Quotes about herring
page 17

“When finally she finished and stood herself up, he put his arm around her, best-buddy style, and they walked on. There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You can love Rudy for that, if you like.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Love, Kiss

“Nothing," she said softly. "A queen must possess nothing to rule because she has to give everything she has to her people. Even her life.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Life, People

“Tessa, surprising herself, let out a gasp of laughter. Will looked at her, his mouth just beginning to quirk up in a grin. "I must be more amusing than I thought. Which would make me very amusing indeed.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Laughter

“but he only found her in the image that saturated his private and terrible solitude.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Solitude

“If he had to have strange powers, Aden wished they could have been more like hers. That voodoo voice would have made his life a lot easier; he could have sent certain people (cough Ozzie cough) away with no memory of him.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Intertwined

Life, People, Memory

“At night too, she puzzled the mystery of her desperate need of kindness. As other girls prayed for handsomeness in a lover, or for wealth, or for power, or for poetry, she had prayed fervently: let him be kind.”

Anaïs Nin book A Spy in the House of Love

Source: A Spy in the House of Love

Girl, Lovers, Night, Wealth

“Give her a day, and then in return Momma gives you the other 364.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

“Yeah, the whole family knows. It's no big deal. One night at dinner I said, 'Mom, you know the forbidden love that Spock has for Kirk? Well, me too.' It was easier for her to understand that way.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Tithe

Love, Family, Way, Moms

“Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife.”
Temporis filia veritas; cui me obstetricari non pudet.

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer

As quoted in The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A search for Salvation (2007) by Shafique N. Virani, p. 28

Truth, Feeling, Time, Daughters

“The rain would not have bothered Fernanda, after all, her whole life had been spent as if it were raining.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Life

“The thing about a mirror is this: The one who stares into it is condemned to consider the world from her own perspective.”

Gregory Maguire book Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Source: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

World

“Then he raised her enough to whisper in her ear, and while his voice was tender, his words were savage. "You're my woman, and no man or God or ghost will ever take you from me.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Where Dreams Begin

God

“I was in the supermarket the other day, and I met a lady in the aisle where they keep the generic brands. Her name was 'woman.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Please stop looking at me, she thought, afraid of his eyes and terrified of her own heart.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Heart

“It's like in the Bible. You can't always get what you want, but if you really need something, you usually find it."
"What part of the Bible is that from?" Ig asked her. "The Gospel of Keith Richards?”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Parting

“The world to me was a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imaginations of her own.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

People, Secret, World, Imagination

“Rachel bit her lip. "I hope you're right. I'm a little worried. What if someone asks what's on the next math test and I start spouting a prophecy in the middle of geometry class? Gods, that would be embarrassing.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

God, Hope

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun."”

Zora Neale Hurston book Dust Tracks on a Road

Source: Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), Ch.2 : My Folks, p. 13.
Context: Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

Mother's Day, For Mother, Children, Sun

“She hated her job the same way I hated my jobs because she knew she was worth more, but she also hated herself so there wasn't much point in trying to do better.”

Tawni O'Dell book Back Roads

Source: Back Roads

Hate, Way

“She spoke of evenings in the country making popcorn on the porch. Once this would have gladdened my heart but because her heart was not glad when she said it I knew there was nothing in it but the idea of what one should do.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Idea, Heart, Country

“She was like a drowning person, flailing, reaching for anything that might save her. Her life was an urgent, desperate struggle to justify her life.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Life, Personality

“I spent most of my youth hauling sides of beef and pork to my father's shop. Carrying you is far more enjoyable."

"How sweet," Annabelle mumbled sickly, her eyes closed. "Every woman dreams of being told that she's preferable to a dead cow.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Secrets of a Summer Night

Youth, Dreams, Dead

“I don't know much about kisses, but I can assure you that hers were no less fierce than a swarm of bullets tearing the air”

Xavier Velasco (1964) Mexican writer

Kiss, Tear

“What were you doing with her?" I ask quietly.
"Apart from questioning her about your whereabouts, I was listening to the most intriguing story about my life moonlighting as a kidnapper.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Life, Question

“So each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, or at least some remote and distant hope….”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Dreams, Hope, Soul, Distant

“Lena knew she had spent too much of her life in a state of passive dread, just waiting for something bad to happen. In a life like that, relief was as close as you got to happiness.”

Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Life, Waiting, Happiness

“Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue.”

George MacDonald book The Princess and the Goblin

Source: The Princess and the Goblin

Star, Night

“She answered by standing and kissing him first and held his cheeks and closed her eyes and felt sure as bones and deep as blood that she had found her place.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

Kiss

“To have her meals, and her daily walk, and her fill of novels, and to be left alone, was all that she asked of the gods.”

Anthony Trollope book The Eustace Diamonds

Source: The Eustace Diamonds

God

“Her name badge read: Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM!”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Reading

“She shook her head as she confessed, "I want it so much, I'm afraid to hope."
"Never be afraid to hope," Rohan said gently. "It's the
only way to begin."

-Rohan to Win”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

Hope, Way

“Maryse had spoken to her son’s partner with affection she had never shown before, and now she wanted to hold the baby. Maryse was experiencing full-on grandma fever. The Lightwoods thought he and Alec were keeping the baby.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Born to Endless Night

Grandma, Baby

“She understands. There is nowhere to go but on. Still, part of her longs to go back”

Celeste Ng book Everything I Never Told You: A Novel

Source: Everything I Never Told You

Understanding, Parting

“If I have to scour the entire earth, I'll hunt her down. I will no' falter. One day I will bring my female back to my home - back to my bed… She was born to be found by me.
-Garreth MacRieve, King of all Lykae”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Pleasure of a Dark Prince

Home

“Somehow the bright beauty had gone from April afternoon and from her heart as well and the sad sweetness of remembering was as bitter as gall.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Sadness, Beauty, Heart

“If things were different, if there were no revolution, no war, no threads of light, if he were rich, would he go back to London with her and ask for her hand in marriage? He smiled, for the answer was simple. Yes, yes, he would.”

Sally Gardner book The Red Necklace

Source: The Red Necklace

Marriage, War, Smile, Light

“…books are always good company if you have the right sort. Let me pick out some for you.' And Mrs. Jo made a bee-line to the well-laden shelves, which were the joy of her heart and the comfort of her life.”

Louisa May Alcott book Jo's Boys

Source: Jo's Boys

Life, Books, Bee, Heart

“She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

“I was even a little glad that if it wasn’t going to be me she wanted, it was going to be someone who really deserved her.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“Ah, Los Angeles! Dust and fog of your lonely streets. I am no longer lonely. Just you wait, all of you ghosts of this room, just you wait, because it will happen yet, and that Camilla, she can have her Sammy in the desert, with his cheap short stories and stinking prose, but wait until she has a taste of me, because it will happen, as sure as there's a God in heaven.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Source: Ask the Dust (1939)

God, Angels, Waiting

“And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn't matter.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Love

“Whether it's simply some fierce animal joining of mates or a sublime merging of souls, she is mine, and I am hers.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Soul, Animals

“To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”

Agatha Christie book The Hound of Death

Source: The Hound of Death

Mother's Day, For Mother, Love, World

“Last year when my grandma fell and broke her hip she couldn't paint her toenails anymore. So my grandpa started doing it for her, even after he fell and broke his hip, too. For me, that's love.”

David Ebershoff book The 19th Wife

Source: The 19th Wife

Love, Grandma, Painting

“Her best friend was gone and nobody understood that no amount of makeup, fresh air or shopping was going to fill the hole in her heart.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Heart

“Poetry and art are the breath of life to her.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Life, Art

“There have been other girls. But they weren't her.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Girl

“Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden (1952)
Context: Maybe that's the reason," Adam said slowly, feeling his way. "Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe-maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you. Maybe — why, maybe it's a kind of reverse.

