Good Question Quotes

I don't think there is any good answer to the question why shouldn't gays and lesbians who want to serve their country be allowed to do it. ~ John Bolton

Somebody once asked me if I believed in God. It was probably the windup to some major proselytizing, but it's a good question. Do I believe in God? That somebody made all this happen for a reason, that there's something waiting for us after we die? That there's a purpose to all this crap? I don't know. I'd like to be able to say "Yes, of course" almost as much as I'd like to be able to say "Absolutely not," but there's evidence on both sides of the fence. Good people die for nothing, little kids go hungry, corrupt men hold positions of power, and horrible diseases go uncured. And I got Shaun, maybe the only person who could make it seem worthwhile to me. I got Shaun. So, is there a God? Sorry to dodge the question, but I just don't know. ~ Mira Grant

Do I want to be feared or loved? That's a good question. I want both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me. ~ Michael Scott

What's dry?' 'Good question. Next question! ~ Tamora Pierce

Why is it that men reduce themselves to one-liners and bad movie quotes whenever they get into a fight?" said Parker. "Is there some kind of script they're supposed to follow when they get to this point? Or does the raging testosterone just shut down their higher brain functions? ~ Matt Forbeck

I thought it was a good question. I mean I didn't lock myself in the Chaos Compound. I didn't do a drive-by on my house. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and unfortunately that place was my own house. ~ Kristen Ashley

Now, what did "feel" really mean to a computer? Another very good question, but hardly one to be considered at that particular moment. Then, ~ Arthur C. Clarke

What kind of a place is Expectations?" inquired Milo, unable to see the humor and feeling very doubtful of the little man's sanity.
"Good question, good question," he exclaimed. "Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going. Of course, some people never go beyond Expectations, but my job is to hurry them along whether they like it or not. ~ Norton Juster

2.6 billion people live without toilets, and 1.6 billion without electricity. How is this possible?, you might ask. And that is a very good question. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

If you are idle, ask "why?" If you feel like life is boring for you, ask "why?" When you get into a disappointment, ask "why?" Even if you come out of all torments and disturbances, ask "why? ~ Israelmore Ayivor

No matter what, you'll still be a witch." "But what kind?" I asked. "Good question, child," Gert said, slinking off into the dark. ~ Danielle Paige

A rap at the back door made her jump, and she peered through the window for a long time before she eased open the door a crack. She left the security chain on. 'What do you want, Richard?'
Richard Morrell's police cruiser was parked in the drive. He hadn't flashed any lights or howled any sirens, so she supposed it wasn't an emergency, exactly. But she knew him well enough to know he didn't pay social visits, at least not to the Glass House.
'Good question,' Richard said. 'I guess I want a nice girl who can cook, likes action movies, and looks good in short skirts. But I'll settle for you taking the chain off the door and letting me in. ~ Rachel Caine

Making progress in science often hinges on asking the right kind of question.

Without a well-posed question, discussions become little more than people talking (or yelling) past each other.

And without a well-posed question, there's no clear path toward gathering data that will yield answers.

Finding a good question is like throwing open the shades in a dark room.

It's the first step in finding a new way to tell is important. It tells us where we should be looking, where we should be going, and how to begin organizing our efforts to get there. ~ Adam Frank

I thought your boyfriend died?" Nicky asked, and it was actually a good question, and I was so
mad that I wasn't even embarrassed to answer him.
"We were three," I choked out. "I had a night lover and a day lover," I said, and it felt like
poetry, just to say it there in public in the middle of the quad, under the foggy sun. "And they loved
each other like night loves the day. And then the night lover died, and the day lover and I were naked in
the sunshine, with only ourselves for cover. ~ Amy Lane

It's a very good question, very direct, and I'm not going to answer it. ~ George H. W. Bush

What does it all mean?' I said.
'A good question,' he rejoined: 'nobody knows what anything is; a man can learn only what a thing means. Whether he do, depends on the use he is making of it. ~ George MacDonald

Recently, on a call with a company hiring me to teach about leadership, a man said, "Excuse me, Abby, I just need to ensure that what you present is applicable to men, too."
I said, "Good question! But only if you've asked every male speaker you;ve hired if his message is applicable to women, too. ~ Abby Wambach

A good question is, of course, the key by which infinite answers can be educed. ~ Isaac Asimov

