Quotes about herring
page 18

“She wore a short skirt and a tight sweater and her figure described a set of parabolas that could cause cardiac arrest in a yak.”

Woody Allen book Getting Even

Source: Getting Even

“It's hard to imagine her ever having felt lost, but it's impossible to know the people your parents were before they were your parents.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

People, Imagination, Parent

“To marry a girl just to make her a widow,” said Gabriel Lightwood. “Many would say that was not a kindness.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Princess

Girl

“Henry's breath hissed out through his teeth. That ba-bad man, he finished, with a quick glance at Cecily, who rolled her eyes.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“A woman who had fallen out of love with her life”

Jhumpa Lahiri book Interpreter of Maladies

Source: Interpreter of Maladies

Love, Life

“When the music is over, she keeps her head down till she finds her seat again, and I wonder how many times each day she dies a little.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Music, Time

“She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth

Beauty, World, Beauty, Change

“she never showed girly weaknesses like cellulite or crushes. she never lingered on injustices committed against her.”

Ann Brashares book The Last Summer

Source: The Last Summer

“And her slender white neck was bowed over her book, the fair hair falling on either side of it”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Awakening

Books

“She was my mother and she would not leave me. This I had simply accepted and expected. I had no more thanked her for it than i did the sun for shining on me.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Sun

“This sweetest and best of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

“She felt as if she bled her regret and loneliness from her very pores, and yet she could not shape those feelings into any sentiment she could imagine her parents could bear reading.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Feeling, Imagination, Parent, Reading

“She was stronger alone; and her own good sense so well supported her, that her firmness was as unshaken, her appearance of cheerfulness as invariable, as, with regrets so poignant and so fresh, it was possible for them to be.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Support, Sense, Appearance

“Lilt pulled away. "I saw what he was doing, so I cleared a path for him. I helped him do it…" She shook her head, tears tracking the dust off her face, and turned to stare at the fallen tower. "Have we all gone mad to want this?”

Scott Westerfeld book Behemoth

Source: Behemoth

Tear, Help, Madness

“He treasured her, treasured her tears, treasured her love for others. Her heart might even be big enough to fill that empty space in his own chest. Perhaps she could be his heart as well.”

Elizabeth Hoyt (1970) American writer

Source: Scandalous Desires

Love, Tear, Heart

“It frightened him to think what must have gone to the making of her eyes.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence (1920), Ch. 8

Thinking

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again…. Scarlett, always save something to fear— even as you save something to love…”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Love, Fear

“It's not funny, Jace," Alec interrupted, starting to his feet. "Are you just going to let her stand there and call me names?"

"Yes," Jace said kindly. "It'll do you good-- try to think of it as endurance training.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Thinking, Training

“She curled up and pressed her cheek against his chest. Her ear was right above his heart. She was listening to his thoughts. "I need to know this," Aomame said. "That we're in the same world, seeing the same things.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

World, Heart

“Adrian," she interrupted. "Didn't you just say I'm brilliant and always know everything? Then trust me on this."
"Always," I said, letting her pull me back down to her. "Always.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: The Ruby Circle

“A girl doesn't need anyone who doesn't need her”

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

Back To Work, Girl

“Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Anniversary, Truth, Thinking

“Wroth, darling,” she purred, smiling so sweetly. “I can’t wait for the next time I get to put my mouth on you.” In an instant the smile faded and she snapped her teeth and yanked her head back as if she was chewing something free.”

Kresley Cole book The Warlord Wants Forever

Source: The Warlord Wants Forever

Smile, Time, Waiting

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Love, God, Country

“The door swung open and Kate walked in. Her jeans and T-shirt were splattered with blood and she was carrying a severed vampire head. The T-shirt has a smiley face on it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Gunmetal Magic

“I like to stay cozy with my paranoia, not pass her around to my friends and family.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

Family

“That he would love her no matter what she told him, and that he was the kind of man who loved her already and would love her forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Love

“He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

God, Girl, Kiss, Wedding

“Phoebe tapped the toe of her sneaker against the dock. “There’s only one good use for a man like Heath Champion.”

“Here we go again,” Molly muttered.

Phoebe’s lip curled. “Target practice.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Match Me If You Can

“i wait. with all my dreams, i know her heart, and i know i'm almost there.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Dreams, Waiting, Heart

“Being with Mary was different because… he wasn't the only one who wanted to make love to her.
The beast wanted her, too.
The beast wanted out so it could take her.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Eternal

Source: Lover Eternal

Love, Making love

“I knew that I couldn't lie beside her, without wanting to touch her. I couldn't have felt her breath come upon my mouth, without wanting to kiss her. And I couldn't have kissed her, without wanting to save her.”

Sarah Waters (1966) novelist

Lie, Kiss

“A man fell in love with Jeanne, and she tried to love him. But she complained that he uttered such ordinary words, that he could never say the magic phrase which would open her being.”

