Adult Nonfiction Quotes

The smell of cigarette smoke in the air in a tavern that changes names often,
a bar cursed because of a girl who died of a drug overdose
in the basement, we put a few coins in the jukebox;
chose "Angel Band" by Johnny Cash and sat down at the bar,
ordered a soda, you wanted a whiskey on the rocks.
We saw the coal miner who moved here from West Virginia
knocking back liquor like I drink sweet tea.
No one asked why he was so solemn today.
It was warm. It was relatively quiet.
To anyone else, this place could feel sinister.
But to us, it was freedom. It was a hiding place.
No one was ever here long enough to know us.
And we liked it that way. ~ Taylor Rhodes

The shield went down for such a brief moment that, when it sealed again, the tail of the lasomag charge deflected wildly. Adrenaline fired, he dove for the floor, heart racing, as the flash burst backwards, striking someone in Theta's section. Panic swelled in a shrieking roar, front to back, some scattering, others frozen in place. ~ Marcha A. Fox

Touch is a magical thing, Natti," he explained. "It can comfort." He raised one hand and stroked her cheek, soft and gentle. "It can entice." His thumb moved along her jaw and applied pressure as it traveled down her neck, causing her to shiver with delight. "And it can hurt. Whatever the intensions, it brings two people together. It makes a certain ... connection. ~ Kelsey Ketch

Identity was everything, but it seemed I never had one. (Jessica) ~ Shannon A. Thompson

I'll leave you guys to get acquainted. Somebody show Leo to dinner when it's time?"
"I got it," one of the girls said. Nyssa, Leo remembered. She wore camo pants, a tank top that showed off her buff arms, and a red bandanna over her mop of dark hair. Except for the smiley-face Band-Aid on her chin, she looked like one of those female action heroes, like any second she was going to grab a machine gun and start mowing down evil aliens.
"Cool," Leo said. "I always wanted a sister who could beat me up. ~ Rick Riordan

The Lord of Rags and Tatters. ~ Megan Whalen Turner

Being amongst rough lives and confusion does not make you less, it only makes your beauty shine out more clearly. ~ Sharon Sant

Don't do it. Don't go to that job you hate. Do something you love today. Ride a roller coaster. Swim in the ocean naked. Go to the airport and get on the next flight to anywhere just for the fun of it. Maybe stop a spinning globe with your finger and then plan a trip to that very spot; even if it's in the middle of the ocean you can go by boat. Eat some type of ethnic food you've never even heard of. Stop a stranger and ask her to explain her greatest fears and her secret hopes and aspirations in detail and then tell her you care because she is a human being. Sit down on the sidewalk and make pictures with colorful chalk. Close your eyes and try to see the world with your nose - allow smells
to be your vision. Catch up on your sleep. Call an old friend you haven't seen in years. Roll up your pant legs and walk into the sea. See a foreign film. Feed squirrels. Do anything! Something! Because you start a revolution one decision at a time, with each breath you take. Just don't go back to that miserable place you go every day. Show me it's possible to be an adult and also be happy. Please. This is a free country. You don't have to keep doing this if you don't want to. You can do anything you want. Be anyone you want. ~ Matthew Quick

Whether adult children of toxic parents were beaten when little or left alone too much, sexually abused or treated like fools, overprotected or overburdened by guilt, they almost all suffer surprisingly similar symptoms: damaged self-esteem, leading to self-destructive behavior. In one way or another, they almost all feel worthless, unlovable, and inadequate. ~ Susan Forward

When I started in the business, there was a thing called adult fantasy, but nobody quite knew what it was, and most publishers didn't have an adult fantasy list. They had science fiction lists, which they stuck a little bit of fantasy into. ~ Terri Windling

Our culture has the expectation that the memories of a happy childhood will somehow ground you and prepare you for adult life. But what about the memories that cut, that wound, that won't heal? ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

