Quotes about finisher
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“If God hadn't rested on Sunday, He would have had time to finish the world.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

God, World, Time

“When to people tell the same lie…"
"They are working together," Will finished”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess

People, Lie

“So we make stories of our own, in fevered and envious imitation of our Maker, hoping that we'll tell, by chance, what God left untold. And finishing our tale, come to understand why we were born.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

God, Hope, Understanding, Chance

“By the time I finish with the two of you, you will be begging me to let you die. (Desiderius)
Desi dearest, I have never begged a day in my life, and the sun will surely splinter before I ever plead for anything from the likes of you. (Kyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Life, Time, Sun

“They have terrified my poor wife and threatened my very person!"
Halt eyed the man impassivley until the outburst was finished.
Worse than that," he said quietly, "they've wasted my time.”

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

Source: The Icebound Land

Time, Personality

“… When it was finished, the scaled dragon looked around and as the thing spotted V, a growl rippled up to the bleachers, then ended in a snort. "You finished, big guy?" Va called down. "FYI, goalpost over there would work righteous as a toothpick.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed

Source: Lover Revealed

Guy

“But-Jace what are you doing?'
'Finishing my shower. And if you‘ve made me run through all the hot water, I‘ll be very annoyed.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Water

“When I write I pretend I'm telling a story to someone in the room and I don't want them to get up until I'm finished.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it”

Jeannette Walls book Half Broke Horses

Source: Half Broke Horses

Books, Reading

“I guess that’s the beauty of books. When they finish they don’t really finish.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Books, Beauty

“If you can't think of what to write, tough luck; write anyway. If you can think of lots more when you've finished the three pages, don't write it; it'll be that much easier to get going next day.”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

Thinking

“Sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after you've finished just to stay near it.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Books, Reading

“I’ll wait out here until the two of you are finished. Just call out if you need anything. Like a priest, cop, or lion tamer. (Aimee)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Unleash the Night

Waiting

“To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Experience

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), Experience

Wisdom

“Nothing is ever finished and done with in this world. You may think a seed was finished and done with when it falls like a dead thing into the earth; but when it puts forth leaves and flowers next spring you see your mistake.”

Elizabeth Goudge book The Little White Horse

Source: The Little White Horse

World, Spring, Flowers, Thinking

“I feel horrible. She doesn't
love me and I wander around
the house like a sewing machine
that's just finished sewing
a turd to a garbage can lid.”

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

Source: Trout Fishing in America / The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster / In Watermelon Sugar

Love, Feeling, Housing

“If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Water, Speed

“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.”

John Jakes (1932) American historical novelist and fantasy writer

“Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Peace, Soul, Heart

“If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Communication

“Here then - the after math of meaning. A liftime finished between the space of two frames.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

“Life is a Sisyphean race, run ever faster towards a finishing line that is merely the start of the next race.”

Matt Ridley book The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

Source: The Red Queen (1993), Ch. 5
Source: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

Life

“Why worry about minor little details like clean air, clean water, safe ports and the safety net when Jesus is going to give the world an "Extreme Makeover: Planet Edition" right after he finishes putting Satan in his place once and for all?”

Arianna Huffington (1950) Greek-American author and syndicated columnist

World, Water

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be finished. No matter how much I write, there will always be something I should’ve said.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Fourth Comings

“How to run an ultramarathon? Puff out your chest, put one foot in front of the other, and don't stop till you cross the finish line.”

Dean Karnazes (1962) American distance runner

Source: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“Perhaps the story you finish is never the one you begin.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

“I was getting depressed. My life wasn't going anywhere. I needed something, the flashing of lights, glamour, some damn thing. And here I was, talking to the dead. I finished my first drink. The second was ready.”

Charles Bukowski book Pulp

Source: Pulp

Life, Drink, Light, Dead

“A couple of times he called the second he'd finished reading a novel and just had to tell me about it, and I know it sounds hokey and librarianish to say so, but I just swooned when he did that.”

Sarah Vowell book Take the Cannoli

Source: Take the Cannoli

Time, Reading

“Humm humm haaa. Rahmumm humm haaaa," intoned Opal, finishing her chant. "Peace be inside me, tolerance all around me, forgiveness in my path. Now, Mervall, show me where the filthy human is so that I may feed him his organs.”

