Quotes about down
page 19

“I sighed and gestured toward him. "I'll take him." In an undertone, I added, "Don't let me down, Zmey.”

Source: Spirit Bound

“Those miserable women who blame the men who let them down for their misery and isolation enact every day the initial mistake of sacrificing their personal responsibility for themselves.”

Germaine Greer book The Female Eunuch

Source: The Female Eunuch

Women, Men, Personality

“The Beautiful Poem"

I go to bed in Los Angeles thinking
about you.

Pissing a few moments ago
I looked down at my penis
affectionately.

Knowing it has been inside
you twice today makes me
feel beautiful.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

Source: The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster

Beauty, Angels, Feeling, Thinking

“That thing that looks like me but isn't? He'll burn down the world if Sebastian wants him to, and laugh while he's doing it. That's what you're saving, Clary.. Don't you understand? I'd rather be dead”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

World, Understanding, Dead

“the way to create art is to burn and destroy
ordinary concepts and to substitute them
with new truths that run down from the top of the head
and out of the heart”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Truth, Art, Way, Heart

“He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Pt. I, ch. 9
Variant: He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)

Sun

“And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the side stepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down, ever, ever.”

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

Girl, Forgiveness, Anger

“My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Time

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Life, Motivational, Back To Work, Moving On

“backing down can become a way of life”

Oliver James (1953) British psychologist

Life, Way

“You make me thank god for every mistake I ever made, Because each one led me down the path that brought me to you.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

God

“There's something about seeing a guy's feelings written down, something about him taking that risk and committing that heart to paper, that means so much more than anything he could just say.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Treasure Map of Boys: Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon—and me, Ruby Oliver

Guy, Feeling, Heart

“How to Draw a Picture (XII)

Know when you're finished, and when you are, put your pencil or your paintbrush down. All the rest is only life.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Life, Drawing

“Sometimes I think that if it were possible to tell a story often enough to make the hurt ease up, to make the words slide down my arms and away from me like water, I would tell that story a thousand times.”

Anita Shreve book The Weight of Water

Source: The Weight of Water

Thinking, Water, Time, Hurt

“After a good-looking boy gives you rabies two, three times, you'll settle down and marry somebody less exciting for the rest of your life”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Life, Boy, Time

“Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

361
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Life, Peace, Silence

“Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.”

Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist

Lie, Art

“Some women waited for a night in shining armor. She, apparently, had ended up with a knight in black jeans and leather, who wanted to chase her down and have his evil way with her.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Bayou Moon

Women, Way, Evil, Waiting

“There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

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

Housing, Sea

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Way, Feeling

“He picked up the skull and knocked an onion ring out of its eye socket.
"I see Sophie has been busy again. Couldn't you have restrained her, my friend?" The skull yattered its teeth at him. Howl put it down rather hastily.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

Business

“Mary-Lynnette had an inexplicable impulse to knock Ash flat and fall down on top of him. She'd never felt that for any boy before.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

Boy

“he(Quinn)put his hand out to his friend. “I’ll lay my life down for you. With or Without that piece of paper”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Enshrined

Life

“All of my own impulses to balance and move seemed to conflict with those of the guards, and I was jerked and jostled down the portico, just as graceful as a sick cat.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

Jerk, Cats

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large ego must be in want of a woman to cut him down to size”

Melissa Nathan (1968–2006) British writer

Truth, Universe

“She didn't read books so she didn't know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Books, World, Reading

“the redness had seeped from the day and night was arranging herself around us. Cooling things down, staining and dyeing the evening purple and blue black.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Night

“He wanted to hit something or someone. He wanted to burn up the whole world, heal it, and burn it down again.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

World

“Fine, dandy, she thought. Then lose the shirt, peel off those leather pants, and lie down on my tile. We'll take turns being on the bottom.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Eternal

Source: Lover Eternal

Lie

“Everything has its drawbacks, as the man said when his mother-in-law died, and they came down upon him for the funeral expenses.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

Law

“One has not lived until one has carried a sixty-pound dog down a sweeping flight of stairs at half-past V in the morning.”

Connie Willis book To Say Nothing of the Dog

Source: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Dogs, Past

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want for nothing. He makes me lie down in the green pastures. He greases up my head with oil. He gives me kung-fu in the face of my enemies. Amen”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

Lie

“If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If you hope people will change how they live, you have to know how they live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye-to-eye.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

People, Hope, Change

“I know that sometimes the things we carry become too much for us. We are burned down, but somehow we have to pick ourselves up and keep going”

Paullina Simons book The Summer Garden

Source: The Summer Garden

“Go moan for man. It's the pathos of people that gets us down, all the lovers in this dream.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

People, Dreams, Lovers

“After a while, though the grief did not go away from us, it grew quiet. What had seemed a storm wailing through the entire darkness seemed to come in at last and lie down.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: Jayber Crow

Lie

“Gazelles didn't lie down with lions, at least not unbloodied and alive.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Lie

“Is it not unsupportable to be held down to a canter when you long to gallop for miles?”

