Quotes about opening
page 11

“Sometimes when you open a book, time stops.”

Ned Vizzini (1981–2013) American writer

Source: The Other Normals

“You don't know whether chimps are going to kill you or kiss you. They're very open on some levels and much more evil in a certain way.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Way, Kiss, Evil

“But when you're alone in the world, really alone, you have no choice but to be open to suggestions.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

World

“I grabbed my book and opened it up. I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it. Yes, kiss it. That's right, I am a book kisser. Maybe that's kind of perverted or maybe it's just romantic and highly intelligent.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Books, Intelligence, Kiss

“We spend so much time bantering about the words when the real open conversations might very well be our actions. I worry about our rhetoric.”

Anna Deavere Smith (1950) American actress, playwright and professor

Time

“You have to open up to the world and learn optimism… Contentment with the past, happiness with the present, and hope for the future. Learned optimisim.”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Agnes and the Hitman

Happiness, World, Hope, Optimism

“Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally…”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Flowers, Nature, Learning, Heart

“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, (1963)

God, Children, Justice, Democracy

“I'm a person of the mountains and the open paddocks and the big empty sky, that's me, and I knew if I spent too long away from all that I'd die; I don't know what of, I just knew I'd die.”

John Marsden (1950) author

Source: A Killing Frost

Mountain, Personality

“It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

Business

“When God closes a door, he opens a window, but it's up to you to find it.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

God

“Fletch then kisses me on the forehead before opening the cabinet under the coffeemaker to grab placemats and napkins. Retrieving these items is his job because I kind of don't like to bend. I also refuse to carry anything heavier than my purse.”

Jen Lancaster (1967) American writer

Kiss

“I saw him open his mouth wide… as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

Men

“When Jace opened the greenhouse door, the scent hit Clary, soft as the padded blow of a cat's paw…”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Cats

“For gods' sake, Strider," Torin snapped. "Open your mouth and form some words. While you're at it, stop staring at the angel like he's a tasty treat.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Secret

God, Angels

“No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people's eyes, to reveal the marvels around.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

People, Light

“I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to look up at me tied here. Tell them I’ll open my eyes and look back at them, and they’ll know hat I survived.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Men

“You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Sleep, Tea

“The zipper opened all the way down our spines.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Way

“'Music opens your soul, makes you ready.'
- 'Ready for what?'
- He smiles big. 'Exactly.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

Smile, Music, Soul

“I couldn't help but think, This car is taking me to a mental hospital and my mother is treating it like open-mic night at a Greenwich Village café.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

Cars, Thinking, Help, Night

“I opened my eyes and met his dark, earnest gaze. "It's okay," I said. "It's okay now. I'm here I'll always be here for you.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“… I love 'yes.' It's practically the most interesting word of all, don't you think?" Like a hinge opening a door outward. Yes, yes, yes.”

Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist

Source: The Black Album

Love, Thinking

“Simon kept pace beside Clary for a few moments without speaking before he said, “So what did I miss? Naked dancing ladies?”
Clary thought of the male faerie‘s torn-open ribs and shuddered. “Nothing that pleasant.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Dance

“From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.”

Helen Hayes (1900–1993) actress

Love, Books, Parent, Laughter

“I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Nature

“The walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious.”

Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach

Source: James and the Giant Peach

“A book should be an axe to chop open the frozen sea inside us.”

J.M. Coetzee book Summertime

Source: Summertime

Books, Sea

“It's a sad day when Myrnin is the safe choice, she thought. Apparently, he thought so, too, because he gave her a long, troubled look before pressing his thumb to a glass plate inside the room and opening the door.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bite Club

Sadness

“I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive… and open to growth”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Thinking

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

World, Way

“The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.”