That it's rough out there and chancy is no surprise. Every live thing is a survivor on a kind of extended emergency bivouac. But at the same time we are also created. In the Koran, Allah asks "the heaven and the earth, and all in between, thinkest thou I made them in jest?" It's a good question. What do we think of the created universe, spanning an unthinkable void with an unthinkable profusion of forms? Or what do we think of nothingness, those sickening reaches of time in either direction? If the giant water bug was not made in jest, was it then made in earnest? ~ Annie Dillard

Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? ... a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? ~ Abraham Maslow

What do I really want? he thinks. This is, of course, an extremely good question. It was just such a pity that, life being as it tended to be, it so rarely came as part of a matched pair, with an extremely good answer. ~ Iain Banks

I've just always liked monsters, since I was a little kid. It was always the thing I found interesting. It's always what I wanted to draw; it's always what I wanted to read, and so, yeah, I don't know. It's a good question for a therapist, why I like monsters. But I tend to not question it. It's what pays the bills, so that's kind of nice. ~ Mike Mignola

If there is such a simple argument for physicalism, how come everybody hasn't always been a physicalist? That's a good question, and there is a good answer. The 'causal completeness of physics' wasn't widely accepted until recently. ~ David Papineau

We become like what we worship. If you find yourself constantly bitter or angry, a good question to ask is, what god am I worshiping? ~ Josh Ross

He guessed the NKVD didn't even know that Waffen-SS men could be identified by the blood-group tattoos on the underside of their left arms, usually near the armpit. Richter didn't have one. He'd been classed as a non-combatant, as he'd said, at least for a portion of the war. He decided it could be weeks before they found out who he was.
But Volsky's confidence appeared to have been restored too, now. He said, 'And the vat of incense?'
'I had the incense brought from the remnants of a Christmas smoker factory. Silly little hollow figurines invented by toymakers in the Ore Mountains. Cone incense burns down inside the figurines and the smoke emerges from the open mouths. There was a glut of them,' Richter said, truthfully. 'Berliners were shocked and saddened after Stalingrad. But they lost the will to celebrate after the Battle of Kursk. They knew the Red Army was coming. The puerile little incense smokers were redundant, together with the incense they were to hold. Except it didn't go to waste. The vat was taken from a merchant's house. It's from Hong Kong, I think.'
Volsky leaned back in his chair. He said, 'Why go to all the trouble?'
That's a good question, Richter thought.
He stifled a smile. 'To mask the smell. ~ Gary Haynes

In school, we're rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question. ~ Richard Saul Wurman

And anyway who the devil should I want to murder?"
"That would be a very good question," said Miss Marple. "I have not yet had the pleasure of sufficient conversation with you to evolve a theory as to that."
Mr. Rafter's smile broadened.
"Conversations with you might be dangerous," he said.
"Conversations are always dangerous, if you have something to hide," said Miss Marple. ~ Agatha Christie

To whom are you for?
Is a good question to ask.
For one way sows to life,
The other to evil basks. ~ Kari L. Greenaway

I'd rather live with a good question than a bad answer ~ Aryeh A. Frimer

What's Important Now (?) ~ Lou Holtz

You're asking me how not to doubt. Good question.My answer is, you can't. This is life ~ Tariq Ramadan

Now, here's a good question: should serious people focus on global political instability - terrorism, failing states, nuclear weapons - or should we focus on global climate instability - droughts, floods, extreme weather? Here's the correct answer: yes, both, because climate disruption will make every other national security problem worse. ~ Van Jones

Chris smiled at me, showing two ridiculously cute dimples and a few feet away a waitress dropped an empty cup she had cleared from a table. Blushing, she muttered an apology and hurried inside.

I scowled at him, refusing to be swayed by his charm.

"I see," he murmured, nodding slightly as if he had just solved a puzzle.
"See what?" Ignoring my question, he pulled out a cell phone, hit a number and held the phone out to me. I hesitated for a few seconds then took the phone and put it to my ear.
"What's up, Chris?" said a familiar deep voice on the other end.
"Good question," I responded tersely.
"I told Chris you'd recognize him if he got too close." Was that amusement in his tone?
"Great. You won the bet. Buy him a beer or whatever." I glanced at Chris, saw that he looked amused now, too and I grew even more agitated. "I thought we had an understanding when you left here last week."
"And what understanding would that be?" I gritted my teeth. "The one where you go your way and I go mine and we all live happily ever after."
"I don't recall that particular arrangement," he replied in his infuriatingly easy manner. "I believe I told you I'd be seeing you again."
I opened my mouth but words would not come out. People say 'I'll be seeing you' all the time when they say good bye. It doesn't mean anything. It certainly doesn't mean they will send their friends to stalk you.
"Sara?"
"What do you want from me, Niko ~ Karen Lynch

