Bonnie Jo Campbell Quotes

That's why I have to be a fiction writer, because I can't remember what just happened or where I went last week or what movie I just watched with my husband. I'm better off just making things up. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I was unhappy and I couldn't figure out what was the matter. And he told me to go take a writing course. And I didn't even know that one could learn to write in writing courses. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Where I live you're not supposed to shoot a firearm within a quarter mile of a dwelling. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I've never shot like that in my life. That's unholy. Uncle Cal claimed credit for teaching her to shoot, but while Margo had felt his guidance, she had felt just as strongly the guidance of the gun itself. It held her steady, and then sadness perfected her aim. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

The Stark River flowed around the oxbow at Murrayville the way blood flowed through Margo Crane's heart. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I'm of the people in the bar and the people in my stories. They are my tribe. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

That's where I live, a junkyard in a neighborhood of junkyards. We have three tractors from the 1940s and '50s, several old pickup trucks, and a pile of scrap metal. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

A Life in Men is a joyful, ambitious novel that is also an adventure traversing three continents, as well as a meditation on love, sex, and, most important, friendship, which can overcome time, distance, and even death. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

We have a shotgun we inherited from my father-in-law, a paranoid Englishman living in Texas. I have a .22 Marlin rifle, similar to the one Annie Oakley had, and my husband has a .357 Magnum pistol. All those are locked up tight, of course. We have a couple of pellet guns that get more use than the real guns. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

After a year, it was great to get out of L.A. and return to Hyde Park. Since my grandparents lived in Hyde Park, I had been coming there since I was a tyke. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Men didn't understand that you couldn't let yourself be consumed with passion when there were so many people needing your attention, when there was so much work to do. Men didn't understand that there was nothing big enough to exempt you from your obligations, which began as soon as the sun rose over the paper company and ended only after you'd finished the day's chores and fell exhausted into sleep against the background noise of I-94. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I worked probably fewer jobs than most people, or fewer real soul-killing jobs than other people. I've been a typist, a typesetter, a keyliner, cappuccino-maker. I think I've been pretty lucky. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

You're not supposed to have salt." "I'm not supposed to have cancer, either. If you don't bring me some brandy, I'm kicking you off my property. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Reasonableness and positivity can feel like a kind of bullying. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I didn't actually figure out how to get guidance, so I just decided to go to school at University of Southern California because they sent me a glossy brochure. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I think back when I was kind of a crappy writer, I really did know my time was better spent working and having adventures and seeing the world. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

There were a lot of beautiful, thin people out there driving nice cars. It was a whole different experience being in L.A. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

And loving a new person might even eventually dull the pain of having lost the people you have loved before, even if it didn't happen as quickly as you wanted it to. (p 99) ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

In fact, when I finally realized I was really going to write, when I was about thirty-four, I was working on my Ph.D. in Mathematics. I was just about to earn my Master's along the way, but I knew something was wrong because I found myself crying all the time. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

The truth is I tried to write for years and I wasn't very good. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I thought that you had to learn to write by yourself and if you couldn't do it, then you were out of luck. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

When I was little, we lived on 8 acres and my mom had a horse. But when I was 7, my mom kicked my dad out, and then in order to feed us five kids, she got critters cheap or for free and raised them for food. We milked a cow, raised chickens, pigs and beef cattle. We heated our one-story house with wood and stayed cold all winter. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Donkeys are the most misunderstood and abused animals around the world. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I love writing about men. To get by in the world you have to know how men think. Not that all guys think alike, but women tend to think about more things at the same time, an overgeneralization, but I find it easier to make my male characters focus than I do my female characters. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Drugs and drinking affect every family I know, country and city, middle-class and poor. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

That was a mistake, I guess, going out to California. They have these things called guidance counselors in high school. They drink a lot of herbal tea. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

You can't beat a good sonnet, and you can write a sonnet without being married to the damned thing. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Maybe the hardest lesson is the one I have to learn over and over again, that each story is its own animal, that every story I write is going to come only with difficulty. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

Time is never wasted coming to an old man bar. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

She hoped Smoke was wrong about people being unknowable. She hoped that she could crack herself open like a nut and know herself, at least. Then she'd be able to start figuring out everybody else. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

All the men added together made the solid world
they were the marbles in the jar, and women were whatever sand or water or air claimed the space left between them. That's how I saw things as a young woman, that was my women's studies. Now I've come to know that women are like vodka poured over men, who melt away like ice cubes. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I read stories aloud at every stage. I listen to my writer friends when they kindly offer criticism. I listen to my husband when he tells me something doesn't seem right. I have my mother's boyfriend, Loring Janes, read to make sure I get everything right with the machines and guns. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I'm not much interested in my own self when I write. I'm interested in what I observe out there, what's going on around me. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