Love

“She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

World, Feeling

“And you know," Jeanne said, looking down at Sylvia with her hands on her hips, "that's how I want to go. Taking my own way out… and totally pissing everybody off at the end.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Black Dawn

Way

“I killed her once and died for her many times and I still have nothing to show for it. I always search for her; I always remember her. I carry the hope that someday she will remember me.”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

Hope, Search, Time

“He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving--but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Winter Dreams

Source: Winter Dreams

Love, Pain, Strong, Happiness

“When a woman starts to disentangle herself from patriarchy, ultimately she is abandoned to her own self.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Source: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

“Maybe you should go home and rest," Simon told Meg. Maybe he could go home with her and they could cuddle for a while or play a game. Or she could watch a movie with him and pet him.”

Anne Bishop book Murder of Crows

Source: Murder of Crows

Home, Game

“But she's a redhead, so she's probably evil, even at her tender age."

"I thought you liked redheads."

"I do. What's your point?”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Age, Evil

“I run after her, not really giving chase. I’m running because I can, because I must.
Because I want to see how far I can go before I have to stop.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

“There it was. Suddenly the strangeness of Quintana of Charyn's face made sense. Because it was a face meant for laughing, but it had never been given a chance. It robbed Phaedra of her breath.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Sense, Chance

“Everything rests on the poisoned wine. If it were just the queen, I could force it down her gullet, but Declan Broekhart would run me through with that damned ceremonial sword, and if his wife's stares were daggers, he'd be dead already.”

Eoin Colfer book Airman

Source: Airman

Wine, Dead

“How do you fight someone smarter than yourself?' Rand Whispered. 'The answer is simple. You make her think that you are sitting down across the table from her, ready to play her game. Then you punch her in the face as hard as you can.”

Brandon Sanderson The Wheel of Time

Source: The Gathering Storm

Game, Thinking, Fight

“Just by gazing upon her face…
No matter how weary you are,
you will feel happy,
deep inside your heart,
you will feel a warmth
This is a "piece of joy"
This is all the happiness you need.
Normally, we call this "love"…”

Yoshiki Nakamura (1969) Artist

Source: Skip Beat!, Vol. 11

Love, Feeling, Heart, Joy

“To have a girl two thousand miles away going to pieces over you, weeping at the mere memory of you, losing her appetite, losing herself and her self respect - well, that’s a trophy enough for a guy’s ego, huh?”

Jerry Spinelli book Love, Stargirl

Source: Love, Stargirl

Guy, Girl, Memory

“Taylor Markham," said Raffaela, "I'm going to say a prayer for you." And although I wanted to mock her and explain I didn't believe in anything or anyone, I realised that no one had ever prayed for me before. So I let her.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“Do you miss Susie?"
Because it was dark, because Ruth was facing away from her, because Ruth was almost a stranger, Lindsey said what she felt.
"More than anyone will ever know.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

“Don't punish yourself,' she heard her say again, but there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: ... there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.
Source: The Book Thief

Pain, Happiness

“Are you happy?" she [Clarisse] said. "Am I what?" he [Montag] cried. But she was gone- running in the moonlight. Her front door shut gently.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Happiness

“Her pupils were at once her salvation and her despair. They gave her the means of supporting life, but they made life hardly worth supporting.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Life, Support, Despair

“In the name of Annah the Allmaziful, the Everliving, the Bringer of Plurabilities, haloed be her eve, her singtime sung, her rill be run, unhemmed as it is uneven!”

James Joyce book Finnegans Wake

Page 104
Source: Finnegans Wake (1939)

“Her throat ached: adoration, heartbreak, in equal measure. “Kiss me,” she said. “Please.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Kiss

“I thought it was her wicked stepmother who poisoned her…'
'… Turned out the wicked stepmother had an alibi.'
'… Seems she was off poisoning someone else at the time. Chance in a million, really. It was just bad luck.”

