Family Saga Quotes

For me, there's nothing better than getting immersed in a sprawling, epic, multi-generational family saga, and 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the most sprawling, epic, and multi-generational of them all. ~ Jandy Nelson

Are you all right, he whispered, his lips brushing the tips of my spiky hair. Granted, I knew he was only being discreet so as to save poor Hillary from being reamed again, but my knees didn't know the difference. They betrayed me, buckling under his hot breath on my ear and the deep whisper that tickled my senses. ~ Gwenn Wright

Breathe, Emma. Now is not the time to swoon. ~ Eva Walker

We may be finished with the past but the past is not finished with us. ~ Donald Riggio

As she reached the stairs, she made a quick detour and stepped outside.
A crescent moon hung in the midnight blue sky along with trillions of twinkling stars. Out here there were no streetlights to wash out the view. She loved being able to see the stars.
Tonight, the mountains were etched deep purple against the night sky. The white snowcapped tips gleamed silver. Nearer, silhouetted pine trees swayed in the breeze as if in a slow dance.
"You are such a romantic," Trask had once told her. "Are you sure you want to open a bar? You should be writing poetry."
She'd laughed. "How do you know I don't? ~ B. J. Daniels

Sometimes time can play tricks. One moment it idles by, an hour can seem a lifetime, such as when sitting by the river at dusk watching the bats snatching insects above the limpid waters; the breaching fish causing ringed ripples and a satisfying plop. Other times, time flashes by in an immodest fashion. So it is with the start of war. First time quivers with the last strum of a wonderful peace, the note holding in the air, mysterious and haunting, filling the listener with awe. Then, with a rising crescendo the terror starts with uncouth haste; with a boom the listener is shaken from their reverie and delivered into the servitude, of an ear-shattering cacophony. ~ M.A. Lossl

Not everyone is a murderer, Aaryan. There are people on this Earth who have led their entire lives without raising a finger on anyone. Why has this notion entered your mind that everyone is evil?"
"Because I have seen normal people who were leading their lives without raising a finger on anyone kill each other. Dad, we are animals. We just need a chance. We are like werewolves. We wait for the moon of hatred. ~ Amit Sharma

I was struck by the image of Daddy still dressed in that same plaid shirt and undershirt with the bloodstains below the neck, the one I had first seen him wearing in the jail the previous day. ~ Earl B. Russell

Love is the net profit on life. ~ Sharon L. Reddy

Getting over her had been impossible. A day hadn't gone by that he hadn't thought of her, yearned for her. Sometimes he felt as if he couldn't breathe if he didn't see her again. He'd had to come back to make things right no matter how it ended. ~ B. J. Daniels

Tragic tales rarely do make sense. ~ Gwenn Wright

Live today. You never know when tomorrow will be a day too late. ~ Rochelle Carlton

We ran on the fuel of youth and hormones and ignorant arrogance, imagining we had the whole world and the workings thereof figured out. ~ Gwenn Wright

I began writing my nonfiction memoir to explain why women, "don't just leave."
My exciting, narrative-driven memoir aspires to to save others from needless unhappiness: surviving isn't enough.Trauma can be overcome and joy recaptured.The book is written in a fresh, lively voice with lots of humor. The chapters of me growing up in the 50's and 60's and my college years at Penn State provide an intimate, historical trip through some of the most fascinating times in modern history. This is also a family saga depicting mental illness and shows how this could have happened to me: My husband and I were the dance. ~ Cassi Janzek

We tell you, tapping on our brows,
The story as it should be,
As if the story of a house
Were told or ever could be. ~ Edwin Robinson

Kevin looks at me and I know he isn't seeing the little girl I use to be, all pigtails and gangly limbs. He isn't seeing my mother's daughter or even my mother anymore. As his eyes linger over me, stopping here and there in the most uncomfortable places, I know he isn't really even seeing me as I am. The bloodshot eyes staring out of the alcohol-flushed face are seeing a girl, nearly of age, who owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude.
Rocky Evans ~ Gwenn Wright

There is more important work to be done here. The strong must lead us into a new energy age before our world dies out. Who's going to do that? You, Caleb? Your face bears new marks–you are not ready to win such a battle. - Adrian ~ Donna Galanti