Anaïs Nin book Under a Glass Bell

Source: Under a Glass Bell

Love

“He liked her; it was as simple as that.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

“Hereafter she is only my sister in name; not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Sister

“I held her, he wanted to say, and if I knew for certain that all it would take to hold her again would be to die, then I couldn't raise the gun to my head fast enough.”

Dennis Lehane book Shutter Island

Source: Shutter Island

“She realized all at once the deeper thing that bothered her, the thing that made him not just irritating but intolerable: how he kept loving her blindly when she deserved it so little.”

Ann Brashares book Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Love

“Eternity is said not to be an extension of time but an absence of time, and sometimes it seemed to me that her abandonment touched that strange mathematical point of endlessness, a point with no width, occupying no space.”

Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic

Mathematics, Time

“Sebastian lay a few feet away from her, on his back. There was a great blackened hole across the front of his chest. He turned his head toward her, his face taut and white with pain, and her heart contracted.
His eyes were green.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Pain, Heart

“You dress her in a wet T-shirt and make her carry the bags? Damn, Cade, I like how you roll" - Rok”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Desires After Dusk

“He wanted to appear suddenly to her in novel and heroic colors. He wanted to stir her from that casualness she showed toward everything except herself.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Color, Appearance

“Control your temper. Remember, you can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

Variant: you can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Personality

“The moment Eve bit into the apple, her eyes opened and she became free. She exposed the truth of what every woman knows: to find our sovereign voice often requires a betrayal.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Truth, Betrayal

“Lucian was beginning to get used to hearing her small observations at night. More than anything, he realized he liked her voice in the dark. It made him feel less lonely.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Feeling, Night

“He turned to face her again, his late-pretty composure crumbling. "But you're…"

"Pretty? Think again." She smiled. "I'm Tally Youngbood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Smile, Cars, Thinking

“When the woman took the earbud, he didn't ask another question. She was a woman on a mission as she placed the tiny device in her ear and said, "This is Special Agent Abby Cameron. Let me talk to Macey McHenry.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Double Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Story

Question

“My whole life was about her, what if her whole life wasn’t all about me?”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Source: The Pact

Life

“Sophie said a bad word. In the dim light she had stubbed her toe on one of the many dusty bricks piled around the place.
Naughty-naughty" Twinkle said.
Oh shut up!" Sophie said, standing on one leg to hold her toe. "Why don't you grow up?”

Diana Wynne Jones House of Many Ways

Source: House of Many Ways

Light

“I can't believe you married a justice nymph and have yet to learn anything from her. There are always three sides to every memory, Z. Yours, theirs, and the truth, which lies somewhere in between the two. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

Truth, Justice, Learning, Memory

“I would pick them when they bloomed. And when she called me home for supper, I'd place them in her hair and the contrast would take my breath away.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Home

“Piper gave Lit a friendly sorry-about-that smile. Even with her hair messed up and wearing two-day-old clothes, she looked extremely cute, and Jason felt a little jealous she was giving Lit that smile.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Smile, Clothes

“I think you ought to let me take poor Tessa into town to get some new clothes. Otherwise, the first time she takes a deep breath, that dress will fall right off her."
Will looked interested. "I think she should try that out now and see what happens.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Thinking, Time, Clothes

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine… But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine…”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Training

“Congratulations," I tell her with a slight bow. "I hope you and your power trip will be very happy together. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go.”

Ally Carter book All Fall Down

Source: All Fall Down

Hope, Time, Happiness

“I stare at her for a long moment. I want to kiss her. I want to kiss her more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Life, Kiss

“Wha-what?" Her eyes fluttered open.
"Nothing," I shouted. "We're being followed by a slaying machine. Go back to sleep.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Sleep

“I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life… her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Life, Singing, Time, Reading

“He did and said all the right things. Things that went straight to her heart, and worse, they inspired the one thing that she'd given up along time ago. Hope.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Fever

Hope, Time, Heart

“He's too much for Schuyler. They're wrong for each other. Anyone can see that.
And when he leaves her, I'll be there.
However long it takes, I'll still be there for her.
Waiting.”

Melissa de la Cruz Blue Bloods

Source: Blue Bloods

Waiting

“I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear.

-Bryce”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped

World

“She said 'Over my dead body!' so I took her at her word.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

Dead

“Do you believe a man can truly love a woman and constantly betray her? Never mind physically but betray her in his mind, in the very "poetry of his soul". Well, it's not easy but men do it all the time.”

Mario Puzo book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

Love, Men, Soul, Time

“He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Variant: Mr Right:
He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.

Love, Time

“You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.”

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

Variant: You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was meant to be wooed and won by youth.
Source: My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 4 (Sandhurst).
Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904

World, Hurt