Quotes about look
page 38

“It was because a great-looking man with no apparent mental defects found her attractive. Imagine feeling so buoyant over something so juvenile.”

Maggie Shayne (1965) American writer

Source: Colder than Ice

Feeling, Imagination

“[Jem] looked from Will to Tessa and raised his silvery eyebrows. "A miracle," he said. "You got him to speak."
"Just to shout at me, really," said Tessa. "Not quite loaves and fishes.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Fish

“Don't bother her, don't try to talk to her, don't even look at her, or I'll fold you in half so many times you'll look like a tiny little origami werewolf.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Time

“I flash him number seventeen of my thirty-five Looks of Death.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Death

“You look at yourself and you accept yourself for who you are, and once you accept yourself for who you are you become a better person.”

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

Personality

“I got a shotgun and a backhoe and no one looks under a septic tank for a dead body. (Bubba)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Dead

“You do have the idea of being ‘just good friends?’”
He gave her a sideways look. “For so high and honorable an estate,” Roshaun said, “ ‘just’ seems a poor modifier to choose.”

Diane Duane Wizards at War

Source: Wizards at War

Idea

“Garion started shaving. "Try to keep away from your nose," said Hettar wryly. "A man looks quite strange without a nose.”

David Eddings book Castle of Wizardry

Source: Castle of Wizardry

“They call it the drowning instinct. It's when drowning doesn't look like drowning. (pg. 241)”

Ilsa J. Bick (1957) American writer

Source: Drowning Instinct

“It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice, but the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped (2001)

People, Sadness

“Hunting party," Horace said
Both Halt and Will looked at him sarcastically.
"You think?" Will said. "Maybe they found the deer and brought him back to repair him.”

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

Source: Halt's Peril

Thinking

“So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Source: The Golden Compass

World, Sun

“There are times in
life when the question of knowing if one can think differently
than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is
absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting
at all.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Source: The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure

Life, Question, Thinking, Time

“I got up and walked back to my roominghouse. The moonlight was bright. My footsteps echoed in the empty street and it sounded as if somebody was following me, I looked around. I was mistaken. I was quite alone.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum

“I hate dainty minds,' answered Marjorie. 'But a girl has to be dainty in person. If she looks like a million dollars she can talk about Russia, ping-pong, or the League of Nations and get away with it.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Flappers and Philosophers

Source: Flappers and Philosophers

Hate, Girl, Personality

“She is a real bookworm. I think she lives on print. Her whole house is full of books - looks as if she likes them better than human company.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books, Thinking, Housing

“Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”

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

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Motivational, Success, Inspirational, Life

“He looked different in sleep, beautiful but cold as moonlight. I found myself wishing he would wake so that I might watch the life return.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Life, Beauty, Sleep

“Phillip is the Paul McCartney of our family: better-looking than the rest of us, always facing a different direction in pictures, and occasionally rumored to be dead.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Family, Dead

“If you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

One role of prohibition is in making the drug market more lucrative.
America's Drug Forum interview (1991)

War

“… occasionally I wished I could walk through a picture window and have the sharp, broken shards slash me to ribbons so I would finally look like I felt.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel (1967–2020) American author and journalist

“Choosing a new book was like looking for treasure.”

Kit Pearson Awake and Dreaming

Source: Awake and Dreaming

Books

“In my view, suicide is not really a wish for life to end.'
What is it then?'
It is the only way a powerless person can find to make everybody else look away from his shame. The wish is not to die, but to hide.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Shadow

Source: Ender's Shadow

Life, Way, Suicide, Personality

“He looks at you like you're someone he's never met before, much less someone he once loved with high passion. The irony is, you can hardly blame him. I mean, check yourself out. You're a pathetic mess, unrecognizable even to your own eyes.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Passion

“You occupied my space. But because you were not in my present, when I looked into my future I saw… nothing. Isn't that sad? And stupid?”

Jerry Spinelli book Love, Stargirl

Source: Love, Stargirl

Stupidity, Sadness, Future

“The park grass looked greener, the park benches looked better and the flowers were trying harder.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Flowers, Grass

“Remember this also: it’s always easy to look back and see what we were, yesterday, ten years ago. It is hard to see what we are. If you can master that trick, you’ll get along.”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

“There’s nothing wrong with not looking like something. It just means you don’t fit the stereotype yet.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

“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

“Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head.”

Jasper Fforde book The Well of Lost Plots

Source: The Well of Lost Plots

Books

“Home is watching the moon rise over the open, sleeping land and having someone you can call to the window, so you can look together. Home is where you dance with others, and dancing is life.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Life, Home, Sleep, Dance

“Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Thinking, Past

“I looked at him. "You really need to work on your threats. I can't tell if you're threatening me or inviting me for tea.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Tea

“She came over and looked at the picture. Then she took my hand.
You know what that feels like?
Like what the astronauts will feel when they step onto the moon for the very first time.”