All my adult life I have kept a distance from other people, it has been my way of coping, because I become so incredibly close to others in my thoughts and feelings of course, they only have to look away dismissively for a storm to break inside me. ~ Karl Ove Knausgaard

Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don't the adult around here just say something? Say it so they know we don't accept segregation? I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.' And I did. ~ Claudette Colvin

Jay's mom was a lot of great things that Violet admired, technologically savvy was definitely not one of them. She was one of those people who were loath to move into the twenty-first century and embrace all things modern. She was the only adult woman that Violet knew of who didn't own a cell phone, and she refused to buckle beneath the pressure to pay good money for high-speed internet, so Jay was forced to plug his secondhand laptop into the phone line and use dial-up. Not because they couldn't afford such luxuries, but because Ann Heaton wasn't going down without a fight. ~ Kimberly Derting

Your scent, Jo. It's like wool and bread and something else. I don't know. A scent like if laughter had a scent, or daybreak. You filled the whole car with a yellow light like daybreak. I swear it felt like light pouring into my veins. ~ Sarah Henstra

I think thinking about becoming an adult, and having to face up to your problems and face up to your insecurities, is difficult for everybody. ~ Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Our love isn't the sick and sticky splendor of teenage ardor, I've realized. It's sharp, slicing - a knife to the heart, followed by the quick stitching of its two halves back together again. ~ Logan Keys

I feel like I am weak, and my weakness has been exposed to the light. ~ Charlena E. Jackson

Those who read only books that only entertain them have no significant advantage over those who can but do not read. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

As of 2002, two million Latino adults had been diagnosed with diabetes. ~ Xavier Becerra

In our hip-hop lives we make rhymes we make beats we go big or go home. - Esme from Sister Mischief ~ Laura Goode

You speak baby gibberish?' asked Jack.
'Fluently. The adult-education center ran a course, and I have a lot of time on my hands.'
'So what did he say?'
'I don't know.'
'I thought you said you spoke gibberish?'
'I do. But your baby doesn't. I think he's speaking either
pre-toddler nonsense, a form of infact burble or an obscure dialect of
gobbledygook. In any event, I can't understand a word he's saying.'
'Oh. ~ Jasper Fforde

It's all inside of you - what you want, who you are, and who you want to be. Just give it time." He pulls away and helps me to my feet. "Nobody makes you, you. You make yourself. ~ Patricia Vanasse

Every adult is the creation of a child. ~ Chris Fuhrman

I guess the biggest difference from the things I've done in the past is that my work will be more narrative-driven adult films or vignettes, not just "gonzo" scenes, which are straight sex, no storyline. ~ Sasha Grey

Eight academically brilliant but romantically barren years, and then in a week's time a sudden bloom like this. ~ Dhaval Rathod

I like difficult. I like a challenge. And as soon I realized you were the only person in the world for me, I had no choice but to keep chasing you until you agreed to be with me. Even if it took years. And given how stubborn you are, I'm surprised it didn't take that long. ~ Allie Everhart

Blood trickled down his chin as he was hauled up onto his knees, the golden rope securing his arms behind him and his ankles together.
Arthur looked up and saw the fizzing sparkling crown coming down.
I'm Arthur Penhaligon, he thought desperately ...
The crown was wedged tightly upon his head- and Arthur fell silently screaming into darkness. ~ Garth Nix

In adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated. ~ Santiago Ramon Y Cajal

If vulgarity is a game that begins by excluding women, but ultimately excludes men from themselves, modesty is the game both can play. It begins as a woman's game – one, interestingly, where she appears to lose, to be 'missing out' – but really she invites a man to relate to her in a way that is both uniquely human and ultimately more erotic. So modesty may
superficially seem just to be a woman's game because it is one she must begin, but in playing it she invites men to relate to her in a different way, a way that ultimately means that the men win, too, because they are no longer cut off from adult masculinity. ~ Wendy Shalit

