Quotes about voice
page 6

“I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I am afraid of hearing voices, or a voice. I have come to the edge, of the land. I could get pushed over.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: CAT'S EYE.

Lie, Cry, Night

“Who wants us?" Bianca demanded. "Because if you think you'll get a ransom, you're wrong. We don't have any family. Nico and I—" Her voice broke a little. "We've got no one but each other.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Family, Thinking

“The human voice is the organ of the soul.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Soul

“What we don't let out traps us. We think, "No one else feels this way, I must be crazy." So we don't say anything. And we become enveloped by a deep loneliness, not knowing where our feelings come from or what to do with them. "Why do I feel this way? Last week, I was on top of the world and now my feelings don't make sense." Voicing it, getting it out and letting it other people hear it, helps to dissipate it. The fears and self-criticisms begin to leak. And we begin to heal.”

Sabrina Ward Harrison (1975) Canadian writer

Quoted by Katherine Martin in Women of Courage: Inspiring Stories from the Women Who Lived Them, p. 268 (1999)

People, World, Fear, Way

“Please don't die," she whispered. "I don't think I can bury
you. I already buried everyone else."

"How can I die," Alexander said, his voice breaking, "when you
have poured your immortal blood into me?”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Thinking

“The sound of my name in his voice stopped me in midturn. I don't know how the hell he did it, but whenever he said my name, it cut through all other distractions and made me pause, as if he'd clenched me to him and kissed me.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Hell, Kiss

“All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.”

Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) American writer

Source: Of Time and the River: A Legend of Man's Hunger in His Youth

Love, Travel, Home, Lovers

“In this age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced-writers' voices, teachers' voices, students' voices-and all because of fear.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

Source: Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers

Books, Age, Fear, Silence

“I have a voice, too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

Silence, Evil

“His voice is deep and gravelly. I once heard one of the girls say that he had the voice of a sex god, but because I've never really heard what a sex god sounds like, I can't verify that.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

God, Sex, Girl

“So you are dying for love, then," Will said finally, his voice sounding constricted to his own ears.
'Dying a little faster for love. And there are worse things to die for.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love

“No," he said, voice thick and husky. His fingers dug into the chair's arms. "You'd better not get too close."
I stopped, laughing softly. "You don't strike me as the assaulting type, Mortensen."
"Yeah, well, there's a first time for everything.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus on Top

Time

“I could hear hopefulness in her voice, but also doubt. She was waiting for me to admit the obvious: I’d forgotten. I was toast. I was boyfriend roadkill.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Source: The Demigod Diaries

Hope, Waiting

“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening (1899)

Soul, Solitude, Sea

“Sara: "You are so brave," I tell her, and then I smile. "When I grow up, I want to be just like you."
To my surprise, Kate shakes her head hard. Her voice is a feather, a thread. "No Mommy," she says. "You'd be sick.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Smile

“In a few minutes I heard the books' voices: a low, steady, unsupressible hum. I'd heard it many times before. I've always had a finely tuned ear for a library's accumulations of echo and desire. Libraries are anything but hushed.”

Martha Cooley book The Archivist

Source: The Archivist

Books, Time

“This is what historians usually do, quibble about cause and effect when the point is, there are times when the world is in flux and the right voice in the right place can move the world. Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin, for instance. Bismark. Lenin.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Pain, World, Time

“Above my cradle loomed the bookcase where/ Latin ashes and the dust of Greece/ mingled with novels, history, and verse/ in one dark Babel. I was folio-high/ when I first heard the voices.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

History

“Hold your pen and spare your voice.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

“A conscience is that still small voice that people won't listen to.”

Carlo Collodi book The Adventures of Pinocchio

Source: Pinocchio

People

“Death,
I need my little addiction to you.
need that tiny voice who,
even as I rise from the sea,
all woman, all there,
says kill me, kill me.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

"Letters to Dr. Y."
Words for Dr. Y (1978)

Death, Sea

“We sat in the car
& the night dropped
down until the
only sounds were
the crickets &
the dance of our voices

& for a moment
the world became
small enough to
roll back & forth
between us.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Hearing Voices - Volume 5: Collected Stories and Drawings

World, Cars, Dance, Night

“He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor hear her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

Feeling, Waiting, Night

“Till Human voices wake us, and we drown.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

“And I'm moved, it's so beautiful. Not what I wrote, but to have it given back like this. To have her remember the words and the tune. To hear it in her voice.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Beauty

“I needed her to stop. Needed not to hear the pain in her voice--to see the way she was twisting the pocketbook strap. If she kept talking, she might break down and tell me everything.”

