Quotes about middle
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“If worthless men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is, I believe, because worthless men are at the tail and the middle”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Men

“Down there between our legs, it's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Source: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

“Don't blame us," said my mother. "We didn't blow up half of Court, steal a dozen cars, call out a murderer in the middle of a crowd, or get our teenage friend crowned queen."

"Actually," said Abe, "Iblow up half of Court.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Cars

“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

“Independence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act V
1910s, Pygmalion (1912)

Soul, Dependency

“Every single time you crossed over for me and met me on my side. I realize now, I don't think I ever met you in the middle. And I don't think I ever once said that you for that.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Thinking, Time

“A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Source: La volgarità in letteratura

Age, Chance

“I am in the middle of it: chaos and poetry; poetry and love and again, complete chaos. Pain, disorder, occasional clarity; and at the bottom of it all: only love; poetry. Sheer enchantment, fear, humiliation. It all comes with love”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Source: The Akhmatova Journals, Volume I: 1938-1941

Love, Pain, Fear

“… and motioned me toward a spot next to a middle-aged Moroi in a very formal and very designer black suit. The suit screamed, I'm sorry the queen is dead, and I'm going to look fashionable while showing my grief”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Age, Fashion, Dead

“When you sit right down in the middle of yourself you're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

“I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.”

Shirley Jackson book We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Source: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

“She is . . . the moon in my night sky. And that is the beginning, middle, and end of it. There is no more to be told than that, and never shall I speak of her again.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The Shadows

Night

“One fine day, in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other. They pulled out their swords and shot one another. One deaf cop, on the beat heard the noise, and came and shot the two dead boys.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

Boy, Fight, Night, Dead

“District 12. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Death

“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Pain, Forgiveness, Night

“Researchers from Britain's Keele University have found that swearing after an injury may help alleviate pain. Evidently, the pain that you feel is inversely proportional to the number of middle names you give Jesus.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Pain, Feeling, Universe, Help

“It was a lone voice in the middle of the ocean, but it was heard at great depth and great distance.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

“Happy endings must come at the end of something,' the Walrus pointed out. 'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for awhile.”

Salman Rushdie Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Source: Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Happiness

“Dad has brought me a cup of tea in bed this morning! I said, 'Vati, why are you waking me up in the middle of the night? Are you on fire?”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

Tea, Night

“Although there are times I'd give anything to have her back, I'm glad she went first. Losing her was like being cleft down the middle. It was the moment it all ended for me, and I wouldn't have wanted her to go through that.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Time

“It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.”

Edward Said (1935–2003) Professor of English and literature

People, Change

“Great to know that I'm in love with a girl with a cool name."
"It's Taylor's middle name”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, Girl

“Now he was kissing me, not in a scary way, not with hostility, but with warm, seductive intent. In a hayloft, in the barn, in the middle of the night. This scene brought to you by the lettersand.”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Immortal Beloved

Hostility, Way, Kiss, Night

“Truth is, something that I thought was perfect was taken away from me, and I never wanted perfect again. I wanted middle of the road, stuff I didn’t care about so that I couldn’t lose anything I really loved ever again.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Time of My Life

Love, Truth, Perfection

“God, I am trying to recover my faith. Please don't abandon me in the middle of
this adventure, I prayed, pushing my fears aside.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

God, Fear, Faith

“I can pick a lock. How do you think I got into my parents' liquor cabinet in middle school?”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

School, Thinking, Parent

“Everything we care about lies somewhere in the middle, where pattern and randomness interlace.”

James Gleick book The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

Source: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

“I was just stock in the middle, vague and undefined.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

Light

“At first, being with Sebastian was like being in the middle of the best dream I'd ever had - but now it mostly feels exhausting. I'm up one minute and down the next; questioning what I say and do. Even questioning my sanity.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Dreams, Feeling, Question

“He looked like those paintings of baby angels - what do you call them, hubbubs? No cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Age, Angels, Baby, Painting

“I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Pt. 2, ch. 22
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Context: "I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off."
"You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them."
"Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks."

“Even today, I hunt for the fabulous books that will change me utterly. I find myself happiest in the middle of a book which I forget that I am reading, but am instead immersed in a made-up life lived at the highest pitch.”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

Source: My Reading Life

Life, Books, Change, Reading

“… it is, after all, not necessary to fly right into the middle of the sun, but it is necessary to crawl to a clean little spot on Earth where the sun sometimes shines and one can warm oneself a little.”

Franz Kafka Letter to His Father

Source: Letter to His Father

Sun, Flying

“There are many ways a self-respecting (not to mention sane) teenage girl might react to having a teenage boy suddenly in her bedroom in the middle of the night.
Hit.
Panic.
Flail.
Freeze.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Way, Girl, Boy, Night

“It runs in the family. And don't expect me to be ashamed. Yankees lock away loony relatives, but down here, we prop 'em up on parade floats and march 'em through the middle of town.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Ain't She Sweet

Family

“Dip a slice of bread in batter. That's September: yellow, gold, soft and sticky. Fry the bread. Now you have October: chewier, drier, streaked with browns. The day in question fell somewhere in the middle of the french toast process.”

Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All

Source: Skinny Legs and All

Question

“Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.”

Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) American writer

Books, Reading

“I play the radio and moon about… and dream of Utopias where its always July the 24th 1935, in the middle of summer forever.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dreams, Summer

“It was surprising that you could spend hours in the middle of the night pretending things were okay, and know in thirty seconds of daylight that simply wasn't so”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

Night

“We can do subtle," I assured her.
"It's our middle name," Andrea added.
For some odd reason Rene didn't look convinced.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“Ranger appeared in the bathroom doorway and I was too relieved to be embarrassed. "I appreciate you coming out in the middle of the night," I said.

Ranger smiled. "I didn't want to miss seeing you chained up naked.”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

Smile, Appearance, Night

“Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

Age, Hope, Home, Night

“After a while the middle-aged person who lives in her head begins to talk to her soul, the kid.”

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

Source: Joe Jones

Age, Soul, Personality

“If you put Durant's brains in a thimble full of water they'd look like a ship lost in the middle of the sea.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Water, Sea

“Life is a series of pulls back and forth… A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. Most of us live somewhere in the middle. A wrestling match… Which side win? Love wins. Love always wins”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Love, Life

“Clary - "Look you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name."

Simon- "So that's why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrasing.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Variant: Look, you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name.”
“So that’s why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrassing.
Source: City of Glass

Support

“Time wasn't a thing you could divide easily; there was no defined middle or beginning or end. I could pretend to leave the past behind, but it would not leave me.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Time, Past