We didn't cause the apocalypse…"
"But we were too dumb to see it," she snaps. "That was our mistake. ~ Caroline George

The fiery tickle of outrage burned up her throat. "How the hell would you know that when you never gave me a chance?"
Something dark and scorching flickered behind his eyes. "Because no other girl has ever made me want to forget all my own rules for them. ~ Airicka Phoenix

You make obstacle courses and hurricanes, I make T-shirt slogans. ~ Kimberly Sabatini

We measure the success of schools not by the kinds of human beings they promote but by whatever increases in reading scores they chalk up. We have allowed quantitative standards, so central to the adult economic system, to become the principal yardstick for our definition of our children's worth. ~ Kenneth Keniston

He tasted of chocolate and man and I was coming out of my skin as lust stirred in the pit of my stomach, followed by a burst of fluttery panic. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

I've never been on a bike," I say. "I mean, I've been on a bike but not a motorcycle."
"And why is that?" he asks.
"Bugs. They get in your mouth, right? That's just gross."
Chris makes a face.
"If you ride around with your mouth hanging open, I assume that could be a possibility. ~ Summer Lane

The problem is that children believe what adults say and once they're adults themselves they exact their revenge by deceiving their own children. "Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is" is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you become an adult and you realize that's not true it's too late. The mystery remains intact but all your available energy has long ago been wasted on stupid things. All that's left is to anesthetize yourself by trying to hide the fact that you can't find any meaning in your life and then the better to convince yourself you deceive your own children. ... People aim for the stars and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd. That might deprive you of a few good moments in your childhood but it would save you a considerable amount of time as an adultnot to mention the fact that you'd be spared at least one traumatic experience i.e. the goldfish bowl. ~ Muriel Barbery

I know that whatever you decide, you'll be happy, Summer, and that is the only thing I could ever wish. Whatever happens in the rest of this summer, whatever happens the rest of your life, it's important that you are happy, and stay that way. – Aunt Sookie ~ Kailin Gow

Water: 35 liters, Carbon: 20 kg, Ammonia: 4 liters, Lime:1.5 kg, Phosphrus: 800 g, salt: 250g, saltpeter:100g, Sulfer: 80g, Fluorine: 7.5 g, iron: 5.6 g, Silicon: 3g, and 15 other elements in small quantities ... thats the total chemical makeup of the average adult body. Modern science knows all of this, but there has never been a single example of succesful human trasmutation. It's like there's some missing ingredient ... Scientists have been trying to find it for hundreds of years, pouring tons of money into research, and to this day they don't have a theory. For that matter, the elements found in a human being is all junk that you can buy in any market with a child's allowence. Humans are pretty cheaply made. ~ Hiromu Arakawa

Jo told me once that she was an old woman everywhere but in her studio. "There I'm only myself," she'd said. Standing in the middle of masterpieces that only Jo had ever seen and touched, I knew what she meant. ~ Laura Anderson Kurk

When a girl is sexually abused, layers of secrecy and shame are added to her self-blame. The incestuous aggressor always projects the guilt for his crime onto the child he is molesting. The girl then learns to see herself as dirty and worthless. Having accepted humiliation, and exploitation as the conditions of survival during childhood, the girl is likely to reenact that same abuser/victim relationship with men in her adult life. ~ Susan Forward

It is a fool of a shepherd who culls his dogs. ~ Jefferson Smith

What can I do? his gaze on me was intense, like I was some sort of love guru or something. I almost laughed out loud at how unqualified I was for that position. ~ Katrina Abbott

MADDIE: You made a mistake, but that doesn't mean you should be punished forever. ~ Ruby Dixon

They inched through dense, heart-stopping darkness. In the distance was what looked like a bright white door cut out of a black wall. Sunni tiptoed towards it, puzzled by its brilliance. ~ Teresa Flavin

Heroes, well, they don't live so long. But they're muy suave, and we all admire them. ~ Nancy Farmer