Quotes about start
page 10

“I don't get it,' Caroline said, bemused. 'She's the only one with wings. Why is that?'
There were so many questions in life. You couldn't ever have all the answers. But I knew this one.
It's so she can fly,' I said. Then I started to run.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Life, Question, Flying

“The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate. A fine example was the Prodigal Son—when he started back home.”

O. Henry book The Four Million

"The Green Door" http://books.google.com/books?id=dKk_AAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+true+adventurer+goes+forth+aimless+and+uncalculating+to+meet+and+greet+unknown+fate+A+fine+example+was+the+Prodigal+Son+when+he+started+back+home%22&pg=PA151#v=onepage <br class="br">The Four Million (1906)

Fate, Home

“Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.”

Michael Crichton book Sphere

Source: Sphere

People, Understanding, Water

“All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

Forgetting

“In the months that follow you bend to the work, because it feels like hope, like grace--and because you know in your lying cheater's heart that sometimes a start is all we ever get.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

Hope, Feeling, Lying, Heart

“But she laced her fingers through mine. I remember what she’d told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought-just maybe-we were off to a good start.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Variant: I remembered what she'd told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought - just maybe - we were off to a good start.
Source: The Last Olympian

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Travel, Time, Waiting

“Honestly, Clary, if you don't start utilizing a bit of your natural feminine superiority I just don't know what I'll do with you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Nature

“Wanna hear something funny?”
“What?”
“I think I started liking you.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Thinking

“I am always chilled and astonished by the would-be writers who ask me for advice and admit, quite blithely, that they "don't have time to read." This is like a guy starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn't have time to buy any rope or pitons.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Guy, Time, Reading

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.”

J.B. Priestley (1894–1984) English writer

Waiting, Good Morning, Moving On

“And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

“The word friends doesn't seem to stretch big enough to describe how we feel about each other. We forget where one of us starts and the other one stops.”

Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Feeling, Forgetting

“The truth is, when it gets really quiet, when the silence gets too loud, i really start to miss everyone.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Truth, Silence

“… I started to die 36 hours before I was born, so dying was a way of life for me.”

Hubert Selby Jr. (1928–2004) American writer

Life, Way

“It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne’s thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
But the copula of terms is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. And when I scream I AM THE SUN an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of amorous frenzy.
Everyone is aware that life is parodic and that it lacks an interpretation. Thus lead is the parody of gold. Air is the parody of water. The brain is the parody of the equator. Coitus is the parody of crime.”

Georges Bataille book The Solar Anus

The Solar Anus (1927)

Life, World, Effort, Water

“The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it – that’s how we learn.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Truth, Learning

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Variant: Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

Water

“You can’t really yell at your boyfriend for stealing your seat and your best friend. You also can’t yell at your best friend for stealing your boyfriend. Or you can…but Hi seemed like a much easier way to start the morning.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Way

“What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

People, Forgetting

“A vet! I started laughing weakly and had to sit on the edge of the tub. A vet. Wait till they found out how appropriate that was.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Waiting

“When I was a fetus, I used to sneak out at night when my mother was sleeping. I figured I should start stealing stuff while I still had no fingerprints.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Sleep, Night

“People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Life, People, Way, Time

“I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

Fools

“A poet's work… to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

World, Fraud, Sleep

“Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

“Let’s go, let’s go together toward something extraordinary and I started making plans, thinking we would get that far.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Thinking

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth. Not going all the way, and not starting.” Siddhrtha Gautama”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Poke the Box

Truth, Way

“We'd even devised the Buffy scale of life relationships: you start off wanting Xander, spend your twenties going out with Spike and setttle down with giles.”

Jenny Colgan (1972) British writer

Life

“Don't you hear it? She asked & I shook my head no & then she started to dance & suddenly there was music everywhere & it went on for a very long time & when I finally found words all I could say was thank you.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

Music, Time, Dance

“Cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice.”

