Quotes about going
page 50

“Maybe you're one of those people who writes poems, but rarely reads them. Let me put this as delicately as I can: If you don't read, your writing is going to suck.”

Kim Addonizio (1954) Poet, novelist

Source: Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within

People, Reading

“There are so many ways to go wrong. All we've got are metaphors, and they're never exactly right. You can never just Say. The. Thing.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Way

“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

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Variant: Jace said that the cast of Gilligan's Island could do something anatomically unlikely with themselves.
Source: City of Ashes

“What is the difference between my life and my love? One gets me low, the other lets me go.”

Vikram Seth book An Equal Music

Source: An Equal Music

Love, Life

“Where do I go from here?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

“Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.”

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

Housing

“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

“A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die”

Nikki Giovanni (1943) American writer and academic

People

“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Hate, People, Imagination, Girl

“The craving to risk death is our last great perversion. We come from night, we go into night. Why live in night?”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

Death, Night

“If you try to turn me against Lissa one more time the stories are going to be about you bleeding because I'll have ripped your throat out!”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Time

“And if we get caught, I will claim I made you go. At gunpoint. I am American. People will assume I'm armed.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Name of the Star

People

“We’re going jogging.”
“I don’t run for recreation. I run when someone’s after me with a weapon.”
“That can be arranged”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Embrace the Night

“They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

" And Death Shall Have No Dominion http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=277", st. 1 (1943) Source: Collected Poems

Love, Death, Star, Lovers

“But I know this. We're ready to move forward again in our way. Together or apart, no matter how far apart, we live in one another. We go on together.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Way

“Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can't believe that ours didn't go on forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Way, Parting

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Dogs

“You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back”

Paul Theroux (1941) American travel writer and novelist

Variant: You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.
Source: Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

Way, Time, Personality

“… if you expect people to try to do things your way, you're going to have to give some hints as to what that way is.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

People, Way

“The most dangerous thing about an academic education is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking instead of simply paying attention to what’s going on in front of me.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Education, Thinking

“Think! There's nothing certain in our future! All we can hope for is a vague continuation. But in spite of that, you're going to keep on living. You can't give up on life just because it's vague. It's a question of possibilities…”

Kōji Suzuki book Ring

Source: Ring

Life, Hope, Question, Thinking

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Attribution debunked in Langworth's Churchill by Himself. The earliest close match located by the Quote Investigator is from the 1953 book How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers. Misattributed Variant: Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Source: 1953, How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers, Quote p. 109, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. Referenced by Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/28/success

Success, Attitude, Leadership, Powerful

“First the doctor told me the good news: I was going to have a disease named after me.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Disease

“She had to go on this quest. The fate of the world might depend on it. But part of him wanted to say: Forget the world. He didn’t want to be without her.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Fate, World, Parting, Dependency

“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

“If things don’t seem right, try going left.” – Chloe Traeger”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Head Over Heels

“You don't have to do this."
"I think I do," Julian said. "I remember making a vow to that affect."
"Whither thou goest, i will go, whatever stupid thing you do, i shall do also'." Emma said. "Was that the vow?”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Stupidity, Thinking

“If we commit ourselves to reading thus increasing our knowledge, only God limits how far we can go in this world.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

God, World, Knowledge, Reading

“When everything seem to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it….”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Motivational, Inspirational, Attitude, Deep

“I used to think the years would go by in order, that you get older one year at a time. But it's not like that. It happens overnight.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Thinking, Time

“So Sophos thinks you're going to marry me."
"While I think you'll marry Sophos."
"I might. We'll see what he's like when he grows up.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

Thinking

“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's not getting over that.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

People, Help, Heart

“If you only try to please others, you're going to resent those people you're trying to please; the ones who are often closest to you. If you choose a path that you yourself want to take, then you're going to be much kinder to the people in your life.”

Sarah McLachlan (1968) Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter

Source: Plenty: A Collection of Sarah McLachlan's Favorite Recipes

Life, People

“I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Responding to a press conference question as to whether he was a "card-carrying" member of the Black Muslims, as quoted in The New York Times (27 February 1964) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4091EF7355D17738DDDAE0A94DA405B848AF1D3; also in Sports Illustrated (9 March 1964). Context: I believe in Allah and in peace. I don't try to move into white neighborhoods. I don't want to marry a white woman. I was baptized when I was twelve, but I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not a Christian anymore. I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be... I'm free to be what I want.