Good question, but no answer. Good questions never have answers. ~ Haruki Murakami

I know what a good question would be for an actor. What's your least favorite thing that you've ever heard an actor say about acting? Or about being in a movie? ~ Kathleen Hanna

I think most of us are outsiders. And I think that's good because it makes you question things. ~ E.L. Konigsburg

Why are things beautiful? I don´t know. That´s a good question. Isn´t it pleasing when you ask a question of a person, a teacher, or a speaker, and he or she says, That´s a good question? Don´t you feel good when that happens? ~ Nicholson Baker

Whenever I ask a question, and the pain comes, I know I have asked a really good question. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

A good question has many answers. ~ John Paul Caponigro

If you want wise lessons, ask wise questions. The type of questions you often ask tells the kind of person you are. ~ Israelmore Ayivor

Am I an Israeli? That's a good question. ~ Beny Steinmetz

It's a good question, because to be believable is the only way that you could be successful. ~ Tanya Tucker

Good question. (Acheron)
I have a better one. How are we going to clean up this mess? (Kyrian)
Nah, mine's even better. How do you hide a chainsaw in your locker at school? I'm thinking they're not going to stop, and while the school has a strict no-weapons policy, I don't think the plastic sporks in the cafeteria are going to do much to combat them. I need protection, man. Serious protection. (Nick) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

He[Tom] read from the Almenak."'The song that the Vigil Snake sings is in fact one immensely long word; the longest in the ancient language of the species. It is so long that an individual can sing it for a lifetime and never come to the end of it.'"
"That sounds like a Kleppism to me," Geneva said. "How would they ever learn it?"
"Good question," said Tom. "Maybe they're born with it, like a migration instinct?"'
"Born with a song,"said Geneva.
Tom smiled. "Yes. Don't you like that idea?"
"Liking it and having it be true aren't the same thing, Tom."
"Huh. Sometimes you need to let things strike your heart and not your head, Geneva. ~ Clive Barker

My name is Daniel, and this is the first volume of my life story, which, hopefully, will be a very long and distinguished one. Who should you read it? Very good question. Maybe because this is your planet, and you have a right to know what's actually happening on it. ~ James Patterson

The common question that gets asked in business is, 'why?' That's a good question, but an equally valid question is, 'why not?' ~ Jeff Bezos

I listen to all these complaints about rudeness and intemperateness, and the opinion that I come to is that there is no polite way of asking somebody: have you considered the possibility that your entire life has been devoted to a delusion? But that's a good question to ask. Of course we should ask that question and of course it's going to offend people. Tough. ~ Daniel Dennett

She was smart like that, and lucky like that, and people loved the hell out of her. They didn't love the hell out of me; they ran the hell away from me. It wasn't like I was a bad person or anything, I just … had a lot of accidents. I didn't mean accidents like I ate glue and then peed myself on a regular basis. I just tripped more than usual, and accidently set things on fire more than what would be considered 'normal'. I got kicked out of the village school only one moon-cycle before graduation for accidently making one of the teachers bald. How do you accidently make someone bald? That's a good question. All you really need is a bucket of warm tar to accidently toss onto the back of their head. How do you get a bucket of warm tar? You don't go looking for it or anything - or at least I didn't. It was just sitting on the road outside the school and I thought I should carry it inside to ask what it was. ~ Jaymin Eve

That," said Harry, "is a really good question. ~ J.K. Rowling

That is a good question for you to ask, not a wise question for me to answer. ~ Anthony Eden

It's a good question, because a movie isn't good or bad based on its politics. It's usually good or bad for other reasons, though you might agree or disagree with its politics. ~ Roger Ebert

Is this all a dream?" That's the only thing that makes any sense.
"You aren't dreaming," he said, and she knew that was true. She was awake and had been every time they had met. "But if you were a dream, would you want to wake up?" he asked.
A good question. A fair question. A hard question, but one she answered easily.
"Never. ~ Tiffany Reisz

If he gets any more charming, men and women may start laying down in the street for the privilege of being stepped on by the new Ravkan King. However did you resist him?"
"Good question," Mal murmured from beside me.
"Turns out I don't care for emeralds," I said.
Zoya rolled her eyes. "Or royal blood, blinding charisma, tremendous wealth
"
"You can stop now," said Mal. ~ Leigh Bardugo

