Emoticon Quotes

Oh, you can't back out now. I already texted Adam that you'll be there."

His head swung around. "You what?"

"He's looking forward to it. See?" She held up her phone.

A smiley face.

A smiley face? Nick had no idea what that meant. Was that casual happy? Excited happy? An obligatory response that didn't mean anything? It wasn't even a D smiley. It was one of the parenthesis ones.

God, he was trying to puzzle out the hidden meaning of the punctuation in a frigging emoticon.

"You look nervous," said Quinn.

He shrugged. ~ Brigid Kemmerer

A smiley face brightens cyber space. Smiling pics and emoticons are good netiquette. NetworkEtiquette.net ~ David Chiles

That's why they came up with the emoticon, too - the emoticon being the greatest (or most desperate, depending how you look at it) advance in punctuation since the question mark in the reign of Charlemagne. ~ Lynne Truss

Exactly, he confirmed, adding a to go along with it - a telepathic emoticon that made me smile too. ~ Alyson Noel

Uncle Burt's round face, mixing bowl bangs of greying blond locks and toothless smile made him look more like an emoticon than a judge. ~ Kenneth Eade

Yes, you can see the bullet points here, here and here, sir; there are multiple back-slashes, of course. And that's a forward slash. I would have to call this a frenzied attack. Did anyone hear the interrobang?"
"Oh yes. Woman next door was
temporarily deafened by it. What's this?"
"Ah. You don't see many of these any
more. It's an emoticon. Hold your head this way and it appears to be winking."
"Good God! You mean – ?"
"That's the mouth."
"You mean – ?"
"That's the nose."
"Good grief Then it's – ?"
"Oh yes, sir. There's no doubt about it, sir. The Punctuation Murderer has struck again. ~ Lynne Truss

Clicking on "send" has its limitations as a system of subtle communication. Which is why, of course, people use so many dashes and italics and capitals ("I AM joking!") to compensate. That's why they came up with the emoticon, too - the emoticon being the greatest (or most desperate, depending how you look at it) advance in punctuation since the question mark in the reign of Charlemagne.

You will know all about emoticons. Emoticons are the proper name for smileys. And a smiley is, famously, this:

: - )

Forget the idea of selecting the right words in the right order and channelling the reader's attention by means of artful pointing. Just add the right emoticon to your email and everyone will know what self-expressive effect you thought you kind-of had in mind. Anyone interested in punctuation has a dual reason to feel aggrieved about smileys, because not only are they a paltry substitute for expressing oneself properly; they are also designed by people who evidently thought the punctuation marks on the standard keyboard cried out for an ornamental function. What's this dot-on-top-of-a-dot thing for? What earthly good is it? Well, if you look at it sideways, it could be a pair of eyes. What's this curvy thing for? It's a mouth, look! Hey, I think we're on to something.

: - (

Now it's sad!

; - )

It looks like it's winking!

: - r

It looks like it's sticking its tongue out! The perm ~ Lynne Truss

I won't be caught dead winking in a message. I don't wink at people normally. Why would I do it in a text? I'd prefer a middle finger emoticon, but those are hard to find. ~ M. Mabie

If you text someone, and you just get an emoticon back, it's over. ~ Riki Lindhome

["Emoticon" is] one of the worst words ever--it deserves to die horribly in a head-on crash with infotainment. ~ Geoffrey Nunberg

The pop musicians often leave meaning in the dust and substitute it for cartoons. The deeper artists - the grunge artists in the world and the emoticon people - tend to leave all of the happiness out of life like it just doesn't exist. ~ Hal Sparks

After about a minute, I received a text back.
Beck: I know
A few seconds later, a smiley face came through, and I had to laugh. A week or so ago, I'd told him that his texts were always so short and blunt.
"Couldn't you add a smiley face or something?" I'd asked.
He actually listened! A smug sense of victory swirled through me. He could be so stubborn about things that I could hardly believe it, even as the emoticon smiled up at me. ~ Cindi Madsen

People are totally overusing LOL and a wink - and I'm very guilty of using the wink - that's probably my favourite emoticon to use because 'I'm being sarcastic, don't misinterpret; don't misconstrue; I'm just kidding.' Again, for as many benefits as it has, also picking up the phone and having a conversation speaks volumes. ~ Carly Pope