Georgette Heyer book The Grand Sophy

Source: The Grand Sophy

“Once lay down the rule that the job comes first and you throw that job open to every individual, man or woman, fat or thin, tall or short, ugly or beautiful, who is able to do that job better than the rest of the world.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Source: Are Women Human? Astute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

World, Beauty

“I am just a tiny person in Africa, but there is a place for me, and for everybody, to sit down on this earth and touch it and call it their own.”

Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Source: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Personality

“Too many of us are hung up on what we don't have, can't have, or won't ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.”

Terry McMillan (1951) American author

Source: Disappearing Acts

“That ones yours, huh?"he asked, pointing to 3A."How come it just says 'Kyle'? Doesnt he have a last name?"
"Kyle wants to be a rock star,"Simon said, heading down the stairs."I think his working the one-name thing. Like Rihanna.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Star, Thinking

“I close my eyes. And i scream. If my whole world is crashing down around me, then I am going to make the sound of the crashing. I want to scream until all my bones break.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

World

“Sit down, Will. There’s a good fellow,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” replied Will, and Halt’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“He’s never called me sir,” he said.
“Probably trying to get on my good side,” Crowley replied.
Halt nodded savagely. “Probably.”

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

Source: Erak's Ransom

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

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

Art, Motivational

“Hoping something will happen soon, so she can sit down & watch it with a fresh bowl of popcorn.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Hope

“I look down from the branch I'm perched on. The Careers look murderous. Now I smile.'How have things been with you?' I ask sweetly.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Smile

“Thankfully I’m not most women. I don’t get off on danger. I get off on a man with strong moral fiber. The closest Barrons ever gets to fiber is walking down the cereal aisle at the grocery store.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Women, Strong

“I can’t listen to you. I can’t listen to your voice. It’s as though I’d drunk a bottle of anise and fallen asleep wrapped in a quilt of roses. It pulls me along – and I know I’m drowning – but I go on down.”

Federico García Lorca Blood Wedding

Source: Bodas de sangre

“I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

People

“Had she been in town, the two of them would have spent most of the day together, and she didn't want that. Then again, deep down, it was exactly what she wanted, leaving her more confused that she'd been in years.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Source: True Believer

“More than anything, she wanted to crawl across the bloody sand toward the place where Jace’s body lay, crawl to him and lay down beside him and put her arms around him, even though he was gone.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“If you give me wings
I will soar for you

Even if this whole land
Sinks down to the water

If you give me a sword
I will fight for you

Even if this whole sky
Shoots through with your light”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Light, Water, Fight

“Last night I walked clear down to Times Square & just as I arrived I suddenly realized I was a ghost - it was my ghost walking on the sidewalk.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Time, Night

“Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Men, Time, Falseness

“Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Address at Milton Academy, Massachusetts (17 May 1935)
1930s
Variant: Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

“What we achieve at our best moment doesn’t say much about who we are. It all boils down to what we become at our worst moment.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Feverborn

“It took teams of LEP warlocks to slow down time for a few hours; the magic required to open a door to the tunnel was stupendous. It would be easier to shoot down the moon.
Opal tapped this into her notepad.
Reminder. Shoot down the moon? Viable?”

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

Source: The Time Paradox

Time

“Time passes slowly. Nobody says a word, everyone lost in quiet reading. One person sits at a desk jotting down notes, but the rest are sitting there silently, not moving, totally absorbed. Just like me.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Time, Reading, Personality

“When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down.”

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

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Lie, Art

“And put me down right this minute or I'll scream bloody murder, then do the job for real!"

"I already hid all the electrical appliances, and I'm not taking a shower without locking you in the closet first.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips book Nobody's Baby But Mine

Source: Nobody's Baby But Mine

“Catholics have more extreme sex lives because they're taught that pleasure is bad for you. Who thinks it's normal to kneel down to a naked man who's nailed to a cross? It's like a bad leather bar.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Pleasure, Sex, Thinking

“And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Love, Life

“If we can't, as artists, improve on real life, we should put down our pencils and go bake bread.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

Life

“Creative work is more accurately a machine that digs down and finds stuff, emotional stuff that will someday be raw material that can be used to produce more stuff, stuff like itself - clay to be available for future use.”