I could never understand this emotional sword of sacrifice which parents hold to cut open their child's right to make his own decisions. No parents give any sacrifice to bring their children in the world, far from it. They were having fun when the child was conceived. Remember? And once a child is in the world, it's the moral responsibility of the parent to feed him and keep him alive. There is no sacrifice in that. So please, parents should stop turning themselves into martyrs to plunk their dreams on their children. It's cheap and disgusting. ~ Amit Sharma

My life is hard. No one would rob me of that. The clothes I am wearing came out of a knotted up black plastic trash bag from a resale shop downtown. And not the downtown where shiny cars wink at you in the sunlight. If a car winks at you in this area it's being driven by a person you would be best to avoid.
My side of downtown is crumbling and skirted by chain link fences.
Rocky Evans ~ Gwenn Wright

I don't know. She didn't exactly say she didn't want me. Shit. You're making me sound like an ass."

"Aww. You're not an ass. You're just a confused man. That's why God gave you a sister. ~ Claudia Connor

What is the fire of inspiration that resides within, if not something to follow along a path? ~ Claire Fullerton

The pursuit of origins is a way of rescuing territory from death and oblivion, a reconquest that ought to be patient, devoted, relentless and faithful. ~ Amin Maalouf

Tethered to the universe by tendrils of history, with threads of continuity descending to God knows where, I see that I'm more than the dust I'll become."
This quote is from my novel, "Whispers from St. Mary's Well." Many readers have said that, like the fictional narrator of the story, Carrie Rose Stillwell, they felt a deep connection to the universe through past, present, and future experiences, after reading the story of a child who communicates with future generations. ~ Carol Kenny

Sometimes opposites attract, or so they say, but Paloma and Rocío were like arroz and mangú: they didn't really mix well. ~ Raquel Cepeda

Like most things unwanted, the end of the artillery barrage came without consideration or introduction; the seconds after its cessation were like hours. The silence was debilitating for the men, as it signilled the beginning of the real battle - the fight with enemy soldiers. ~ Michael J. Murphy

War and Peace is many things. It is a war novel, a family saga, a love story. But at its core it is a book about people trying to find their footing in a ruptured world. It is a novel about human beings attempting to create a meaningful life for themselves in a country being torn apart by war, social change, and spiritual confusion. Russian ~ Leo Tolstoy

He was not a likeable figure but then when you are a part of a family, you cannot wish to see someone wither away even when you dislike him. He is a part of your blood, he and all his idiosyncrasies. There is always a tinge of warmth in the corner of your heart, reminiscent of the good times spent together. Then there are always those moments, when you wonder why everything turned out so different. When you wonder what possibly could hold people together, if not the fact that they come from the same blood? Or are we just not born to be that way? Craving to be something that we cannot be, each with our own false ceilings to hide our true selves? ~ Amit Sharma

The magic of a jewel and the mystery of a book never end! ~ Laura Beth

The image of a teenage boy dressed in a black uniform, his babyish face partly obscured by an official looking cap, paralysed every muscle and nerve in her body. The pink telegram loomed large in her line of sight... ~ Michael J. Murphy

The greatest gift a parent can leave a child is that parent's own independence. ~ Rosamunde Pilcher

Time passes, as the novelist says. The single most useful trick of fiction for our repair and refreshment: the defeat of time. A century of family saga and a ride up an escalator can take the same number of pages. Fiction sets any conversion rate, then changes it in a syllable. The narrator's mother carries her child up the stairs and the reader follows, for days. But World War I passes in a paragraph. I needed 125 pages to get from Labor Day to Christmas vacation. In six more words, here's spring. ~ Richard Powers

Amaryllis in Blueberry is a rich, evocative story about an unusual family that will sweep readers away to another place and time. Amaryllis's voice is a spellbinding and unique blend of naivet and wisdom. A perfect melding of family saga, murder mystery and a meditation on faith, loyalty and love, this novel will both haunt and entertain you. ~ Susan Wiggs