Truth

“Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they're not attracting attention with it, hotheadedness isn't.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Pt. 1, ch. 9
Atticus Finch
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Children, Learning, Time

“I'm LEP. A captain. No rent-a-cop gnome is going to stand in the way of my orders.”

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

Source: The Arctic Incident

Way

“my feet will want to walk to where you are sleeping
but
I shall go on living.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Heartbreaking, Moving On, Sleep

“Republicans go to Sam's Club, Democrats go to Costco.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

“Really? Are you going to ask him to be your partner?" Isabelle asked. "It's like cotillion, this partners business, except with killing."
"So, exactly like a cotillion," said Simon.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Business

“Purpose! Purposes are for animals with a hell of a lot more dignity than the human race! Just hop on that strange torpedo and ride it to wherever it's going”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Hell, Animals

“Someday I'm going to find somebody and love him and love him and never let him go.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Source: Tender Is the Night

Love

“We don't have to do this. Just say the word and I can have a jet here in an hour. We can go anywhere”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

“Someday your prince will come," I assure him.
"And the first thing I'm going to say to him is, 'What took you so long?”

David Levithan Boy Meets Boy

Source: Boy Meets Boy

“You'll see, you'll come to understand. These big things, these terrible things, are not the important ones. If they were, how could one go on living? No, it is the small, little things that make up a day, that bring fullness and happiness to a life.”

Benedict Freedman book Mrs. Mike

Source: Mrs. Mike

Life, Understanding, Happiness

“Speak to me."
"I hate you."
"Okay." Mad Rogan let go of me. "You're fine.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Hate, Madness

“Harry Dresden: Boobs are near the center of the universe, until you turn twenty-five or so. Which is also when young men’s auto insurance rates go down. This is not a coincidence.”

Jim Butcher book Ghost Story

Source: The Dresden Files, Ghost Story (2011), Chapter 9

Men, Universe

“Whenever I have endured or accomplished some difficult task -- such as watching television, going out socially or sleeping -- I always look forward to rewarding myself with the small pleasure of getting back to my typewriter and writing something.”

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

Pleasure, Sleep

“It's time to discuss what it's going to take to get you beneath me"-GC”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Time

“When I'm with you, bells go off in my head like a moving truck that's backing up.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“Things feel like they'll be forever, but they aren't. Love can go away, or people can, without even meaning to. Nothing is guaranteed.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Love, People, Feeling

“She was afraid of these things that made her suddenly wonder who she was, and what she was going to be in the world, and why she was standing at that minute, seeing a light, or listening, or staring up into the sky: alone.”

Carson McCullers book The Member of the Wedding

Source: The Member of the Wedding

World, Light

“. The language of love is like that, possessive. That should be the first warning that it's not going to encourage anyone's betterment.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Love

“It is the possibility that keeps me going, and though you may call me a dreamer or a fool or any other thing, I believe that anything is possible.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Fools

“Don't make decisions out of fear. They never get yo anywhere you want to go.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

Source: Malice

Fear, Decision

“Despite serious reservations, I had to forgive Finnick for his role in the conspiracy that landed me here. He, at least has some idea of what I'm going through. And it takes too much energy to stay angry with someone who cries so much.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Idea, Forgiveness

“She felt so much emotionally, she would say, that a physical outlet - physical pain - was the only way to make her internal pain go away. It was the only way she could control it.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Pain, Way

“Do go on,' he said. 'There's nothing I enjoy more than listening to a highly trained intelligence leapfrogging common sense and coming to the wrong conclusions. It gives me renewed faith in parliamentary democracy.”

Tom Sharpe (1928–2013) English satirical novelist

Source: Wilt On High

Faith, Democracy, Intelligence, Sense

“She can't let him go not telling him what she was about to do.

