B A S S Quotes

A wise friend told me that we all could use more than one set of parents - our relations with the original set are too intense, and need dissipating. ~ Alice Adams

I like to be alone. Also, I drift, perhaps. When in a crowd, nothing seems to be worth while, and one is an ant in a hurrying mass. Alone, thoughts come with force. They strike one as bluntly as seen things impress themselves. ~ Charles J. Finger

Mrs. May winced. She thought the word Jesus should be kept inside the church building like other words inside the bedroom. ~ Flannery O'Connor

Vocabularies are crossing circles and loops. We are defined by the lines we choose to cross or to be confined by. ~ A.S. Byatt

Because it's true. Isn't that the only reason to ever say anything? ~ A.S. King

Light-years away, another starship was also experiencing problems, though perhaps not as severe. The I.S.S. Antares was not a new ship either. Many older ships in the imperial space fleet reaching retirement age were being refitted with more modern equipment to extend their useful lives. Thus, technologically at least, Antares was currently one of the most advanced ships of the Imperial Space Fleet. Unfortunately, she was now also one of the most troubled. This is what the Phoenix refitting program had done to the Antares. ~ Christina Engela

Everybody's always looking for the person they're better than ~ A.S. King

She's aware of her fondness for ledger keeping, a term that marriage counselors use to castigate their clients for keeping a running tally of who did what to whom, which is not in the spirit of generosity that supposedly nurtures a healthy relationship. The way she sees it, generosity is admirable but not always practical. Without some discreet retaliation to balance things out, a little surreptitious tit for tat to keep the grievances at bay, most relationships - hers included - would surely combust in a blaze of resentment. ~ A.S.A Harrison

Acceptance is supposed to be a good thing - Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Also compromise, as every couples therapist will tell you. But the cost was high - the damping of expectation, the dwindling of spirit, the resignation that comes to replace enthusiasm, the cynicism that supplants hope. The mouldering that goes unnoticed and unchecked. ~ A.S.A Harrison

As I drive home, I picture other signs- one for everyone who has a secret. Bill Corso's would say, I CAN'T READ, BUT I CAN THROW A FOOTBALL. Mr. Shunk's would read, I WISH I COULD TOSS YOU ALL ON AN ISLAND BY YOURSELVES. Dad's would read, I HATE MYSELF FOR NO GOOD REASON.

My Idea grows. ~ A.S. King

Now and then there are readings that make the hairs on the neck, the non-existent pelt, stand on end and tremble, when every word burns and shines hard and clear and infinite and exact, like stones of fire, like points of stars in the dark - readings when the knowledge that we shall know the writing differently or better or satisfactorily, runs ahead of any capacity to say what we know, or how. In these readings, a sense that the text has appeared to be wholly new, never before seen, is followed, almost immediately, by the sense that it was always there, that we the readers, knew it was always there, and have always known it was as it was, though we have now for the first time recognised, become fully cognisant of, our knowledge. ~ A.S. Byatt

She and Don were taken to a hangar where a pair of F-15 fighter jets were waiting: his and hers, as it turned out. "Why?" Don asked uneasily. "We're taking you to the U.S.S. William Jefferson Clinton." "An aircraft carrier? ~ Thomas Waite

Though Fin couldn't see it, she felt the closeness of land around her. From beyond the grey veil she could sense the oppressive weight of two great continents crowding down to the sea, each to kneel and contemplate the nearness of an ancient earthen brother. ~ A.S. Peterson

Well, if it's as easy as catching my future from a blood relative, then I guess I'm due to be a drunk, pregnant, dropout stripper any day now. ~ A.S. King

K H A D I J A S A Y S . . .
In Kashmir when we wake up and say 'Good Morning' what we really mean is 'Good Mourning'. ~ Arundhati Roy

... words have been all my life, all my life
this need is like the Spider's need who carries before her a huge Burden of Silk which she must spin out
the silk is her life, her home, her safety
her food and drink too
and if it is attacked or pulled down, why, what can she do but make more, spin afresh, design anew ... . ~ A.S. Byatt

I felt a mix of wanting to kill him and wanting to kiss him at the same time. When I thought of what true love must be like, I figured it must be like this, and not the stupid eighth grade infatuation most girls my age felt. True love includes an equal part of good and bad, but true sticks around and doesn't run off to Vegas with a podiatrist. ~ A.S. King

There are lots of reasons why a woman stays with a man, even when she's given up on changing him and can predict with certainty the shape that the rest of her life with him is going to take. ~ A.S.A Harrison

I don't smile. I have all these thoughts. Crazy thoughts. Like, on the one hand, I want to kiss her passionately, like they do in movies, and just paralyze her with the feeling of how much I want to take care of her ~ A.S. King

The four feet advanced and retreated, retreated and advanced, the male feet insisting towards the basement stairs, the female feet resisting, parrying. Roland opened the door and went into the area, fired mostly by what always got him, pure curiosity as to what the top half looked like. ~ A.S. Byatt

Seven thousand of them were indicted and arraigned, and then they entered the maw of the criminal justice system - right here - through the gateway into Gibraltar, where the vans were lined up. That was about 150 new cases, 150 more pumping hearts and morose glares, every week that the courts and the Bronx County District Attorney's Office were open. And to what end? The same stupid, dismal, pathetic, horrifying crimes were committed day in and day out, all the same. What was accomplished by assistant D.A.'s, by any of them, through all this relentless stirring of the muck? The Bronx crumbled and decayed a little more, and a little more blood dried in the cracks. The Doubts! One thing was accomplished for sure. The system was fed, and those vans brought in the chow. ~ Tom Wolfe