Sometimes the futility of it all drives me crazy. It's so mindbogglingly brainless. We are on this tiny speck of soil and dirt which we call Earth, which won't even register anywhere in vastness if you start comparing it with the other objects in the universe and our existence is such a paltry blip on it, just like a blink of an eye. And, even though, all you have to do is to look at the sky to be reminded of your being so minuscule and your existence to be so worthless, we still have the nerve to make each other's lives miserable. ~ Amit Sharma

His transgression may become their salvation. ~ Victoria Saccenti

We are all the product of things we've never seen and people we never met. In fact, if just one little detail had been changed in their lives, we may not even exist! ~ Melanie Johnston

Payton "Sin" Sinclair was an unapologetic people-watcher. As a sports consultant, working with some of the biggest and most recognizable athletes in sports and business, he had to be able to read the smallest nuances of others. That ability was just one of the unique attributes that set him apart from the competition and made him the go-to person when corporations wanted to align themselves with the top professional athletes in the country. ~ Francis Ray

What had those vile creatures unleashed in me? What beast had they awakened? I think I vowed to kill the beast and bury it so deep in the abyss it would never again rear its ugly head. Part of me did make this promise. The other part embraced an unfolding of life's inextinguishable flames and the mind's unspoken bondage.
As far as reinforcing the strength of my mind's resolve, I supposed my body was a useless entity. Rather, it was this fancy thing I lived in - a mausoleum that beckoned the living, promising gratification, refuge, solace, peace, even immortality. It wasn't me. It wasn't mine. I realized then, it had never belonged to me. I could control what happened to it only if people were merciful. Watching Valentin was not merciful. It was a torturous joy. ~ Kyrian Lyndon

Frankie had used one (reverently) to wipe his eyes.This specimen was old and soft,monogrammed with a J in the corner. "Makes it interesting," he told me once, after finding a box monogrammed with M for fifty cents at a sidewalk sale. "Was it Max or Michael? Maybe Marco..."
"Here," he said now. "You have lipstick halfway down to your chin."
Humiliated, I scrubbed at my face.
Frankie held out his hand, palm up. "Okay,let's have it." I pulled the tube out of my pocket. "Not really my thing, madam, but since I've seen what happens when you don't use a mirror..." I'm sure it helped that he was holding my face, but he read it like a pro. "You had a mirror."
"I did.I'm hopeless."
"Maybe.Open." He squinted as he filled in my upper lip. "I don't like this."
"The color? I knew it was too pink-"
"Quiet.You'll smear it.The color is fine. Better for Sienna, I'm sure..." He surveyed his handiwork. "I don't like that you're doing this for him."
"Don't start. I told you how nice he was."
"In excruciating detail."
Given, the post-Bainbridge family dinner e-mail to Frankie and Sadie had been long. But excrutiating stung, especially from the boy who'd used every possible synonym for hot in describing his Friday-night bookstore acquisition. No name, just detailed hotness and the play-by-play of their flirtation over the fantasy section. ~ Melissa Jensen

I firmly believe that American society would not endure ten years if subjected to half the trials and tortures we've put Natives through. And yet Native peoples have not been utterly destroyed, not by the world's strongest military. They have not been totally assimilated, not by the world's largest religion. Native religions are indeed concerned with being a good person, respecting one's family, ancestors, community, and the Earth - and when these principles are lived, there is great strength. ~ Israel Morrow

The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States. ~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Courting is always difficult when the one being courted has an elderly female relative in the house; they tend to mutter or cackle or bum cigarettes or, in the worst cases, get out the family photograph album, an act of aggression in the sex war which ought to be banned by a Geneva Convention. ~ Terry Pratchett

People talk about me as if I am the sole inheritor of the Guinness family fortune and worth masses, but I have hundreds of cousins. ~ Jasmine Guinness

These people say things like "If a liberal intellectual like you can't speak about the link between specific doctrines and violence without being defamed as a bigot, what hope is there for someone like me, who has to worry about being killed by her own family or village for merely expressing doubts about God?" So yes, I'm aware that one can't speak in Pakistan as I do here. ~ Sam Harris

He'd spent much of his life wishing he was Kaden, had Kaden's life and family and money... and yes, his girl. And now, at this most critical of times, he desperately wished he could take Kaden's place.