Kingsley… I can't do this. I'm coming with you.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

“She thought of the library, so shining white and new; the rows and rows of unread books; the bliss of unhurried sojourns there and of going out to a restaurant, alone, to eat.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown

Source: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943)

Books

“It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.”

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-British writer

Life, Support

“… I couldn't let go of the thought that it had, in fact, been he, restless and moody Heathcliff. Day after day, he floated through all the Wal-Marts in America, searching for me in a million lonely aisles.”

Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Source: Special Topics in Calamity Physics

“Books, for me, are a home. Books don’t make a home – they are one, in the sense that just as you do with a door, you open a book, and you go inside. Inside there is a different kind of time and a different kind of space.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Books, Home, Sense, Time

“Sebastos Eudorus Parthenopaeus. He is really going to hate us when he has to learn to spell all that.” – Acheron”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Retribution

Hate, Learning

“I think there's too much mult-tasking going on. I think people need to quiet down and focus and be still more.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

People, Thinking

“You must make, always. You must act, if you believe something. Talking about acting is like boasting about pictures you're going to paint. The most terrible bad form.”

John Fowles book The Collector

Source: The Collector

Painting

“Graves: It’s going to snow.
Dru Anderson: Thanks for the warning.
Graves: Hey, no problem. First one’s free.”

Lilith Saintcrow book Strange Angels

Source: Strange Angels

Problem

“And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We’re all captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go 'round and 'round and 'round
In the circle game.”

Joni Mitchell (1943) Canadian musician

"Circle Game"
Songs
Source: The Circle Game

Game, Time, Painting, Season

“For once, you're going to hear something that doesn't fit into your neat, compartmentalized world of order and logic and reason.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

World

“Loneliness watches and sights, then climbs into my bed and pulls the covers over… himself, fully dressed, shoes and all. He’s going to make me sleep with him again tonight, i just know it.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Shoe, Sleep, Loneliness

“You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't. Trust me, I was there. I know.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Biff, in Ch. 1
Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (2002)

Thinking

“Shanna planted her hands on her hips.
"Getting drunk is not going to solve your problems."
"Aye, but t'will make me no' give a damn."(Robby)”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: The Vampire and the Virgin

Problem

“That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

God

“But I'm going to try to tell the truth. Except for the parts I'm leaving out, because there's still stuff I'm just not going to tell you. Get used to it.”

Robin McKinley Dragonhaven

Source: Dragonhaven

Truth, Parting

“After my bad experience as a kite, I simply refused to go about as a glowing Sadie-headed chicken. That’s fine for Carter, but I have standards.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Many people are more like the earth than we know. Maybe they have fault lines that sooner or later are going to split open under pressure.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

People

“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

“The truth is that the first changes are so slow they pass almost unnoticed, and you go on seeing yourself as you always were, from the inside, but others observe you from the outside.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Truth, Change

“Percy let me go, she croaked. You can't pull me up.

Never”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Sad

“I'm sorry."

"Be sorry you lied," he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "Don't be sorry you loved him. That's part of you, part you have to let go, yeah, but still something that's made you who you are.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, Kiss, Parting

“"You're not leaving me here alone," I say. Because if he dies, I'll never go home, not really. I'll spend the rest of my life in this arena trying to think my way out.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen, p. 343
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008)

Life, Way, Home, Thinking

“Never regret trusting someone. It proves you have a heart. But if he turns out to be a lying worm… I'm not going to waste my time crying. Because I am way too fabulous for that.”

Jude Watson book Beyond the Grave

Source: Beyond the Grave

Way, Lying, Time, Heart

“I was still hesitant to let myself let go, because I still believed in the fragility of happiness.”

Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Happiness

“But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted.”

Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary

Source: Madame Bovary

Life, God, Future

“So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me… everyday.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Heart Touching

“In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Letter #158 to Theo (24 September 1880) http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let158/letter.html  Variant translation http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/8/136.htm: "I felt my energy revive and I said to myself, I shall get over it somehow, I shall set to work again with my pencil, which I had cast aside in my deep dejection, and I shall draw again, and from that moment I have had the feeling that everything has changed for me" 1880s, 1880 Context: I felt my energy revive, and said to myself, In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing. From that moment everything has seemed transformed for me.

Drawing