People seem to want to read more nonfiction than fiction. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

If you have someone falling out of the boat, you'd have to drag the boat up the river and film the same scene ten times, every time, dragging the boat exactly where it was up the river. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I realized that I was writing about folks with lots of skills, especially fix-it skills and survival skills, who were nonetheless not doing well in the new-millennium America. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my mind a good portion of most days. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I wasn't writing stories with the intention of creating a particular collection. I simply wrote stories, and then discovered common themes among a good number of them. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I grew up with donkeys, as well as horses, but I'm more interested in donkeys. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

A mathematical proof is beautiful, but when you're finished, it's really only about one thing. A story can be about many things. ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell

I've had plenty of jo-jobs. Nothing I'd call a career. Let me put it this way. I have an extensive collection of name tags and hair nets. ~ Wayne Campbell

The goddess Nemesis, Bertol Grimmer's favourite motif after the War. The goddess of revenge. ~ Jo Nesbo

The boy answers, "Don't ask unless you are willing to be hurt."
Indra says, "I ask. Teach." (That, by the way, is a good Oriental idea: you don't teach until you are asked. You don't force your mission down people's throats.) ~ Joseph Campbell

I do not miss my toys. I wouldn't play with them anyway. I am fifteen. I miss my childhood. ~ Jo Walton

I don't know really, it doesn't feel like it has changed to me but I think to have to move with the times. Try out different areas and not get stuck in 1978. ~ Jo Brand

I would make a horrible politician, because I wouldn't enjoy my work. ~ Billy Campbell

To me, there's no point in writing merely to entertain. ~ Bebe Moore Campbell

Be who you are, and find yourself so you can be your own person and enjoy life with no regret <3 ~ Bonnie Zackson Koury

You see, bookshops are dreams built of wood and paper. They are time travel and escape and knowledge and power. They are, simply put, the best of places. ~ Jen Campbell

If one person changes in a relationship, the dynamics shift. So even if you're the only person who's willing to make some changes - for now - that's enough. ~ Crismarie Campbell

I'm living in a very dreamlike state. All I want is to lose myself. Lose the sadness, I guess. Not all of it. Just the permanent feeling of it. ~ Kassi Jo

Ah, I have kept Him waiting when I ought not, but He has waited even then. Always waiting - so patient with my foolishness, my weakness, my fear. Our fellowship is with God, and fellowship is friendship, and friendship means that partnership which, on His part, is the accommodating of His strength to my weakness. ~ G. Campbell Morgan

Mary Jo Putney is a gifted writer with an intuitive understanding of what makes romances work. I loved Silk and Shadows, couldn't put it down, and don't think readers will, either. ~ Jayne Ann Krentz

I believe you are familiar with my stance on handcuffs, shape-shifter. Particularly when you're the one wearing them. ~ Nenia Campbell

With passion you want to possess. The conversion of passion into compassion is the whole problem of marriage. ~ Joseph Campbell

When the Warrior pulled her half onto his lap and she felt the hard bulge of his erection thrusting up from his groin pressing into her hip, Katya grew nervous. She pulled away, gasping, and pressed him back with her hand on his chest. "Wait! Wait." She licked her tingling lips and touched them with her fingertips, wondering what she'd been thinking to awaken this sleeping giant. What had happened to her vow to fight him off with all her strength?
Turan's dark eyes glowed like two banked coals ready to ignite into flame. "Please. More," he begged hoarsely. "Please."
She suddenly realized that, despite the fact he could snap her in two if he wished, she was the one with the power. He didn't intend to hurt or force her. ~ Bonnie Dee

[When criticized for appearing bare-shouldered Madonna-like at a banquet:] A comparison between Madonna and me is a comparison between a strapless evening gown and a gownless evening strap. ~ Kim Campbell

I am lucky because I get to work with the smartest, most creative, and most devoted group of students and postdoctoral fellows imaginable. ~ Bonnie Bassler

We find what we expect to find. We do not see the world as it is but as we are. ~ Jo Coudert

I make a lot of money, but I don't want to talk about that. ~ Naomi Campbell

When life throws you lemons you make lemonade,When life throws you trash throw it out, feeling extremely thankful that I have the ability to determine between the two ~ Bonnie Zackson Koury

Even though I enjoy that head-to-head competition part, one of the things that drove me to long track was if I won or if I lost I want to know it's all on my shoulders and it didn't have anything to do with anybody else. ~ Bonnie Blair

