Breaking Down Assignment Quotes

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird. ~ Anne Lamott

He fakes a smile and then turns to unlock the door.
I follow him inside; he stops me at the kitchen island. "I found it right here." He points to the countertop.
"You found what right where?" I ask, feeling my face scrunch up in bewilderment.
"The crossword puzzle from today." He pulls it out of his pocket. "I found it here when I was making breakfast this morning."
"Wait, you didn't get it in the mail?"
"I'm sorry; I thought I mentioned that."
"No," I say, holding back from whacking him in the head. "I think I would've remembered if someone had broken into your apartment.
"I'm sorry," he repeats, and then lets out a stress-filled sigh.
"So, someone broke in here last night while you were asleep?"
"I'm not sure. I was thinking that, too, but then . . . what if I just didn't see it last night when I got home?"
"Are you sure you didn't set your mail down here, maybe even for a second, and then leave this piece behind?"
"What difference does it makes?"
"It makes a huge difference." My voice gets louder. "The difference between someone breaking in or not." I peer around the kitchen and living room, trying to see if anything looks off.
"I don't know." He reaches for a box of cereal. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I would've noticed getting another puzzle in the mail, especially since we've been talking so much about this stuff."
"Who has a key to your apartment?"
"No one that I know of."
"None of your friend ~ Laurie Faria Stolarz

Harmony had been working for M.P. Environmental Consulting for going on two years. It was her mom who suggested she apply (just something else for her to be right about, Harmony thought). She'd heard about an opening at M.P. Environmental Consulting through a colleague at the law firm where she worked, and thought the job would be just right for her daughter. "You'll get it without breaking a sweat," she'd said. "Enough running around in those malaria-ridden hellholes. Move to the city, settle down, get your life together. ~ A.L. Loire

Your biggest dreams can become reality, not by brute-forcing the end-goal, but breaking it down into smaller, more manageable parts. If your goal takes years, breaking it down into months and days will let you improve your lot little bits at a time. ~ A.J. Darkholme

I didn't mean to live in Portland. It was kind of an accident - I mean, the equivalent of my car breaking down there and me being like, 'Well ... I guess this is what I'm doing. I just can't find a better alternate.' ~ Isaac Brock

Nick... I hope one day you find you a woman who loves you like my Melissa loved me. Whatever you do, boy, don't turn your back on her. If she says she needs you for something, don't matter how stupid it sounds or what deadline you got, you go to her and you do it. Screw work or whatever else. In the end, the only things that matter are the people in your life. The ones who make your life worth living and whose smiles light up your world. Don't ever push them aside for fair-weather friends. Everything else is just cheap window dressing that you can replace. But once them people are gone..." He winced. "You can't buy back time, Nick. Ever. It's the only thing in life you can't get more of, and it's the one thing that will mercilessly tear you up when it's gone. It takes pity on no soul and no heart. And all those fools who tell you it gets easier in time are lying dumb-asses.
Losing someone you really love don't never get easier. You just go a few hours longer without breaking down. That's all... that's all. - Bubba ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Dark Layers (Volume 1)
It is like constantly breaking down walls only for someone to build another behind your back... ~ A.L. Gray

Admit it," He insists. "I was right."
"No." I sniff. "You were wrong." sniff. "I'm just crying"-sniff- "cause i'm so happy." My tear take that lie as their cue and start streaming down my cheeks.
"Come on, Princess," he says, "You don't need to cry over that loser."
This only makes me cry harder. We both know who the loser is in this scenario.
With a muttered curse, Quince wraps his arms around me and squeezes. It feels remarkably like a hug.
"Don't cry," he whispers in my ear. "Please."
I don't know if it's his soft words or the fact that my face is now hidden by his broad chest, but i just let go. Three years of longing and loving from a distance have built to the breaking point, and i let it out all over his west coast choppers T-shirt.
"shhh," He soothes. "He's not worth it. ~ Tera Lynn Childs