Barbara Kingsolver book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Source: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Confidence, Cooking

“I am starting a collection of only right-hand gloves. It’s ever so bourgeois to have two.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

“Resorting to connecting the dots this morning because it was a long night & he needs to do something really simple to get started again.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Traveling Light: Stories & Drawings for a Quiet Mind

Night

“Start taking bad decisions and it will take you to a place where others only dream of being.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Dreams, Decision

“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 10, sc. 2
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

Thinking

“Start telling the story of your amazing life, and the law of attraction must make sure you receive it!”

Rhonda Byrne book The Power

Source: The Power

Life, Law

“I was starting to think I was making up memories, just to have answers.
Our brain does that sometimes.
Or at least mine does.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Thinking, Memory

“I hate how my past actions keep messing up my future options, Seth muttered.
Then you've started down the road to wisdom, Grandpa replied.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

Wisdom, Hate, Past, Future

“She died--this was the way she died;
And when her breath was done,
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Source: Selected Poems

Angels, Way, Sun

“This was the start of a period that blurs as I try to recall it. Incidents seem to cascade and merge. Events become feelings, fellings become events. Head and heart are contrary historians.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Feeling, Heart

“The book smelled dusty and old but also carried a sweet tang, a hint of something inviting. She opened to the first page and started to read, pronouncing the words in a reverent whisper.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Books, Reading

“And then, when he’s been underwater so long I feel certain he’s drowned, his head pops up right next to me and I start. “Don’t do that,” I say. “What? Come up or stay under?” he says. “Either. Neither. Whatever”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Feeling

“Every time we start thinking we're the center of the universe, the universe turns around and says with a slightly distracted air, 'I'm sorry. What'd you say your name was again?”

Margaret Maron book Bootlegger's Daughter

Source: Bootlegger's Daughter

Thinking, Universe, Time

“We're wired to expect the world to be brighter and more meaningful and more obviously interesting than it actually is. And when we realize that it isn't, we start looking around for the real world.”

Lev Grossman (1969) American novelist, journalist

World

“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

“If the guy you’re dating doesn’t seem to be completely into you, or you feel the need to start ‘figuring him out,’ please consider the glorious thought that he might just not be that into you. And then free yourself to go find someone that is.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Guy, Feeling

“If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

“Nico started to crawl away, groaning. Percy wanted him to move faster and groan less. He considered throwing his wonder bread at him.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“In my childhood I led the life of a sage, when I grew up I started climbing trees”

Philip Roth book The Ghost Writer

Source: The Ghost Writer

Life, Tree, Childhood

“Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Drawing

“I warn you that when the princes of this world start loving you it means they are going to grind you up into battle sausage.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

[6]
Source: Journey to the End of the Night (1932)

Love, World

“The 1143-year-long war hand begun on false pretenses and only because the two races were unable to communicate.

Once they could talk, the first question was 'Why did you start this thing?' and the answer was 'Me?”

Joe Haldeman book The Forever War

Source: The Forever War

War, Communication, Question, Falseness

“[W]hen you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Source: When Harry Met Sally

Life

“Everybody has to start somewhere. You have your whole future ahead of you. Perfection doesn't happen right away.”

Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Future, Perfection

“Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than "laziness," is the real reason you find it hard to get started. This gumption trap of anxiety, which results from over-motivation, can lead to all kinds of errors of excessive fussiness. You fix things that don't need fixing, and chase after imaginary ailments. You jump to wild conclusions and build all kinds of errors into the machine because of your own nervousness. These errors, when made, tend to confirm your original underestimation of yourself. This leads to more errors, which lead to more underestimation, in a self-stoking cycle. The best way to break this cycle, I think, is to work out your anxieties on paper. Read every book and magazine you can on the subject. Your anxiety makes this easy and the more you read the more you calm down.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Books, Way, Error, Motivation

“Clary stopped wondering about peanut-fish-olive-tomato soup and started wondering what would happen if she dumped the contents of the pot on Isabelle’s head.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Fish

“And so I wait. I wait for time to heal the pain and raise me to me feet once again - so that I can start a new path, my own path, the one that will make me whole again.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

Source: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II

Pain, Time, Waiting

“What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don't think so. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them.”

Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director

Source: Hellboy: The Art of the Movie

Life, Way, Thinking

“Waiting for the pen to dry up so he can start fresh with thoughts that are worth new ink.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

Waiting

“If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first."
This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Way

“Existence is this, I thought, a start of joy, a stab of pain, an intense pleasure, veins that pulse under the skin, there is no other truth to tell.”

Elena Ferrante book The Days of Abandonment

Source: The Days of Abandonment

Pain, Pleasure, Truth, Joy

“To start with, look at all the books.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

Books

“The world would be a better place if people stopped voting for folksy candidates they could have a beer with and started voting for people smarter than they are.”

Marcus Sakey (1974) American musician

Source: Brilliance

People, World, Beer

“I know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat of it, everything looks as valuable as everything else. But, because nothing looks worth the bother, not even your life.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Collected Stories

Life, Home, Thinking

“And now I'm right back where I started. Sober and miserable.”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

“Then Thalia Grace became their leader and started recruiting even more young women to their cause, which grated on Nico – as if Bianca’s death could be forgotten. As if she could be replaced.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Death, Women

“If a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi's shoulders.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 49
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body

Love, Bird

“We're talking about the novel, right? But maybe we're not. We're talking about ourselves. And I guess that's what can start to happen when you talk about a book.”

Meg Wolitzer (1959) American writer

Source: Belzhar

Books

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter

Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

Life, Hope

“How long can we maintain? I wonder. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection..”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Family, Home, Boy, Thinking

“Geoff: We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.”

Alan Bennett (1934) English actor, author

Source: Getting On, Act 1 (1972).

People, Communication

“The mystery was gone but the amazement was just starting.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

“all people start to
come apart finally
and there it is:
just empty ashtrays in a room
or wisps of hair on a comb
in the dissolving moonlight.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

People

“Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

Thinking, Forgetting, Missing You

“How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. (92)”

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

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

Study, Learning, Reading, Personality

“When the final result is expected to be a compromise, it is often prudent to start from an extreme position.”

John Maynard Keynes book The Economic Consequences of the Peace

Source: The Economic Consequences of the Peace

“If I have gained anything over these months, it is the knowledge there is no starting over- only living with the mistakes you've made.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Knowledge

“The whites came to this land for a fresh start and to escape the tyranny of their masters, just as the freemen had fled theirs. But the ideals they held up for themselves, they denied others.”

Colson Whitehead book The Underground Railroad

Source: The Underground Railroad

“So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn't even budge.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Chance, Time

“Great," I said. "Another conference call. I havegot to start blocking your number.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“If you want something to be true badly enough, you can rewrite it that way, in your head. You can even start to believe it.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Way

“Some of the best demigods have gotten their start by blowing up toilets.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

“I was starting to see that what looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Variant: What looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe ittake a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it.
Source: Handle with Care

Life, Art

“Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will…”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

“Piper!” Frank yelled. “Counter those empousai! We need some chaos.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” She started catcalling at the female demons: “Your makeup is smeared! Your friend called you ugly! That one is making a face behind your back!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter

Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

Life, Hope

“What I think is this: You should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for the other half of your shadow.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Search, Cats, Thinking

“Growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change -Clary Fray”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Change

“You owe the companies nothing. You especially don't owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

taken from 'Brandalism' in the book 'Cut It Out' (inspired from Sean Tejaratchi's piece in Crap Hound No.6, July 1999.) Source http://readingfrenzy.com/ledger/2012/03/taking_the_piss_conclusion <br class="br">Other sources <br class="br">Source: Wall and Piece <br class="br">Context: People are taking the piss out of you every day. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.

World

“Powdered donuts," Tyson said earnestly. "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness." He headed outside and started calling, "Here, donuts!”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

“… Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed potato - one finishes what's on one's plate. That's always been my philosophy.”

Alan Bennett book The Uncommon Reader

Source: The Uncommon Reader

Books, Way