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

Source: The Time Paradox

Peace, Forgiveness

“And when you'd finished running you'd be thousands of miles away from people who love you and your problem would still be there except you'd have nobody to help you.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Love, People, Problem, Help

“He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn’t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Lyra to Pan in Ch. 38 : The Botanic Garden
Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000)
Context: "I remember. He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn’t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place."
"He said we had to build something…"
"That’s why we needed our full life, Pan... we wouldn’t have been able to build it. No one could if they put themselves first. We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we’ve got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we’ll build…"

Life, World

“One more dance along the razor's edge finished. Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.”

Robert Jordan Lord of Chaos

Variant: Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.
Source: Lord of Chaos

Dance, Dead

“I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!"
"Finish your eggs first.”

Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun

Source: A Raisin in the Sun

Sun, Flying

“A work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.”

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

Art

“I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

“I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable”

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

Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life

“Unfinished business always comes back to haunt you, and a man who swears he'll love you forever isn't finished with you until he's done.”

Alice Hoffman book Here on Earth

Source: Here on Earth

Love, Business

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to you and after which it all belongs to you.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

A Letter from Cuba (1934)
Context: All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.
Context: All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.

Books, Feeling, Reading

“He made me realize that hard work--that the act of finishing, of completing, of accomplishing a task--is joyous”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“this time has finished me.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Time

“If this were a movie, I would bust a secret move so fierce the entire place would be razed to the ground. I'd finish with something snappy like "And don't forget my soda, punk" while I strolled off into the night.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

Secret, Night, Forgetting

“I waited. Because with Eli, he was never trying to get you to finish for him. He always knew where he was going, even if it took a little while to get there.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Waiting

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Lonely on the Mountain (1980); later quoted in A Trail of Memories : The Quotations Of Louis L'Amour (1988) by Angelique L'Amour

Time, Life

“Because love, love is never finished. It circles and circles, the memories out of order and not always complete.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Love, Memory

“One's work may be finished someday, but one's education never.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Education

“As we live we all get caught and torn by various traps. Nobody escapes them. Some even live with them. The idea is to realize that a trap is a trap. If you are in one and you don't realize it, then you're finished.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

Idea

“A problem isn't finished just because you've found the right answer.”

Yōko Ogawa book The Housekeeper and the Professor

Source: The Housekeeper and the Professor

Problem

“The Korean man nodded, the way you do when you’re a foreigner and understand that someone has finished a sentence.”

David Sedaris book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Source: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Way, Understanding

“Lists of books we re-read and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves”

Russell Banks (1940) American author

Books, Reading

“I don't know what to do,' she finished. 'I feel like I'm the one who has to keep everyone together.”

Sara Shepard book Flawless

Source: Flawless

Feeling

“He was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes ad his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness, 'Damn it,' he sighed. 'How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!”

Gabriel García Márquez book The General in His Labyrinth

Source: The General in His Labyrinth

Dreams

“… Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed potato - one finishes what's on one's plate. That's always been my philosophy.”

Alan Bennett book The Uncommon Reader

Source: The Uncommon Reader

Books, Way

“What's the best part about writing a book?
Finishing it.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Books, Parting

“It's not easy being so frightened of everything. And when I think of how much I've improved in the last year, I wonder when I'll ever get finished with making changes and be really grown up.”

Paula Danziger book There's a Bat in Bunk Five

Source: There's a Bat in Bunk Five

Thinking, Change

“Growing up, I have discovered over time, is rather like housework: never finished.”

Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA

Time

“The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Parting

“This is my driver,’ Nico said. ‘Jules-Albert finished first in the Paris–Rouen motorcar race back in 1895, but he wasn’t awarded the prize because his steam car used a stoker.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Cars

“Without death,' he answered, 'life is meaningless. It is a story that can never be told. A song that can never be sung. For how would one finish it?”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Life, Death

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Life, Past

“It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are finished.
Mrs. Miracle”

Debbie Macomber (1948) American writer

Source: Mrs. Miracle

“Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Feeling, Autumn, Light

“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

“I regret everything because it has just finished, and already when I was twelve, I lamented the time that had gone by. Even in the best of spirits, it's always been as though I wrestle with the present in a vain effort to stop its becoming the past.”