So Kaden could live. ~ Tymber Dalton

Out of perverseness, I jumped on the subway and went down to a sound stage on Fourth Street to watch the shooting of Kay Doubleday's big strip scene in Mad Dog Coll, a gangster film that can still, to my embarrassment, be seen occasionally on late-night TV... Kay Doubleday was in my class at Lee Strasberg's; it was in the interest of art, I told myself, to watch her prance down a ramp, singing and stripping her heart out. ~ Brooke Hayward

In Yosemite, as in life, think carefully before starting a family. ~ John Siracusa

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds. ~ Abraham Lincoln

I grew up in a Catholic family in the Midwest. And I knew people of different faiths and people that were atheists and people that were agnostic. ~ Jim Gaffigan

When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he'll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids, when we get to the point where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room, when we get to the point where he's not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won't be such a big deal. But we're not there yet, ~ Jason Collins

No single living entity really influenced my life as did my father ... He lived as if he were poured from iron, and loved his family with a vulnerability that was touching. ~ Mari Evans

The other thing is quality of life; if you have a place where you can go and have a picnic with your family, it doesn't matter if it's a recession or not, you can include that in your quality of life. ~ Jim Fowler

My father was raised in the mountains of New Mexico, and he picked cotton for a dollar a day. He was working for the family from the time he was 7. ~ Val Kilmer

He crouched at the car window and looked in. 'What a lovely family you have. What a charming family. They're all lovely. Except for that one.' His finger jabbed the glass. 'That one's a bit ugly. ~ Derek Landy

My family comes first before anything, they are everything to me. ~ Nick Carter

A tiny apartment might hold three generations of an immigrant family. ~ Rick Smolan

This is a book for those of you who want to be parents as well as people, who don't want to feel guilty about taking some time for yourself or your relationship (if you're even in one). It's for those folks who might, every once in a while, want to get drunk, and have sloppy sex without worrying that they're going to roll over on their kid because you all sleep in a "family bed" since that's how they do it in Taiwan and they have the highest math scores of any country on earth. ~ Brett Berk

O-Sensei was frequently head to say. 'Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat an enemy. It is the way to harmonize the world and make humanity one family. ~ Linda Holiday

Fight with me again and let us prove that we will keep what is ours! - Corin ~ Claire M. Banschbach

If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable - each segment distinct. ~ Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Constant thoughts of money, possession, and control are a personal prison. Thoughts of God, family, and happiness are freedom. ~ Ron Baratono

To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family. ~ Gautama Buddha

I believe that the great majority of people coming here illegally have no other option. They want to provide for their family. But we need to control our border. ~ Jeb Bush

I have an amazing husband who is a strong man of God. He is very dedicated to me and our family. ~ Kim Fields

Anyway," Ivy drawls, her smile still in place. "When Leo was born I thought it better to have a family car."
"And I told her it would be over my left nut that we'd get a minivan." Gray makes a face.
Ivy pats his knee. "And because I like his nuts - "
"Aaand we're done," Fi cuts in. Thank God. The word "nuts" calls attention to my own. They're aching now. ~ Kristen Callihan

When Dad pulled up in front of the house, the three of us sat still for a moment and stared at the gloomy pile of bricks my great-aunt called home. Up close, it looked even worse than it had from a distance. Ivy clung to the walls, spreading over windows and doors. A wisteria vine heavy with bunches of purple blossoms twisted around the porch columns. Paint peeled, loose shutters banged in the wind, slates from the roof littered the overgrown lawn.
Charles Addams would have loved it. So would Edgar Allan Poe. But not me. No, sir, definitely not me. Just looking at the place made my skin prickle.
Dad was the first to speak. "This is your ancestral home, Drew," he said, once more doing his best to sound excited. "It was built by your great-great-grandfather way back in 1865, right after the Civil War. Tylers have lived here ever since."
While Dad babbled about family history and finding your roots and things like that, I let my thoughts drift to Camp Tecumseh again. Maybe Martin wasn't so bad after all, maybe he and I could have come to terms this summer, maybe we--
My fantasies were interrupted by Great-aunt Blythe. Flinging the front door open, she came bounding down the steps. The wind ballooned her T-shirt and swirled her gray hair. If she spread her arms, she might fly up into the sky like Mary Poppins. ~ Mary Downing Hahn

