Quotes about wording
page 20

“There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return. I suspect that whenever I articulate my thoughts or translate my impulses into words, I am betraying the real thoughts and impulses which remain hidden.”

Jerzy Kosiński book The Painted Bird

Source: The Painted Bird

“I knew it. In this way, Peeta's not hard to predict. While I was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking only of myself, he was here, thinking of me. Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Way, Feeling, Thinking, Strong

“So many words get lost. They leave the mouthand lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Courage, Past, Dead

“is a futile word. It's about what didn't happen. It belongs in a parallel universe. It belongs in another dimension of space.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

Universe

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright

World

“I will use big words from time to time, the meanings of which I may only vaguely perceive, in hopes such cupidity will send you scampering to your dictionary: I will call such behavior 'public service'.”

Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) American writer

Hope, Behavior, Time

“When you make a solemn promise to a friend, it ain't right to go back on it. No. Never let your friend down, never break a trust, and when you give your word, never go back on it.

-Sheriff Andy Taylor”

Lauren Myracle (1969) American children's writer

Source: Bliss

“There's no point in comforting words, in telling her she'll be all right. She's no fool. Her hand reaches out and I clutch it like a lifeline. As if it's me who's dying instead of Rue.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Fools

“Desire backed by faith knows no such word as impossible.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Faith

“I snatched the paper away from Dopey.
"Hey," he yelled. "I was reading that!"
"Let somebody who can pronounce all the big words have a try," I said.”

Meg Cabot book Darkest Hour

Source: Darkest Hour

Reading

“In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”

Lisa See book Peony in Love

Source: Peony in Love

Universe

“Fine… a word that you said when someone asked how you were but didn't really care to know the truth.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Truth

“Start believing the Word of God over our feelings. The truth always overrides our feelings. Find the truth in the scriptures.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

God, Truth, Feeling

“Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

"Confessions of an unromantic man," Redbook magazine, Vol. 176, Iss. 4, (Feb 1991): 62.

God, Color, Funny

“Is this a game? We just blurt out whatever word comes next to mind? In that case mine's 'genuphobia'. It means an unreasonable fear of knees."
"What's the word for a perfectly reasonable fear of annoying idiots?" inqired Jessamine.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Fear, Game

“It's unbecoming," she agreed. "A perfect word for my new life. Unbecoming. I who have always been unbecoming am becoming un.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Life, Perfection

“Look, I need to tell you something,' I continued. The words came stumbling out of me. 'I couldnt stand it if… I dont want you to---'
Percy?' she said. 'You look like you're going to be sick.'
And that's how I felt.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“In the words of a very famous dead person, 'A nation that does not know its history is doomed to do poorly on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Source: Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States

History, Personality, Dead

“What kind of beast would turn its life into words?”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Source: Twenty One Love Poems

Life

“if you want someone to stop listening to you go ahead and yell. If you want them to listen to every word, whisper. -Mimi”

Erin McKean (1971) Lexicographer, dictionary editor

Source: The Secret Lives of Dresses

“Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.”

Cal Newport (1982) American computer scientist

Source: So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

Passion

“My arms are killing me.
I didn't know words could be so heavy.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

“it's the belief, not the words, that mean everything. it's the floating.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“The words you can't find, you borrow.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“There is no such thing as an empty word, only one that is worn out yet remains full.”

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

“She is like all the rest of them. Whether they are seventeen or fortyseven, when they finally come to surrender completely, it's going to be in words.”

William Faulkner book Light in August

Source: Light in August

“Children are dying."
Lull nodded. "That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words.”

Steven Erikson book Deadhouse Gates

Source: Deadhouse Gates

Children, World, History

“She woke up and realized she had forgotten the definition of the word ‘impossible.’ She decided it must not have been that important.”

Monique Duval (1924–2014) Canadian journalist

Source: The Persistence of Yellow: A Book of Recipes for Life

“My mother just wanted me to forget it. So, of course, every word was immediately, irrevocably branded into my brain.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Forgetting

“The complexity embedded in the different levels of meaning that go along with the words "I love you" ought to be a whole mindfuck of a video game”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Love, Game

“She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought words bent emotions like sticks in water.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Love, Water

“There are some experiences in life they haven't invented the right words for.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Married By Morning

Life

“Where is this love? I can't see it, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words”

Patrick Marber Closer

Source: Closer

Love, Feeling

“I punched to line. "Yes? What?"
"Norville. It's Cormac. If you don't change the subject right now, I'm going to have to go over there and have a word with you.”

Carrie Vaughn (1973) American writer

Source: Kitty and the Midnight Hour

Change

“There is no time to leave important words unsaid.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Time, Sad

“The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Stupidity

“Memory plays tricks. Memory is another word for story, and nothing is more unreliable.”

Ann-Marie MacDonald book Fall on Your Knees

Source: Fall on Your Knees

Memory

“Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Self-Reliance

Thinking

“Sitting over words
Very late I have heard a kind of whispered sighing
Not far
Like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark
The echo of everything that has ever
Been spoken
Still spinning its one syllable
Between the earth and silence”

W.S. Merwin (1927–2019) American poet

Silence, Sea, Night

“Desire is not always lessened by disgust. Nor can it be bestowed, like a favor, to those most deserving of it. And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesn’t desire his kiss, she won’t be free.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Truth, Kiss

“The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

JMSNews (31 January 2008) http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17708&topic=Spiderman. Context: The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it: Will you go out with me? I think I like you. I care for you. I love you. Marry me. Goodbye.