David Byrne (1952) Scottish alternative rock musician and promoter of world music

Source: Bicycle Diaries

Future

“Birds are settling down for the night, singing lullabies to their young.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Bird, Singing, Night

“Why are we designed to see the world as supremely beautiful just as we're about to be snuffed? Do rabbits feel the same as the fox teeth bite down on their necks? Is it mercy?”

Margaret Atwood book The Year of the Flood

Source: The Year of the Flood

World, Beauty, Feeling

“Don't you know that boys don't cry?' Adam grinned.
'Shall I tell you something I've only recently discovered,' I replied, not attempting to hide the tears rolling down my face and not the least bit ashamed of them. 'Boys don't cry, but real men do.”

Malorie Blackman book Boys Don't Cry

Source: Boys Don't Cry

Men, Boy, Tear, Cry

“Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!”

Shirley Jackson book We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Source: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Sleep, Tea

“Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Way

“Emotionlessly she kissed me in the vineyard and walked off down the row. We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked up at each other for the last time.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Love, Kiss, Time

“He tapped my chest. 'Happy is here.' He tapped his own chest. 'Here.'
I looked down past my chin. 'Inside?'
'Inside.'
It was getting crowded in there. First angel. Now happy. It seemed there was more to me than cabbage and turnips.”

Jerry Spinelli book Milkweed

Source: Milkweed

Happiness, Angels, Past

“And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
'Hey, it's me, I'm dynamite
And I don't know why'
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Sweet Thing
Song lyrics, Astral Weeks (1969)

Cry

“I'm not senile," I snapped. "If I burn the house down it will be on purpose.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

Housing

“Do you know how sometimes - when you are riding your bike and you start skidding across sand, or when you miss a step and start tumbling down the stairs - you have those long, long seconds to know that you are going to be hurt, and badly?”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Hurt

“I gave him my best cryptic smile. He did not fall down to his feet, kiss my shoes, and promise me the world. I must be getting rusty.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

World, Smile, Shoe, Kiss

“In the immemorial style of young men under pressure, they decided to lie down for a while and waste time.”

Michael Chabon book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Source: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Men, Lie, Time

“Reality TV was to me the worst form of entertainment--the modern equivalent of paying sixpence to watch lunatics howling at the wall down at the local madhouse.”

Jasper Fforde book First Among Sequels

Source: First Among Sequels

Reality

“Excuse me?" I said, palms down on the Formica tabletop. "Coffee? I thought we came here for pie." "I don't eat the kind of pie they serve here." I felt a flash of heat go through my stomach. I knew firsthand the kind of pie Ranger liked.”

Janet Evanovich book To the Nines

Source: To the Nines

Coffee

“I don't know. I imagine good teaching as a circle of earnest people sitting down to ask each other meaningful questions. I don't see it as a handing down of answers…”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

People, Imagination, Question

“Just reflecting on the fact that when the Universe punches you in the teeth, it never just lets you fall down. It kicks you in the ribs a couple of times and dumps mud on your head.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

Universe, Time

“Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Home, Reality, Waiting

“He'd burn the whole world down til he could dig out you of the ashes.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

World

“but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were floating down some side branch of a river.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

“He looks down at his legs as if noticing his outfit for the first time. Then he whips off his hospital gown, leaving him in just his underwear. "Why? Do you find this" - he strikes a ridiculously provocative pose - "distracting?”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Time

“I’ll tell you what I’m fighting for. Not for England, nor her allies, nor any patriotic cause. It’s all come down to the hope of being with you..”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Hope, Fight

“A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them happen and then writes down what he sees.”

Stephen King book Finders Keepers

Source: Finders Keepers

“Cruel of heart, lay down my song.
Your reading eyes have done me wrong.
Not for you was the pen bitten,
And the mind wrung, and the song written.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Source: Collected Poems

Reading, Heart

“Mahon's wife stared down at us. Her hands went to her hips. "Which one of you idiots wants to explain to me what the hell is going on?"
With great effort I raised my arm and pointed in Mahon's general direction. "Him.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds - Awake

Hell, Effort

“I know," he said, looking down at himself self-consciously. "I am not-I mean, I look-"
"Beautiful," she said, and she meant it. "You look beautiful, James Carstairs.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Beauty

“Justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

A phrase used in many notable speeches by King, which is actually a quotation of Amos 5:24 in the Bible.
Misattributed
Variant: Justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Source: Letter from the Birmingham Jail

Justice, Water

“He stroked Sido's cheek and bent down to kiss her, whispering what his heart had always known, what he had never said before to anyone. 'I love you, I always will.”

Sally Gardner book The Red Necklace

Source: The Red Necklace

Love, Kiss, Heart

“So what’d you do to the lesser?” a male voice said.
“I lit his cigarette with a sawed-off,” another one answered. “He didn’t come down for breakfast, you feel me?”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

Feeling