Wally Lamb book I Know This Much Is True

Source: I Know This Much Is True

Pain, Way

“The voices blend and fuse in clouded silence: silence that is infinite of space: and swiftly, silently the sound is wafted over regions of cycles of cycles of generations that have lived.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Silence

“Now," said Brandons low, cold voice. "Lets not be rude eve.”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

“The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are holy the ecstacy is holy!”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

“I made such a fool of myself,” she lamented.
“Love does not make you a fool.”
“He didn’t love me back.”
“That does not make you a fool, either.”
“Just tell me …” Her voice cracked. “When does it stop hurting?”
“Sometimes never.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Love, Fools, Hurt

“Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory —
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Music, When Soft Voices Die http://www.readprint.com/work-1367/Percy-Bysshe-Shelley (1821) <br class="br">Source: The Complete Poems

Love, Art, Music, Sense

“I shot up, now as angry and frusterated as him. I had a feeling if i stayed, we'd both snap. In and undertone, I murmured,"this isnt over. i won't give up on you."
" I've given up on you,"he said back, voice also soft. "Love fades. Mine has.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Variant: Rose. Please stop. Please stay away."
[... ]
In an undertone, I murmured, "This isn't over. I won't give up on you."
"I've given up on you," he said back, voice also soft. "Love fades. Mine has.
Source: Spirit Bound

Love, Feeling

“The phone rang in the comm. center. Ian consulted the monitor. "It's Dan." He pressed a button. "Kabra here."
Dan's voice crackled through the attic. "Don't say it like that," he complained. "Your name still gives me heartburn.”

Gordon Korman book The Medusa Plot

Source: The Medusa Plot

“Roza." his voice had that same wonderful lowness, the same accent… it was all just colder. "You forgot my first lesson: Don't hesitate."
I just barely saw his fist striking out toward my head… and then I saw nothing at all.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“I am stronger when Tessa is here, you see. I told it to you," said Jem, still in the same soft voice.

At that, Will did duck his head so that Tessa could not see his eyes. "I see it," he said.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“Elizabeth's voice had a door in it. When you opened that door you found another door, and that door opened yet another door. All the doors were nice and led out of her.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

“In a deep sexy voice, she said Windows don't turn me on.
I raised an eyebrow at her, Mac user?”

Diane Mott Davidson (1949) novelist

Source: Sticks & Scones

“Gods, woman," William said. "Your voice is like death. Can you shut it until I leave the room? Please. Seriously, you're like the one woman in the world Ito resist." -Page 271”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Pleasure

Death, God, World

“The snow has quietness in it; no songs,
no smells, no shouts or traffic.
When I speak
my own voice shocks me.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: All My Pretty Ones

“For that great Love speaks in the most wretched and dirty hearts; only the tone of its voice depends on the echoes of the place in which it sounds.”

George MacDonald book At the Back of the North Wind

Source: At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Chapter 18

Love, Heart, Dependency

“She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

"The Birthmark" from Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)

Music

“I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: 100 Love Sonnets

“Writing is the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin.”

Roland Barthes (1915–1980) French philosopher, critic and literary theorist

“It was only the matter of a new voice. Nobody listened to an old voice anymore. Old voices became a part of one's self, like a fingernail.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Parting

“This is how we bring about our own damnation, you know-by ignoring the voice that begs us to stop. To stop while there's still time.”

Stephen King book Revival

Source: Revival

Time

“Zach,” I said as I lay there “Where did you go? When you were looking for me?”
I shifted in his arms, looked into his eyes.
“Crazy.” His voice was a whisper against my skin. “I went crazy.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“The devil's voice is sweet to hear.”

Stephen King book Needful Things

Needful Things (1991)

“Maybe it's information the whitecoats never wanted anyone to figure out.' Fang said in the hollow-y voice he used sometimes when things got unusually weird- as opposed to regular weird.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment

“Frank imitated the voice of Vitellius: 'They're wimps! Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Time

“4. You hear his voice in a crowd more than any other.”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 13

“For echo is the soul of the voice exciting itself in hollow places.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Soul

“Trust your inner voice.”

Lynn A. Robinson

“So everything lets us down, including curiosity and honesty and what we love best. Yes, said the voice, but cheer up, it's fun in the end.”