Yukio Mishima book Runaway Horses

Source: Runaway Horses

Sun

“Lucky is the man who does not secretly believe that every possibility is open to him.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

“Here we are. Maybe I should warn you before we enter…(Asmodeus)
(Jericho stepped past him and threw open the door.)
Or maybe not. Let’s just barge in and be surprised, shall we? (Asmodeus)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Warrior

Past

“God, if you ever loved me, open my eyes for me when I'm being this stupid! (Ron)”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Once Dead, Twice Shy

Love, God, Stupidity

“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Life

“Open your eyes now. I will. One moment. Has all vanished since? If I open and am for ever in the black adiaphane. I will see if I can see.
See now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

World, Time

“The Mercy of Allah is an Ocean, Our sins are a lump of clay clenched between the beak of a pigeon. The pigeon is perched on the branch of a tree at the edge of that ocean. It only has to open it's beak”

Leila Aboulela (1964) writer, playwright

Source: Minaret

Tree

“All the opportunities you let slip by! The idea, the inspiration just doesn´t come fast enough. Instead of being open, you´re closed up tight. That´s the worst sin of all - the sin of omission.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

Idea

“When she comes
She pulls you close
She breathes in short bursts
Her eyes close
Her head tilts back
Her mouth opens slightly
Her thighs turn to steel, and then melt
She is perfect
And you feel like you are everything.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: The Portable Henry Rollins

Feeling, Perfection

“Sitting with her on Sunday evening — a wet Sunday evening — the very time of all others when if a friend is at hand the heart must be opened, and every thing told…”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Time, Heart

“Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer

Books, Time, Reading

“However stupid the choice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, and had respected Tally's choice to stay.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

Stupidity

“Please," she whispered as she opened the book, "please get me out of here just for an hour or so, please take me far, far away”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books

“The door banged open, and Eve rushed out, flushed and mussed and still buttoning her shirt. 'It's not what you think,' she said. 'It was just—oh, okay, whatever, it was exactly what you think. Now,?”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Lord of Misrule

Thinking

“Good men don't become legends," he said quietly.
"Good men don't need to become legends." She opened her eyes, looking up at him. "They just do what's right anyway.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

Men

“The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.”

Napoleon Hill book Think and Grow Rich

Source: Think and Grow Rich (1938), p. 112

Sun

“You invite things to happen. You open the door. You inhale. And if you inhale the chaos, you give the chaos, the chaos gives back.”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

Source: You Shall Know Our Velocity!

“When we open ourselves
you yourself to me and I myself to you,
when we submerge
you into me and I into you
when we vanish
into me you and into you I

Then
am I me
and you are you.”

Bernhard Schlink book The Reader

Source: The Reader

“Dreams are stories made by and for the dreamer, and each dreamer has his own folds to open and knots to untie.”

Siri Hustvedt (1955) novelist, essayist, poet

Source: The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

Dreams

“I opened my mouth and kissed you then, the first time all night, attacked you and surrendered completely, and let’s get out of here. I’m ready, I’m finished, let’s not break up, no, no. Take me home, my boyfriend, my love.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Love, Home, Kiss, Time

“You have to come to your closed doors before you’ll ever get to your open doors.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life

“I keep asking myself," whispered Sabetha, giving Locke's arm a squeeze, "ARE we smarter than that woman's chicken?"

"At the moment, it's an open question," said Locke.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

Question

“You are Joseph the dreamer of dreams, dear Jude.
And a tragic Don Quixote. And sometimes you are St. Stephen, who, while they
were stoning him, could see Heaven opened. Oh, my poor friend and comrade,
you'll suffer yet!”

Thomas Hardy book Jude the Obscure

Source: Jude the Obscure

Dreams, Suffering

“Love is only a word, until someone arrives to give it meaning.
Don't give up. Remember, it's always the last key on the key ring that opens the door.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

Love

“Grandma frowned and yelled something in Russian. She could have been saying, 'Open up, your best friend is here.' On the other hand, it could have been, 'America is a great country because of canned ravioli.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Source: Prom

Grandma, Country

“Day and night I always dream with open eyes.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

"I dream awake" ["Ismaelillo"]
As quoted in Great Hispanic-Americans (2005) by Nicolás Kanellos, Robert Rodriguez and Tamra Orr, p. 72

Dreams, Night

“My heart broke open and history fell in.”

Salman Rushdie The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Source: The Ground Beneath Her Feet

History, Heart

“They're fanatics. It's like expecting humanity from a falling rock. It's not going to have a fit of compassion and not crack your skull open.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“Not all possibilities are open to us. The world is finite; our hopes spill over its rim.”

Salman Rushdie book The Satanic Verses

Source: The Satanic Verses

World, Hope

“The world will know and understand me someday. But if that day does not arrive, it does not greatly matter. I shall have opened the way for other women.”