Compassion becomes an automatic reaction when you see all of humanity as one undivided and indivisible family. ~ Wayne Dyer

People say to me, 'Are you still excited when you go on tour?' Should I be excited about leaving my family? No, and no one should. It's as simple as that. If you put aside the fantasy of it, it is what it is and has to be done. And that's fine, and I pour my entire energy and enthusiasm into it, but of course, I'm of two minds about the whole idea. ~ Neil Peart

Sustainable- Nutritious Eating/Living has a Higher Purpose. ~ Elizabeth Salamanca-Brosig

There was nothing to cool or banish love in these circumstances, though much to create despair. Much, too, you will think, reader, to engender jealousy: if a woman, in my position, could presume to be jealous of a woman in Miss Ingram's. But I was not jealous...Miss Ingram was a mark beneath jealousy: she was too inferior to excite the feeling. Pardon the seeming paradox; I mean what I say. She was very showy, but she was not genuine; she had a fine person, many brilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature: nothing bloomed spontaneously on that soil; no unforced natural fruit delighted by its freshness. She was not good; she was not original: she used repeat sounding phrases from books: she never offered, nor had, any opinion of her own. She advocated a high tone of sentiment; but she did not know the sensations of sympathy and pity; tenderness and truth were not in her. Too often she betrayed this...Other eyes besides mine watched these manifestations of character--watched them closely, keenly shrewdly. Yes; the future bridegroom, Mr. Rochester himself, exercised over his intended a ceaseless surveillance; and it was from this sagacity--this guardedness of his--this perfect, clear conciousness of his fair one's defects--this obvious absence of passion in his sentiments towards her, that ever-toturing pain arose.
I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons, because her rank and connecions suited him; I felt he had no ~ Charlotte Bronte

Children are born innocent. Before they are domesticated they live in the moment, love without fear, and don't even think about the opinions of others. ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz

What's worse than turning into a giant bug? Turning into a giant bug and having your family act like a bunch of assholes. ~ Phuc Tran

Gran follows recipes by looking at picture - to the eye, delicious; to the tongue, boiled socks. Makes you wanna cry really. ~ Simon Cheshire

I started taking piano lessons when I was about 5, and there was always a lot of music in my family: my parents both play instruments, my grandparents were classical violinists, and my grandfather was actually a music professor and a conductor. ~ Adam Schlesinger

I live in a high rise with my family part of the year in New York and I don't know three quarters of the people in the building. We live in the same square-footage and I wouldn't know who they were. ~ Dan Aykroyd

All of it pointed to a force stronger than the anxious formulas of religion: a radically inclusive love that accompanied people in the most ordinary of actions - eating, drinking, walking - and stayed with them, through fear, even past death. That love meant giving yourself away, embracing outsiders as family, emptying yourself to feed and live for others. The stories illuminated the holiness located in mortal human bodies, and the promise that people could see God by cherishing all those different bodies the way God did. They spoke of a communion so much vaster than any church could contain: one I had sensed all my life could be expressed in the sharing of food, particularly with strangers. ~ Sara Miles

I come from an acting family, my father was an actor, and I had to fight my way and just create my own identity. ~ Vincent Cassel

He said he did it for justice, for the honor of his family and House. But this is revenge, and how hollow it seems. ~ Pierce Brown

When liberals say 'family', they mean 'Big Brother in Washington.' When we say 'family,' we mean 'honor thy father and mother.' ~ Ronald Reagan

I want to live first. With you. I want to see things and have adventures. I want to learn what is it to be immortal, to be your mate, to be part of your family. I want to be ... ready for them. And I selfishly want to have you all to myself for a while. ~ Sarah J. Maas

My family understands the pain of struggling with a loved one who's suffering from a blood-related cancer, and we seek to support those who are working to find a cure. ~ Nadia Bjorlin

Luna stares at each of us, even Farrow, like she's mentally grouping us together as the Hale family.A band of fucking weirdos ~ Becca Ritchie

It's your unlimited power to care and to love that can make the biggest difference in the quality of your life. ~ Tony Robbins