Val was eating cornflakes. She ate very little else, at home. They were light, they were pleasant, they were comforting, and then after a day or two they were like cotton wool. ~ A.S. Byatt

I blame the SJW gatekeepers for killing genre and suppressing M*A*S*H parodies. ~ G. Arthur Brown

love after all is indivisible. Loving one more doesn't mean loving another less. ~ A.S.A Harrison

Did we not - did you not flame, and I catch fire? ~ A.S. Byatt

It throbbed and pulsed, channeled by elemental forces of fear, love, hope, and sadness. The bow stabbed and flitted across the strings in a violent whorl of creation; its hairs tore and split until it seemed the last strands would sever in a scrape of dissonance. Those who saw the last fragile remnants held their breath against the breaking. The music rippled across the ship like a spirit, like a thing alive and eldritch and pregnant with mystery. The song held. More than held, it deepened. It groaned. It resounded in the hollows of those who heard. Then it softened into tones long, slow, and patient and reminded men of the faintest stars trembling dimly in defiance of a ravening dark. At the last, when the golden hairs of the bow had given all the sound they knew, the music fled in a whisper. Fin was both emptied and filled, and the song sighed away on the wind. ~ A.S. Peterson

I don't see much point in doing things for a pure joke. Every now and then you need a joke, but not so much as the people who spend all their lives constructing joke palaces think you do. ~ A.S. Byatt

She was a thinking child, and worked this out. It hurt her, unlike most knowledge, which was strength and pleasure. ~ A.S. Byatt

Oh, don't get me started! I love fantasy, I read it for pleasure, even after all these years. Pat McKillip, Ursula Le Guin and John Crowley are probably my favorite writers in the field, in addition to all the writers in the Endicott Studio group - but there are many others I also admire. In children's fantasy, I'm particularly keen on Philip Pullman, Donna Jo Napoli, David Almond and Jane Yolen - though my favorite novels recently were Midori Snyder's Hannah's Garden, Holly Black's Tithe, and Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

I read a lot of mainstream fiction as well - I particularly love Alice Hoffman, A.S. Byatt, Sara Maitland, Sarah Waters, Sebastian Faulks, and Elizabeth Knox. There's also a great deal of magical fiction by Native American authors being published these days - Louise Erdrich's Antelope Wife, Alfredo Vea Jr.'s Maravilla, Linda Hogan's Power, and Susan Power's Grass Dancer are a few recent favorites.

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope - I re-read Jane Austen's novels in particular every year.Other fantasists say they read Tolkien every year, but for me it's Austen. I adore biographies, particularly biographies of artists and writers (and particularly those written by Michael Holroyd). And I love books that explore the philosophical side of art, such as Lewis Hyde's The Gift, Carolyn Heilbrun's Writing a Woman's Life, or David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous.

(from a 2002 interview) ~ Terri Windling

Listen to me. They may control what you do, but no one can pee on your soul without your permission. ~ A.S. King

I sit on my bed and think about Nader McMillan and wonder what I'm going to do. Ignore him. Stand up to him. Avoid him. Be "tough." I think of the stuff Dad has said over the years. How he finally gave up suggesting things. Why are you asking me this? I never figured out what to do about my own bullies. How am I supposed to know what to do with yours? ~ A.S. King

The experience you've had may be unwanted, may amount to nothing but damage and waste, but experience has substance, is factual, authoritative, lives on in your past and affects your present, whatever you attempt to do about it. ~ A.S.A Harrison

A revolution is taking place within her, as though a lifetime's experience could be outdistanced in the span of a conversation. ~ A.S.A Harrison

You are safe with me."
"I am not at all safe, with you. But I have no desire to be elsewhere. ~ A.S. Byatt

[A]s they are currently practiced, there is no common ground between science and religion ... Although just as in hostage negotiations, it's probably best to keep both sides talking to each other. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I think the names of colors are at the edge, between where language fails and where it's at its most powerful. ~ A.S. Byatt

[A]s someone who has seen living forms changed and twisted beyond recognition...' She trailed off awkwardly.

'Yeah?'

'I hate to say it, but this dress is the worst crime against nature I have ever seen in my life.'

Felicity cringed a little. The dress lay on the bed, malignant and resentful, like an angry jellyfish. It was technically an evening grown, in the same way that dirt is technically edible. ~ Daniel O'Malley

On the first occasion Mrs Papagay had met her, there had been a discussion of the process of grief, and Mrs Jesse had nodded sagely, "I know that. I have felt that,' like a kind of tragic chorus. 'I have felt everything; I know everything. I don't want any new emotion. I know what it is to feel like a stoan. ~ A.S. Byatt

I am a creature of my pen. My pen is the best of me. ~ A.S. Byatt

(Topper) I'll story 'em, Fin. I'll story 'em clean. ~ A.S. Peterson

But I'm not just my genes, Dad. ~ A.S. King

We must come to grief and regret anyway - and I for one would rather regret the reality than its phantasm, knowledge than hope, the deed than the hesitation, true life and not mere sickly potentialities. ~ A.S. Byatt

L.A.'s a pretty, warm, easy, breezy place. You can sunbathe, get a Mai Tai, and wake up five months later. And it's still sunny. And they're still serving Mai Tais. ~ Chris Pine

Even though I know that breaking your brain is the same as breaking your arm, I'm still ashamed that my brain is broken. ~ A.S. King

No. Frank Socrates doesn't have conditions, because he's dead. He loves me unconditionally. ~ A.S. King