A reader once asked me, "Do you only write disaster books?' It was a good question, because my last three offerings could qualify as weather-related disaster books. But it's not the storms or even the ensuing calamity that really interests me so much as the people . . . ordinary people thrust into incredibly difficult situations where they have to rise to the challenge, persevere, and fight against long odds. ~ Michael Tougias

Good question," I said, more slowly. "When does she get in?" "What?" Alex blinked. "Your sister?" I said. He was a lot less attractive when he looked that confused. "When does she come on shift? ~ Seanan McGuire

How forthright does the audience want the broadcasters to be? Because when you tell your truth, there's a lot of anger that comes out. I think it's a good question to ask TV people [executives] too. How much truth do they want to be told? How much truth does the league want told? Because the truth isn't just a positive truth. If you're going to tell the truth, you would be telling a lot of positive and some negative. ~ Jeff Van Gundy

Absorbed in looking at the photos, she said, "What I want to know is, why don't we have a private island?"
She had meant to be facetious, but Dragos's expression turned thoughtful. "Good question. I'll have to look into that. ~ Thea Harrison

Answers do not matter so much as questions, said the Good Fairy. A good question is very hard to answer. The better the question the harder the answer. There is no answer at all to a very good question. ~ Flann O'Brien

Ask one good question and you will get answers to three. ~ Robert J. Braathe

If you're so miserable,' my daughter said delicately, 'why don't you leave him?'

Oh my darling girl, I might have said, what a good question. In her worldview, bad marriages were simply terminated, like unwanted pregnancies. She knew nothing about this subculture of women who stayed, women who couldn't logically explain their allegiances, who held tight because it was the thing they felt most comfortable doing, the thing they actually liked. she didn't understand the luxury of the familiar, the known: the same hump of back poking up under the cover in bed, the hair tufting in the ear. The husband. A figure you never strove toward, never work yourself up over, but simply lived beside season upon season, which started building up like bricks spread thick with sloppy mortar. A marriage wall would rise up between the two of you, a marriage bed, and you would lie in it gratefully. ~ Meg Wolitzer

I sat up straight. "How in the world does a simple Cockney pickpocket know all about 'The Vampyre' and Frankenstein and their connections?"
Mina's eyes widened, gleaming like marbles in the dim light. I'd actually taken her by surprise.
"That, my dear Miss Stoker, is a very good question. A very good question. ~ Colleen Gleason

I can say.. that I never said that... we never met and this never happen... How?

(Good question, the answer I will leave it for later) ~ Deyth Banger

As long as we refuse to think in terms of world good and world goods, of world order, world peace, we shall murder and betray one another. It can go on till the crack of doom, if we wish it to be thus. Nothing can bring about a new and better world but our own desire for it. Man kills through fear - and fear is hydra-headed. Once we start slaying there is no end to it. An eternity would not suffice to vanquish the demons who torture us. Who put the demons there? That is for each one to ask himself. Let every man search his own heart. Neither God nor the Devil is responsible, and certainly not such puny monsters as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, et alia. Certainly not such bugaboos as Catholicism, Capitalism, Communism. Who put the demons there in our heart to torture us? A good question, and if the only way to find out is to go to Epidaurus, then I urge you one and all to drop everything and go there - at once. ~ Henry Miller

In the end, we return to the question, just how much do you love truth? Do you really love truth or are you just curious? Do you love it enough to rebuild your understanding to conform to a reality that doesn't fit your current beliefs, and doesn't feel 120% happy? Do you love truth enough to continue seeking even when it hurts, when it reveals aspects of yourself (or human society, or the universe) that are shocking, complex and disturbing, or humbling, glorious and amazing – or even, when truth is far beyond human mind itself? Just how much do we love truth? It's a good question to ask ourselves, I think. ~ Scott Mandelker

Questions are the important thing, answers are less important. Learning to ask a good question is the heart of intelligence. Learning the answer-well, answers are for students. Questions are for thinkers. ~ Roger Schank

It's not good to be in a situation where people don't want to direct you or don't want to question something. ~ Glenn Close

If you start a day with a good question, you'll get to have an interesting time looking for answers. ~ Alain Bremond-Torrent

If the show encourages an audience to ask the question, "Is this character's emotional response to this situation valid?," then that's a really good question to ask. ~ Charlie Cox

And so you ask a very good question. Why go on? Why even start off on such a path? What is to be gained from embarking on such a journey? Where is the incentive? What is the reason? The reason is ridiculously simple. There is nothing else to do. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