Andrew Solomon book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Effort, Time, Past

“I finished your song, she said. Our last song. And I want to play it for you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

“The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

Source: Postscript to the Name of the Rose

“A finished person is a boring person.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Personality

“Let me finish my beer." (Stark)
"Of course. The end of the world can wait.(Kasabian)”

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

Source: Kill the Dead

World, Beer, Waiting

“Hey, Mikey? You get her hurt and I'll end you."
"You let anything happen to Eve and I'll do the same," Michael said. He'd just finished kissing Eve, too. "While you're at it, don't get yourself killed, either, bro."
"Ditto. And don't kiss me.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Kiss, Hurt

“The race is long. It is better to drive within oneself and finish the race behind the other than it is to drive too hard and crash.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

“At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Ham On Rye (1982)
Source: Ham on Rye
Context: The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole goddamned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves. I had no interests. I had no interest in anything. I had no idea how I was going to escape. At least the others had some taste for life. They seemed to understand something that I didn't understand. Maybe I was lacking. It was possible. I often felt inferior. I just wanted to get away from them. But there was no place to go.

God, People, Age, Way

“You think that just because it's already happened, the past is finished and unchangeable? Oh no, the past is cloaked in multicolored taffeta and every time we look at it we see a different hue.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Source: Life is Elsewhere

Thinking, Time, Past

“People think of education as something they can finish.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

People, Education, Thinking

“I will not waste my life! I will finish my course and finish it well. I will display the Gospel of the grace of God in all I do. I will run my race to the end.” - Paul”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Don't Waste Your Life

Life, God

“I always finish what i start”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

“The shelf was filled with books that were hard to read, that could devastate and remake one's soul, and that, when they were finished, had a kick like a mule.”

Mark Helprin book Winter's Tale

Source: Winter's Tale

Books, Soul, Reading

“The mercenary finished his coffee in a single gulp, It must have been piping hot, too. Boy, he was tough.”

Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate

Source: Ptolemy's Gate

Boy, Coffee

“I'm wondering what to read next." Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

Children, Books, Reading

“The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture, finished, and put inside boxes.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

The Taming of the Screw (1983)
Source: The Taming of the Screw: How to Sidestep Several Million Homeowner's Problems

Box

“… For all the days of our lives," we finished and I felt a little like a character in one of my grandma's soap operas…”

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

Grandma

“I trailed off and he didn't push me to finish. I was finding that I liked that.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

“If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the contents of the greatest libraries of our time. The trick is to know which books to read.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Books, Time, Reading

“I took his wildness from him and tried to fold it into myself, filling up the empty spaces all those second place finishes left behind.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

“When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Mother's Day

“There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Idea, Strong

“A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Section 1.10 
Source: The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledging that they cannot take us all the way.
We can give a child a self-image. But is this a good idea? Hitler did a devastating job at that kind of thing. So does Chairman Mao. … I haven't defined a self, nor do I want to. A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.

“One school is finished, and the time has come for another to begin.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

School, Time

“I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive… and open to growth”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Thinking

“The best reason for a knitter to marry is that you can't teach the cat to be impressed when you finish a lace scarf.”

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (1968) Canadian writer

Source: At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

Cats

“I opened my mouth and kissed you then, the first time all night, attacked you and surrendered completely, and let’s get out of here. I’m ready, I’m finished, let’s not break up, no, no. Take me home, my boyfriend, my love.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Love, Home, Kiss, Time

“She said, "As long as we're with each other--"
"We know we're in exactly the right place," he finished.”

Jean Ferris (1939–2015) American children's writer

Source: Once Upon a Marigold

“Motherhood is a Sisyphean task. You finish sewing one seam shut, and another rips open. I have come to believe that this life I'm wearing will never really fit.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Life

“Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you,” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

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

Coffee

“[T]he race is long - to finish first, first you must finish.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Because she was raw and uncertain, and she liked to keep all the messy parts of herself to herself…. As much as Lena liked to hide the mess and display the finished product, by this point she was all mess and no product.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Parting

“Well, I live a double life. Tonight, I'll escort you to dinner. Then I have to rush home and finish my calculus homework.'
'You're not joking, are you?'
'I never joke about calculus homework.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Life, Home

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

People, Feeling, Happy

“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1961, Inaugural Address
Context: If a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

Life