinking

“Are you alive, do you still exist?”

Rudi van Dantzig (1933–2012) Dutch dancer and choreographer

For a Lost Soldier

“Do you believe in fairy tales?"
"What… what kind of fairy tales?"
"The kind you aren't supposed to waste your life on.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Life

“unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Sun

“Do not seek revenge and call it justice.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Justice, Revenge

“The reward is in doing, but doing without expecting anything… doing unselfishly.”

Brian L. Weiss

“It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

Source: The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories

Women

“Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Hope, Parent

“If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills you.”

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

“Fang. I had to do some thinking about him.
Me. I had some thinking to do about me too.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Thinking

“Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?”

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

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

Past, Future, Forgetting

“We don't really believe in mowing the lawn; we do it only to avoid unnecessary engagement with the neighbors.”

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

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

“Equally disquieting are the times when we do make a choice, only to later feel as though we have murdered some other aspect of our being by settling on one single concrete decision.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Feeling, Decision, Time

“Hold on to me," Alec said, and Magnus gave him the sort of smile that made Alec feel like someone had taken an apple corer to his heart and tried to dig out the center.
“I always do, Alexander,” he said. “I always do.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Smile, Feeling, Heart

“The night is mine, my own time, to do with it as I will, as long as I am quiet. As long as I don't move. As long as I lie still. The difference betweenand. Lay is always passive.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Lie, Time, Night

“I think we make our own luck. Our parents give us life, but what we do with that life is our own responsibility.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Underworld

Life, Thinking, Parent

“Book! You lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts.”

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

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Lie, Books

“Just because I'm a murdering, thieving, cowardly, traitorous sort doesn't mean I can't do my job properly.”

James A. Owen The Search for the Red Dragon

Source: The Search for the Red Dragon

“It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.”

George Bernard Shaw Fanny's First Play

Source: Fanny's First Play

“Let's do it. Monkeys are always funny. You pretty much can't go wrong with a monkey, right? Hi paused. Well unless that monkey wants you dead, or does needle drugs or something. Then it's wrong, and a bad monkey.”

Kathy Reichs Virals

Source: Virals

Dead

“I sounded like Horton the Elephant. "A person is a person no matter how small." What the hell was I doing standing in the middle of a cave, in the dark, surrounded by wererats, quoting Dr. Seuss, and trying to kill a one-thousand-year-old vampire?”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

Quotes, Hell, Personality

“Do-gooding is like treating hemophilia - the real cure is to let hemophiliacs bleed to death… before they breed more hemophiliacs.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Death

“What do you do there, moon, in the sky? Tell me what you do, silent moon. When evening comes you rise and go contemplating wastelands; then you set.”

Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837) Italian poet, philosopher and writer

“I don't want to go to Peru."
How do you know? You've never been there."
I've never been to hell either and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go there.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Sunflower

Hell

“After you have finished a piece of work, the work is then none of your business. Go on and do something else.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Source: Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life

Business

“In the games of queens and kings, we leave our dreams at the door and we make do with what we have. Sometimes if we’re fortunate, we still manage to have a good life.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Life, Dreams, Game

“Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Children, World

“It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.”

Rumer Godden (1907–1998) English writer

Source: The Dolls' House

“I think you should be a child for as long as you can. I have been successful for 74 years being able to do that.”

Bob Newhart (1929) American stand-up comedian and actor

Thinking, Success

“There is no point in keeping vengeance or stubbornness. These things" -he sighed- "these things I so regret in my life. Pride. Vanity. Why do we do the things we do?
Morrie Schwartz”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Life

“My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity… and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it. So now I do what pleases myself.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Pleasure, Thinking

“Grace is the power of the Holy Spirit coming to us free of charge to enable you to do with ease what you could never do on your own with any amount of struggle and effort.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Effort

“Do you have any coffee?'…'It stunts my growth, and I'm afraid of death.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Death, Coffee

“What did my arms do before they held you?”