It is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back. We need more than a plan for the big banks. The middle class needs a raise. And we need more jobs. ~ Hillary Clinton

If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had best break down sooner rather than later. ~ Theodore Kaczynski

The key questions answered by tipping point leaders are as follows: What factors or acts exercise a disproportionately positive influence on breaking the status quo? On getting the maximum bang out of each buck of resources? On motivating key players to aggressively move forward with change? And on knocking down political roadblocks that often trip up even the best strategies? By single-mindedly focusing on points of disproportionate influence, tipping point leaders can topple the four hurdles that limit execution of blue ocean strategy. They can do this fast and at low cost. Let ~ W.Chan Kim

Cheese runners shouted at it, tried to grab it, and flailed at it with sticks, but the piratical cheese scythed onward, reaching the bottom just ahead of the terrible carnage of men and cheeses as they piled up. Then it rolled back to the top and sat there demurely while still gently vibrating.
At the bottom of the slope, fights were breaking out among the cheese jockeys who were still capable of punching somebody, and since everybody was watching that, Tiffany took the opportunity to snatch up Horace and shove him in her bag. After all, he was hers. Well, that was to say she had made him, although something odd must have gone into the mix since Horace was the only cheese that would eat mice and, if you didn't nail him down, other cheeses as well. ~ Terry Pratchett

Writing must be a machine for breaking down, that is, allowing the now uncontrolled and uncontrollable reconstitutions of thoughts and expressions. All other kinds of writing simply express. ~ Kathy Acker

Children"

Years back here we were children
and at the stage of running
in gangs about the meadows--
here to this one, there to that one.
Where we picked up violets
on lucky days,
you can now see cattle gadding about.

I still remember hunching
ankle deep in violets,
squabbling over which bunches were fairest.
Our childishness was obvious--
we ran dancing rounds,
we wore new green wreaths.
So time passes.

Here we ran swilling strawberries from oak to pine
through hedges, through turnstiles--
as long as day was burning down.
Once a gardener
rushed from an arbor:
"O.K. now, children, run home."

We came out in spots
those yesterdays, when we stuffed on strawberries;
it was just a childish game to us.
Often we heard
the herdsman
hooing and warning us:
"Children, the woods are alive with snakes."

And one of the children breaking
through the sharp grass, grew white
and shouted, "Children, a snake
ran in there. He got our pony.
She'll never get well.
I wish that snake
would go to hell!"

"Well then, get out of the woods!
If you don't hurry away quickly,
I'll tell you what will happen--
if you don't leave the forest behind you by daylight,
you'll lose yourselves;
your pleasure will end in bawling."

Do you know how five virgins
dawdled ~ Robert Lowell

Breaking down does not have to mean reaching a catastrophe. ~ Valerie Mason-John

If there are no roads you can walk, break down the walls! ~ Yoshiki Nakamura

Writing about real stuff that really concerned me brought out my craft. If you're writing a story about, 'Is Lois Lane gonna figure out that Superman is Clark Kent?' - it's really hard to get involved in that on anything other than a craft level. And I'm not gonna put down craftsmanship; it is a noble enough thing to have made a table that you can pound on and it doesn't fall down. But occasionally, we might have an assignment that engages some other parts of ourselves, and those tend to be the good stories. ~ Dennis O'Neil

There is, it appears, a conspiracy of scientists afoot. Their purpose is to break down religion, propagate immorality, and so reduce mankind to the level of brutes. They are the sworn and sinister agents of Beelzebub, who yearns to conquer the world, and has his eye especially upon Tennessee.] ~ H.L. Mencken

I tell you what," said Troy more amiably. "I've always been frightened of the whole business. Love and so on."
"The physical side?"
"Yes, that, but much more than that. The whole business. The breaking down of all one's reserves. The mental as well as the physical intimacy."
"My mind to me a kingdom is. ~ Ngaio Marsh