Gary D. Schmidt book Okay for Now

Source: Okay for Now

Feeling, Time

“And you work for that demon, right? The one who looks like Matthew Broderick?”

“John Cusack,” I corrected. “He looks like John Cusack.”

“Whatever.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Dreams

“no' when no one answered, Derek looked from face to face, then settled his glower in me. 'absolutely not.'
'um, I was the one keeping my mouth shut' I said.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

“I cannot say what color Lenore Beadsman’s eyes are; I cannot look at them; they are the sun to me.”

David Foster Wallace book The Broom of the System

Source: The Broom of the System

Color, Sun

“I mean it," I said. "You're in danger."

"Relax, Harry. I'm not letting anyone lick me, and I'm not looking anyone in the eyes. It's kind of like visiting New York.”

Jim Butcher book Grave Peril

Source: Grave Peril

“When there are boys you have to worry about how you look, and whether they like you, and why they like another girl better, and whether they're going to ask you to something or other. It's a strain.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Betsy in Spite of Herself

Source: Betsy in Spite of Herself

Girl, Boy

“Jace, on the other hand, looked like the sort of boy who'd come over to your house and burn it down for kicks.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Boy, Housing

“Now, young lady, I suppose you're here for a work assignment."
Work?" Tally said.
They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

Laughter

“He looked at her then, and she could see he wasn't afraid.
"Nothing really dies as long as it's not forgotten," he said.”

L.J. Smith The Forbidden Game

Source: The Forbidden Game

“Because I don’t feel broken when you look at me.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Feeling

“We lay on our backs looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when he made life so sad and disinclined.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: the Original Scroll

Life, God, Sadness

“And so I went through the looking glass, stepped into the netherworld, where up is down and food is greed, where convex mirrors cover the walls, where death is honor and flesh is weak. It is ever so easy to go. Harder to find your way back.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Death, Food, Way

“Am I odd? Is there something wrong with me, like Mrs. Tifton Said?"

Skye knelt down on the wet grass and looked straight into Batty's eyes. "No you stupid idiot, there's nothing wrong. with you.”

Jeanne Birdsall (1951) American children's writer

Source: The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy

Stupidity, Grass

“But what I found most interesting was that Aaron had apparently found a way to pass the time without her. Beside him, holding his hand, was a Moroi girl who looked about eleven but had to be older, unless he'd become a pedophile during our absence.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Way, Girl, Time

“If you have any care for Sin at all,
don't leave him in darkness. It's not fair to show someone the sun and then to banish him from it. Even the
devil may cry when he looks around hell and realizes that he's there alone - Acheron (Devil May Cry)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Hell, Sun, Cry

“You're not supposed to look back, you're supposed to keep going.”

Alice Sebold (1963) American writer

“I am nothing but a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Volume II [Tauchnitz,
Source: The Woman in White (1859)

“Did you think I was sitting on my hands?” “I thought you might be injured.” He looked at me. “We’ve met, you and I?” I deliberately took a big step back. “What?” he growled. “I’m making room for your ego.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

Thinking

“Humans were built to look back; that's why we have that swivel joint in our necks”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

“Faster!" Shane yelled. Eve hit the gas hard, and whipped around a slower-moving van. The firing ceased, at least for now. "You see why I didn't want you to stop?"
"Okay, your father is officially!" Eve yelled. "Oh my God, look at my car!”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Lord of Misrule

God, Cars

“What was that you showed Sonya?”
Dimitri suddenly joined Rose on the screen. She shot him an amused look. “Easy, comrade. You’ll get your chance to lecture them too.”
“Geez,” said Adrian. “How many other people are there lurking off-screen?”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: The Ruby Circle

People, Chance

“But this is okay. I smile slightly, looking toward
the sky, knowing
there's one thing I still haven't told you: I now believe,
by the way, that
miracles can happen.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Smile, Way

“Yeah, I know, but word came from Artemis herself that she wanted him here. Looks like we’re having a psycho reunion this week…Oh wait, it’s Mardi Gras. Duh. (Talon)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

Waiting

“All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Life, Tear

“They say not to look back, but if you’re not sure what lies ahead, what else is there but looking back?”

Laurell K. Hamilton A Kiss of Shadows

Source: A Kiss of Shadows

“I wasn’t a fabulous cook. I didn’t have a boyfriend, much less a husband. And I wasn’t a big financial success. I could live with all those failings as long as I knew that once in a while I looked really hot.”

Janet Evanovich High Five

Source: High Five

Success, Cooking

“You wanted to look at life for yourself — but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional!”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. LIV.

Life

“The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Way, Girl

“Exile is a dream of a glorious return. Exile is a vision of revolution: Elba, not St Helena. It is an endless paradox: looking forward by always looking back. The exile is a ball hurled high into the air.”