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

"Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices" http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/3women.html (1962), a radio play published in 1968 <br class="br">Variant: What did my fingers do before they held him?<br>What did my heart do, with its love? <br class="br">Source: The Collected Poems

“There aren’t many funny bits in Mr Tolkien either,’ Matilda said.
‘Do you think that all children’s books ought to have funny bits in them?’ Miss Honey asked.
‘I do,’ Matilda said. ‘Children are not so serious as grown-ups and love to laugh.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

Love, Children, Books, Thinking

“Not likely!” Howl yelled. “I’m a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell my self I’m not doing it!”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

Way

“It's not what happens to us that molds us. It's what we do with what happens to us.”

Anita Stansfield (1961) American writer

Source: Where the Heart Leads

“They always said on TV you could do anything you wanted, but here I was trying to do something and it wasn't working. I would never be able to do it.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“Maintenance is what you have to do just so you can walk out the door knowing that if you go to the market and bump into a guy who once rejected you, you won't have to hide behind a stack of canned food. I don't mean to be too literal about this.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Source: I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Food, Guy

“Practice is funny that way. For days and days, you make out only the fragments of what to do. And then one day you've got the thing whole. Conscious learning becomes unconscious knowledge, and you cannot say precisely how.”

Atul Gawande book Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Source: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Way, Knowledge, Learning

“You sure you don't need your Prince Charming to come and save you?
Sure, do you have one handy?
Oh, I think I could scrounge one up somewhere. As often as I have to rescue you.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Variant: You sure you don't need your Prince Charming to come and save you?"
The knot in my stomach evaporated. My Prince Charming huh. "Sure, do you have one handy?
Source: Magic Slays

Thinking

“Do you really wish to disobey me, Marbas? Do you wish to anger my father?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Anger

“I gave her a smile that I hoped conveyed something like: Hey, you know I’m on your side. Gods are such jerks! But what can you do?

Probably my expression actually conveyed: It’s not my fault! Please do not kill me!”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Source: The Demigod Diaries

God, Smile, Hope, Jerk

“So now I know what I have to do. I have to keep breathing. And tomorrow the sun will rise, and who knows what the tide will bring in.”

William Broyles Jr. (1944) American screenwriter

Source: Cast Away: The Shooting Script

Sun

“I know that happy things and fun things eventually come to an end. But things that are scary and sad come to an end too… they always do. Even if you can't always believe that, please don't give up. Live.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 21

Sadness, Happiness

“I have a lot on my mind and not a lot to do so it's going to come out, all of it, and then, then, it may begin to make a sort of sense”

Bryan Lee O'Malley book Lost at Sea

Source: Lost at Sea

Sense

“I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers

Source: The Three Musketeers

Life, Death, Fear

“… for we are all amateurs at life, but if we do not focus too much on our mistakes, a miraculous picture emerges. And we learn that it's not the beauty of the image that warrants our gratitude--it's the chance to paint.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: Finding Noel

Life, Beauty, Learning, Chance

“Adversity will do something too you or for you…….”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“Overcome your guilt. Care, but not too much. Take responsibility, but don't blame yourself. Protect, save, help- but know when to give up. They're precarious ledges to walk. How do I do it?”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Help

“There are a lot of questions I keep asking myself about why I do comedy. I guess I laugh to keep from crying. And I guess if you ever get me crying, I might not stop. This is the way I look at tragedy or else I'll cry.”

Bob Newhart (1929) American stand-up comedian and actor

Way, Question, Cry

“If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Feeling

“If you decide to just go with the flow, you'll end up where the flow goes, which is usually downhill, often leading to a big pile of sludge and a life of unhappiness. You'll end up doing what everyone else is doing.”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide

Life

“The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Way, Understanding

“Don't you ever feel that way? Likecould do a better job if you rqan the world?'
'Um… no. Me running the world would be kind of a nightmare.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

World, Way, Feeling

“Doing nothing is as good as collaborating.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

“Every person, all the events of your life, are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Variant: All the people, all the events in your life are put there for a reason. What you choose to do with them is up to you

Life, Personality

“The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

School, Home

Quotes about doing page 64

Quotes about doing
page 64