Roberto Bolaño book 2666

Source: 2666

Love, Hope

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Soul, Sea

“If his voice hasn't been the melody of my life, it's been the bass line, so subtle you don't notice it until it's missing.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Life

“Don't talk to my sister that way." Nico said. His voice quivered, but I was impressed that he had the guts to say anything at all. — Percy”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Way, Sister

“Why don't you like Noel Kahn?" Mike's voice made Aria jump. He stood a few feet away from Aria with a carton of orange juice in his hand."He's the man."
Aria groaned. "If you like him so much why don't you go out with him?”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

“We’ll be back!” he snarled.
It was really Ari’s voice.
Boy, you just can’t kill people like you used to,” said Fang”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

People, Boy

“He became my confidante, someone with whom I could share thoughts I could never voice… In exchange, he trusted me with his.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

W [ViVa] (1931) LVII

Understanding

“Magnus began to be truly alarmed. Will's voice would have shaken, betraying that his cruelty had been part of his playacting, but his son's laugh was that of someone genuinely delighted by the chaos erupting all around him”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Midnight Heir

Parting

“Stories," he'd said, his voice low and almost husky, "we are made up of stories. And even the ones that seem the most like lies can be our deepest hidden truths.”

Jane Yolen book Briar Rose

Source: Briar Rose

Truth

“They all talked at once, their voices insistent and contradictory and impatient, making of unreality a possibility, then a probability, then an incontrovertible fact, as people will when their desires become words.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

Source: The Sound and the Fury

People

“What is the sound of one hand clapping? What is the weight of a single grain of sand? The answer is equal to my interest in the message you are about to leave so make it short. -- Mitch Hertzog's voice mail message.”

Meg Cabot book Boy Meets Girl

Source: Boy Meets Girl

“Positive, adj. Mistaken at the top of one's voice.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“The inmost spirit of poetry, in other words, is at bottom, in every recorded case, the voice of pain – and the physical body, so to speak, of poetry, is the treatment by which the poet tries to reconcile that pain with the world.”

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer

Pain, World

“What a psalm the storm was singing, and how fresh the smell of the washed earth and leaves, and how sweet the still small voices of the storm!”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Source: Stickeen

Singing

“What she said was always strange. It had happened long ago. It seemed insignificant. And yet it was something you remembered forever. The words as well as the story. The voice as much as the words.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Source: Summer Rain

“Your voice is wild and simple.
You are untranslatable
Into any one tongue.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Source: The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

“Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think - in a deeper voice.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Women, Thinking

“Well, hello there, Mother,” Sebastian said in a voice like silk. “Surprised to see me?”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“They’re waiting for you. Go on in.” Adrian leaned close to Keith’s ear and spoke in an ominous voice. “If. You. Dare.” He poked Keith’s shoulder and gave a "Muhahaha” kind of monster laugh.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Waiting

“The complaints of the privileged are too often confused with the voice of the masses.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

“In a calm, clear voice, she suggested that the wyrsa in question could do several highly improbable, athletically difficult and possibly biologically impractical things involving its own mother, a few household implements, and a dead fish.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: The Silver Gryphon

Question, Fish, Dead

“My eyes flew open, and I pushed back against rock-hard shoulders. I let out a little squeak of horror.

"It's me," said a familiar voice.

…"Eric, what are you doing here?"

"Snuggling.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

“It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial.”

Agatha Christie book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Source: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Secret

“Say you’ll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

God, Singing, Night

“Your voice is your identity.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse."

()”

Sting (1951) English musician

Source: Nothing Like the Sun

Faith

“I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the Nineties voice of individuality and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or immoral activity…”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

People

“What does it mean?" Emily said, in a low, panicked voice: "What does it mean if a rainbow comes before rain?”

Jaclyn Moriarty (1968) Australian writer

Source: The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie

“You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.”

Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) Film actress from Sweden

Training

“Here is a list of fearful things:
The jaws of sharks, a vulture's wings,
The rabid bite of the dog's of war,
The voice of one who went before.
But most of all the mirror's gaze,
which counts us out our numbered days.”

Clive Barker Days of Magic, Nights of War

Abarat, Book One
Source: Days of Magic, Nights of War

War, Fear, Dogs

“You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

“There's nothing like your mother's sympathetic voice to make you want to burst into tears.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Source: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Tear, Mother's Day, For Parents, For Mother

“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

“So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

Books, World, Hope, Strong

“Deanna's voice softened. "Theresa, I know there's a part of you that believes you can change someone, but the reality is that you can't. You can change yourself, and Garrett can change himself, but you can't do it for him."”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

"I know that--"
"But you don't," Deanna said, gently cutting her off. "Or if you do, you don't want to see it that way. Your vision, as they say, has become clouded."
Deanna and Theresa Osbourne, Chapter 10, p. 196
Source: 1990s, Message in a Bottle (1998)

Reality, Change, Parting

“His voice stopped and they looked for a long quiet moment into each other's eyes and between them lay the sunny lost youth that they had so unthinkingly shared.”

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) American author and journalist

Youth

“Don't leave yet," he said, his voice hoarse. "Let me do something. Let me feed you. Hold you. Rub your shoulders. Change your oil. Anything, please.”

Robyn Carr American writer

Source: Sunrise Point

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