John Connolly The Book of Lost Things

Source: The Book of Lost Things

Bad luck, Chance, Time

“Don't get pissy with me leech." With a glare, Carrow pressed her print to his torque. "Even tapped out, I can still do a love spell to make you fall in love--with the sun.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Love, Sun

“… and when he thought about the way she laughed, as though she owned the air around her, his heart thundered inside his chest, a lonely rada.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Way, Heart

“Sometimes it made her want to put her fist through glass; other times, it made her cry a river.”

Jodi Picoult Salem Falls

Source: Salem Falls

Time, Cry

“If you like her, if she makes you happy, and if you feel like you know her---then don't let her go.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Feeling, Happiness

“Then he gave her a kiss on the forehead that felt like a baptism and she wept like a baby.”

Zadie Smith book White Teeth

Source: White Teeth

Kiss, Baby

“She couldn’t get any farther away inside from her skin. She couldn’t get away.”

Cynthia Voigt (1942) American writer of young adult books

Source: When She Hollers

“She wanted him to see all of her and also none of her. She wanted him to be dazzled by the bits and blinded by the whole. She wanted him to see her whole and not in pieces. She had hopes that were hard to satisfy.”

Ann Brashares book The Last Summer

Source: The Last Summer

Hope

“If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of you.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Variant: No. If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of you." - Dimitri
Source: Vampire Academy

Love

“What's her name?"

"None of your business."

"That can't possibly be her name.”

Lisa Lutz (1970) US author

Source: The Spellman Files

Business

“When Roseanne read the first script of mine that got into her hands without being edited by someone else she said, 'How can you write a middle-aged woman this well?' I said, 'If you met my mom you wouldn't ask'.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Age, Moms, Reading

“He was so different from her, yet in his presence she felt the possibility of another kind of life, a life she had never imagined could be hers. A life without the rigid limitations others had always set for her.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

Life, Imagination

“But in the end she merely shrugged, knowing at the very least it would be interesting. Knowing, in her gut, it might just be the beginning.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Double Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Story

“Were you ever actually going to leave New York, or were you just saying that to get her to finally make a move?”
“Clary,” said Luke, “I am shocked that you would suggest such a thing.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“If I could put my brain in her body, the world would be mine for the taking.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Match Me If You Can

World

“she committed suicide by putting her extremities down the garbage disposal-first one arm and then, kind of miraculously if you think about it, the other arm.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Thinking, Suicide

“All of us show many faces to the world. No one shows her true face all of the time. To do that would be dangerous, for what is seen can also be known.”

Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer

Source: The Wild Orchid: A Retelling of The Ballad of Mulan

World, Time

“I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could
love in this dying world but the simple word "love" itself already died and went away.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Love, World

“Shane dragged Eve's suitcase into the room and dumped it on the floor beside her bed. “Hey, Dark Princess? Here’s your crap. Also, bite me.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Kiss of Death

Princess

“Marry an outdoors woman. That way, if you have to throw her out into the yard for the night, she can still survive.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

Way, Night

“Who’s there?”
“The scratcher of your itch,” he said.
She opened the door a crack and stuck her nose out. “Was that supposed to be romantic?”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Instant Attraction

“She looked away. Her attitude seemed to suggest that she had finished with him, and would be obliged if somebody would come and sweep him up.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

“Good and bad, strengths and faults, he was hers forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Source: The Lucky One

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”

Laurie Colwin (1944–1992) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Wisdom, Past, Cooking

“The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.' But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.”

Chinua Achebe book No Longer at Ease

Source: No Longer at Ease

“In life, there are only four kinds of girls:
The girl who played with fire.
The girl who opened Pandora's Box.
The girl who gave Adam the apple.
And the girl whose best friend stole her boyfriend.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Variant: In life, there are only four kinds of girls:
The girl who played with fire.
The girl who opened Pandora's Box.
The girl who gave Adam the apple.
And the girl whose best friend stole her boyfriend.
Source: The Carrie Diaries

Life, Girl, Box