Salman Rushdie book The Satanic Verses

Source: The Satanic Verses

Dreams

“Look, the point is there's no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. So you're left with a choice. Either hope for the best or just expect the worst.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Hope, Way

“And that, my young friends, is the story of our country, one invader after another. Macedonians. Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Cab Driver, p. 146
Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

Country

“Ben wished the world was organized by the Dewey decimal system. That way you'd be able to find whatever you were looking for.”

Brian Selznick book Wonderstruck

Source: Wonderstruck

World, Way

“We’ve all got weaknesses. Me, for instance. I’m tragically funny and good-looking.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“I just want to sleep with a clear conscience and wake up with the ability to look at myself in the mirror. I also want my life to be my own. Even if it's a shitty goddamn life, it's still mine.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Life, Sleep

“Perhaps the most "spiritual" thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Source: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

“I look coolly in to the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Personality

“When you looked up to the sky and cried 'Why?' sometimes the sky shrugged, yet other times it answered with warm assurance of linked hands.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Time

“After scolding one's cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word. And has filed it for reference.”

Charlotte Gray (1948) Canadian historian

Cats

“Sometimes the best things look the strangest.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: The Candymakers

“Sophie, honey, stop looking at me like that,” Garrett said gruffly. “You’ll have me convinced I’m going to die.”
“You’re not?”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: No Place to Run

“The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Girl

“I need it! I need it! It's a royal heirloom!"

"Adrian?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. Come on, we need to go. I'll drive you home."

"No, I can't. Not until we get it. He stole it!”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Home

“We will stand bravely with you!” Malcolm announced. Catarina looked darkly at him, and he quailed. “Well, we will stand bravely near you. Or at least within earshot.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Maia Roberts and Malcolm Fade, pg. 404
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: We don't have a mouse problem,' said Maia. 'We have a megalomaniac problem.' She looked at Catarina. 'Sebastian's determined to drive wedges between Downworlders and Shadowhunters. Kidnapping the representatives, attacking the Praetor, he won't stop there. All of Downworld will know soon enough what's going on. The question is, where will they stand?'
'We will stand bravely with you!' Malcolm announced. Catarina looked darkly at him, and he quailed. 'Well, we will stand bravely near you. Or at least within earshot.

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Quoted in A Lifetime of Peace : Essential Writings by and About Thich Nhat Hanh (2003) edited by Jennifer Schwamm Willis, p. 141

For Parents, People, Parent

“Morely: You're trying to make me [i]Amelie[/i]
Oliver: Goodness, no. You'd look terrible in a skirt”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Kiss of Death

“So what's the plan?” Ben asked.

“Go inside. Look around. Improvise.”

“Brilliant." Hi stroked his chin. “Quick question: Is having no plan the same as having a terrible plan, or are those different categories?”

Kathy Reichs book Exposure

Source: Exposure

Question

“Al's voice was faint but resolute. "Stand up. Try to look sexy."

"In a bedsheet?" I complained, running my hands down it. "How can I look sexy in a bedsheet?" He cleared his throat, and I grimaced. "Never mind.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Ever After

“Remember what I’ve told you. Looks can often deceive you. A poor man can don the robes of a prince and a prince can be shoeless in the street. We judge people by what their actions are, not by the clothes they wear. (Eleni)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

People, Clothes

“Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody.”

Justin Cronin (1962) American writer

Source: The Summer Guest

Courageous, Courage

“Because it gives him and excuse to be around her--without making it look like he gave in first. That way, he can still seem manly."

"That's ridiculous." Especially the part about Christian being manly.

"Guys do ridiculous things for love.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, Way, Guy, Parting

“Race you to the road?" I said.
"You are so going to lose." She (Annabeth) took off down Half-Blood Hill and I sprinted after her.
For once, I didn't look back.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“Bury the dead. Say Robinson Crusoe was true to life. Well then Friday buried him. Every Friday buries a Thursday if you come to look at it.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Life, Dead

“Looking back, it seemed like it should have been harder to lose someone, or have them lose you, especially when they were in the same state, only a few towns over.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“She gave me a hard look. "No one likes a wiseass, Harry."
"Are you kidding? As long as the wiseass is talking to someone, people love 'em.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

Love, People

“I would build a cloudy House
For my thoughts to live in;
When for earth too fancy-loose
And too low for Heaven!
Hush! I talk my dream aloud -
I build it bright to see, -
I build it on the moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Dreams, Housing

“We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Source: A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

Love, Learning, Heart

“The future could go this way, that way. The future's futures have never looked so rocky. Don't put money on it. Take my advice and stick to the present. It's the real stuff, the only stuff, it's all there is, the present, the panting present.”

Martin Amis book Money

Source: Money

Money, Way, Future

“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

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

Variant: I don’t think people are really seeking the meaning of Life. I think we’re seeking an experience of being alive…we want to feel the rapture of being alive

Life, People

“Some of us are born in the right place, and some of us have to go look for it.”

Chris Wooding book Poison

Source: Poison