Certainly Star Wars has a valid mythological perspective. It shows the state as a machine and asks, "Is the machine going to crush humanity or serve humanity?" Humanity comes not from the machine but from the heart. What I see in Star Wars is the same problem that Faust gives us: ~ Joseph Campbell

James had no intentions; he could not afford to have any; he could not afford to rope another person to his saddle. All he could do was keep his head down and get his work done. ~ Jo Baker

It doesn't matter what anybody thinks of what I do. The clock doesn't lie. ~ Bonnie Blair

Helping people rocked. This kind of stuff? Sucked hairy donkey balls ~ Jo Davis

The major labels, they roll with whatever is making money. I don't know if R&B turned into making banjo music and it sounded like blue grass, they'll buy it if it's selling. ~ Warryn Campbell

You can only pretend that you're already dead and thus free yourself up to focus on three things: 1) finding and killing the enemy, 2) communicating the situation and resulting actions to adjacent units and higher headquarters, and 3) triaging and treating your wounded. If you love your men, you naturally think about number three first, but if you do you're wrong. The grim logic of combat dictates that numbers one and two take precedence. ~ Donovan Campbell

The hero is the man of self-achieved submission. But submission to what? That precisely is the riddle that today we have to ask ourselves and that it is everywhere the primary virtue and historic deed of the hero to have solved. Only birth can conquer death - the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul, within the body social, there must be a continuous "recurrence of birth" a rebirth, to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death. For it is by means of our own victories, if we are not regenerated, that the work of Nemesis is wrought: doom breaks from the shell of our very virtue. Peace then is a snare; war is a snare; change is a snare; permanence a snare. When our day is come for the victory of death, death closes in; there is nothing we can do, except be crucified - and resurrected; dismembered totally, and then reborn.

The first step, detachment or withdrawal, consists in a radical transfer of emphasis from the external to the internal world, macro- to microcosm, a retreat from the desperation's of the waste land to the peace of the everlasting realm that is within. But this realm, as we know from psychoanalysis, is precisely the infantile unconscious. It is the realm that we enter in sleep. We carry it within ourselves forever. All the ogres and secret helpers of our nursery are there, all the magic of childhood. And more important, all the life-potentialities that we never managed to bring to adult realization, those other p ~ Joseph Campbell

I've never felt scared of flight, ever. It's really weird. I don't know. They stick a gin and tonic in your hands and I just think, "Life is good!" ~ Dallas Campbell

The passage of the mythological hero may be over ground, incidentally; fundamentally it is inward
into depths where obscure resistances are overcome, and long lost, forgotten powers are revivified, to be made available for the transfiguration of the world. ~ Joseph Campbell

I Can't Make You Love Me.' Bonnie Raitt."
"Oh,Fiorella."
I glared at him a little as I climbed down. "Was that delightful list for your benefit or mine?"
Frankie grabbed my hand and, when I didn't pull away fast enough, tugged me onto his lap,where he wrapped his arms so tightly around me that I couldn't escape. Sometimes his strength still surprises me.He tickled my cheek with his nose. "Don't hate me just because I'm hateful."
"I never do."
Here's the thing. Frankie's taken a lot of hits in his life. He never stays down for long.
"Excuse me!" The mannequin's evil twin was glaring down at us fro her sky-high bootie-heeled heights. Her NM badge told us her name was Victoria. "You cannot do that here!" she snapped.
"Do what?" Frankie returned, matching lockjaw snooty for lockjaw snooty.
She opened and closed her mouth, then hissed, "Canoodle!"
I felt Frankie's hiccup of amusement. "Were we canoodling, snookums?" he asked me. "I rather thought we were about to copulate like bunnies."
I couldn't help it; I laughed out loud. Victoria's mouth thinned into a pale line. The whole thing might have ended with our being escorted out the store's hallowed doors by security. Sadie, as she so often did, momentarily saved us from ourselves.
She stomped out of the dressing room and planted herself in front of us. Ignoring the angry salesgirl completely, she muttered, "I look like a carved pumpkin!"
Frankie took in the skirt, layered ~ Melissa Jensen

No matter what your choices are, you truly have no control about what people think of you. ~ Neve Campbell

Atonement (at-one-ment) consists in no more than the abandonment of the self-generated double monster-the dragon thought to be God (superego) and the dragon thought to be Sin (repressed id). But this requires an abandonment of the attachment to ego itself, and that is what is difficult. ~ Joseph Campbell

I make a lot of money and I'm worth every cent. ~ Naomi Campbell