George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin

Women, World, Way, Understanding

“Motherhood is a Sisyphean task. You finish sewing one seam shut, and another rips open. I have come to believe that this life I'm wearing will never really fit.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Life

“When the heart is open, it's easier for the mind to be turned toward God.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

God, Heart

“Like is an emotion. Emotions”—he raised a hand, made a fist, clenched it tightly—“are like holding water. You open your hand, there’s nothing there. Better to be a weapon than a woman.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Water

“Smashing heads does not open minds.”

Deborah Tannen (1945) American sociolinguist

“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

“Those who have to ask if faith is true are opening up a discussion they may not be ready for.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Faith

“Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

“Stop a minute and listen. I know I'm asking the impossible from you, but for once in your life, shut your mouth and open your ears."

"I'm not the one talking."

Kyrian snarled at him. "Don't get smart with me."

"You want me stupid?"

"Nick….”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Life, Stupidity

“Jericho lay back down on his side, watching her breathe just an arm's length from him. She was not beautiful while she slept; her mouth hung open and she snored very lightly, and this, despite everything that had happened, made him smile.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Smile, Beauty

“Practice sharing the fullness of your being, your best self, your enthusiasm, your vitality, your spirit, your trust, your openness, above all, your presence. Share it with yourself, with your family, with the world.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

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

World, Family

“And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Love, Heart

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”

Gerry Spence (1929) American lawyer

Source: How to Argue and Win Every Time (1995), Ch. 6 : The Power of Prejudice : Examining the Garment, Bleaching the Stain, p. 98
Source: How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday

Faith

“You don't want to become so open minded that the wind whistles between your ears.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

“It’s fun to think of the what-if. Scary, but fun. It’s like, I thought this door was closed before, but here it is open just the tiniest crack. What if?”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Thinking

“It's nice sometimes
to open up the heart a little
and let some hurt come in.
It proves you're still alive.”

Rod McKuen (1933–2015) American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer

Source: Listen to the Warm

Heart, Hurt

“Doughboy, we need to talk.”
Doughboy opened his wax eyes. “Finally! You realize how stuffy it is in there? At last you’ve remembered that you need my brilliant guidance.”
“Actually we need to become a coat.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Idea

“Even though he was here, she couldn't quite process it. She squeered her eyes shut before opening them again.
Yep, still there. Amazing.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

“… lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to “walk about” into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

World, Music, Thinking, Painting

“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

“I like that Zarek. He quality people! He even gave me a can opener so I don’t have to use my fangs. I like that. Metal is hard on the teeth. Pork and beans popsicle. Yummy! My favorite! (Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

People

“Why do we even bother? Why do we make ourselves so open to such easy damage? Is it all loneliness? Is it all fear? Or is it just to experience those narcotic moments of belonging with someone else?”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Fear, Loneliness

“when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Six - "In which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in".
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh

People, Thinking

“Now remember, Kate." Barabas leaned over to me, grinning. "You are the Consort. Be the Consort." He stretched "be" into a three-syllable word. "Think like a-"

"Open the door or I'll punch you right in the face," I growled.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Thinking

“Life is not meant to be an open-book test.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Everlasting

Life, Books

“Please nothing, she’s a vicious piranha. She looks all cute and cuddly, then she opens that mouth and lets loose so much venom she could double as a nest of scorpions. (Leo)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dark Side of the Moon

“Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

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

Heart, Fight

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?
The world would split open.”

Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist

Life, Truth, World

“Children are capable of such open rudeness.”

Trenton Lee Stewart The Mysterious Benedict Society

Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society

Children

“If you let the world in, you open yourself up to the world. Even if the world doesn't know that you're there.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

World

“To me, tragedy is if I'll cut my finger, that's tragedy…Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die.”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

The 2,000 Year Old Man (and sequels)
Variant: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.

“pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence”

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter

Source: The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

Death, Pain, Pleasure, Intelligence

“I love things made out of animals. It's just so funny to think of someone saying, "I need a letter opener. I guess I'll have to kill a deer.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Interview with Robert David Sullivan
Context: "I love things made out of animals," Sedaris says, holding a knife with a hoof for a handle. "It's just so funny to think of someone saying, 'I need a letter opener. I guess I'll have to kill a deer.'"

Love, Thinking, Animals