We imagine ourselves in complex ways, but oftentimes that can be distilled down into some core identities. And we imagine these identities as part of a story, and that that story is some intrinsically positive thing. It might be being part of a tradition, or breaking free of one. It might be your race or height or hair color. Your status as a child or a parent. Being a job creator or a Star Wars fan or a snowboarder. We create positive narratives around these things, and when we fit in them, we feel like we matter. ~ Hank Green

I remember facing him on opening day in 1987. It was Oakland at the Minnesota Twins, the first time I got him out on a breaking ball down-and-in and next at bat he hit the same pitch for a home run. I was telling my kids that story yesterday. ~ Curt Young

A culture of dialogue is breaking down and giving way to a culture of threats and impunity, you can see the strategy already ... and what you have is essentially the threat of imprisonment in order to control people better. ~ Sophal Ear

I remember my dad working with me on breaking down my script and writing out a back story for my character and all that stuff. ~ Jason Bateman

It's up to the writer and the artist to give voice to these people. There are two impulses in art: one is rebellious and transgressive - you explore regions in which you are not wanted, and you will be punished for that. But the other is a way of sympathy - evoking sympathy for people who may be different from us - whom we don't know. Art is a way of breaking down the barriers between people - these two seemingly antithetical impulses toward rebellion and toward sympathy come together in art. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

The existing order is breaking down at a very rapid rate, and the main uncertainty is whether mankind can exert a positive role in shaping a new world order or is doomed to await collapse in a passive posture. We believe a new orderwill be born no later than early in the next century and that the death throes of the old and the birth pangs of the new will be a testing time for the human species. ~ Richard A. Falk

If I looked at this dress as one massive thing, it would be too overwhelming. No one could create such a gown. But by breaking it down into tiny, individual steps, it becomes something I can achieve. ~ Stephanie Perkins

I wished the kiss could have gone on forever. Breaking the embrace, he ran a few fingers through my hair and down my cheek. He stepped back toward the door.
"I'll see you later, Roza"
"At our next practice?" I asked. "We are starting those up again, right? I mean, you still have things to teach me."
"Yes. Lots of things. ~ Richelle Mead

Seek the ones who never stop caring, who break down your walls, and help you come back to yourself ~ Yasmin Mogahed

The church cannot separate itself from the world to which it is called. Churches that grasp the notion of being missional automatically function as an open boundaryless system. To them, the idea of breaking down external boundaries come naturally. ~ Steve Raimo

The most work he did on [the urinals] was to run a brush once or twice apiece, singing some song as loud as he could in time to the swishing brush; then he'd splash in some Clorox and he'd be through ... And when the Big Nurse ... came in to check McMurphy's cleaning assignment personally, she brought a little compact mirror and she held it under the rim of the bowls. She walked along shaking her head and saying, "Why, this is an outrage ... an outrage ... " at every bowl. McMurphy sidled right along beside her, winking down his nose and saying in answer, "No; that's a toilet bowl ... a TOILET bowl. ~ Ken Kesey

Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as water, but for breaking down the firm and strong it has no equal. ~ Laozi

Coming to know one another based on a shared humanity through dialogue is the key to breaking down the walls of isolation and reversing the decline of life-to-life bonds among human beings. ~ Vinessa Shaw

At moments when life is at its worst there are two things you can do:
1.) break down,lose hope and refuse to go on while lying face down on the ground banging your fists and kicking your legs, or 2.) laugh. Bobby and I did the latter. ~ Cecelia Ahern

There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone. ~ Tahir Shah

When everything else breaks down, I don't hesitate to roam out of the pocket and do the boogaloo. ~ Fran Tarkenton

We cannot expect to be in control of the circumstances in our lives when we cannot control our minds for five minutes. Meditation is the daily minimum requirement that will prevent us from breaking down and falling apart at the most inopportune moments. It is the art of listening. It is a practice which enables us to tune in and fine-tune the key areas of our lives: the mind and the spirit. ~ Iyanla Vanzant