When I work on a book, I usually start with a question. And I don't sit around and go 'I need to write a book. What's a good question?' It will be a question that's just clanging around in my head. So for 'What It Is,' it was this idea of 'What is an image?' ~ Lynda Barry

But I would be damned if I'd let Curran intimidate me into caving in.
"I see. I retrieve the surveys the Pack let slip through its fingers, and in return you bring me here against my will, interrogate me, and threaten me with bodily harm. I'm sure the Order will be amused to learn the Pack kidnapped its representative."
Curran nodded thoughtfully. "Aha. Who's going to tell them?"
Um . . . Good question. He could kill me and nobody would ever find my body. The Order wouldn't even investigate that hard; they might just chalk it up to the flare-related craziness.
"I guess I'll just have to kick your ass and break out of here." I bravely drank the rest of the soup from the bowl, abandoning all propriety. Probably shouldn't have said that.
"In your dreams."
"We've never had our rematch. I might win." Probably shouldn't have said that, either. ~ Ilona Andrews

Well, the infrastructure part of the stimulus has worked. There's absolutely no question about it. We can demonstrate in Pennsylvania and other states around the union how it's produced good, paying jobs both on the construction sites and back in American factories. It has worked. ~ Ed Rendell

How I get inspired?? (Good question!)
I just read stuff which make me to get inspired, like horror, like facts, like books which give me the chance to look over the goverment...
However I watch films like The Den, Truth or Die, Unknown 2011, Unknown 2015, You can't kill Stephen King, Dreamscapes and Nightmares, Breaking Bad, Monk and many others this series, films put me in Different situations and I just need to solve them...
My life the whole is just an example what I mustn't do and somehow this make me inspired! ~ Deyth Banger

Good question," Littlecloud responded. ~ Erin Hunter

That's a really good question - what is it like living with a writer? I guess it depends on the writer. You know what? They live in a fantasy world a lot of the time. My husband lives in a fantasy world. ~ Rene Russo

To get answers, ask questions; but to get good answers, ask good questions. ~ Israelmore Ayivor

A Nobel Prize winner was asked how he became a scientist. He said that every day after school, his mother would ask him not what he learned but whether he asked a good question today. That, he said, was how he became a scientist. ~ Thomas L. Friedman

Everyone would wonder, 'What's he doing with her?' And then you'd say, 'Hmm, good question,' and you'd dump me. That wouldn't be nice. ~ Marni Bates

That is a very good question. I don't know the answer. But can you tell me the name of a classical Greek shoemaker? ~ Arthur Miller

You took my paper smudged with tears and you read it out loud. You told me what worked in the essay, and what didn't work. You asked me questions about word choice, pacing, and something you called political symbolism. You asked me what I was really trying to say with the essay and suggested I start with saying exactly that. You challenged me to use the rest of the essay to discover ideas and questions I didn't already know and feel. "A good question anchored in real curiosity is much more important than a cliché or forced metaphor," you told me. ~ Kiese Laymon

Have you heard about the Knights of Malta?" I ask.
"Vaguely."
"They had a special technique, such that they would penetrate their partner, and then do nothing, just do nothing, for hours, just stay in place, frozen in time, as it were."
"And erections, did they freeze too?"
"Good question. More historical research will be needed, " I whisper. ~ Michael Ampersant

What the hell is wrong with you? he asked.
It was a good question. ~ Maureen Johnson

My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. Izzy, she would say, did you ask a good question today? That difference - asking good questions - made me become a scientist. ~ Isidor Isaac Rabi

Am I conducting myself in a manner worthy of the gospel? is a good question for us to ask ourselves regularly. ~ Warren W. Wiersbe

Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie. ~ Sydney Pollack

Where is your Christian god now?" the turbaned assassin shouts. Lucine thinks it is a good question. Not one person answers him. Not Mairig and not the missionary. Perhaps they sense what Lucine already knows, that if God is indeed anywhere, he is not here. ~ Aline Ohanesian

It was a good 15 or 20 years before anyone at Rand would be in the same room with me. They didn't want the question raised, 'What's your relationship with Daniel Ellsberg?' And not one of them wrote me a letter because they didn't want a letter of theirs to show up in my trash - which the FBI had been going through. ~ Daniel Ellsberg

If you have answers to the "whys", it will direct you to the "hows". As simple as that! ~ Israelmore Ayivor

Where's Rory? I want him, right now,' demanded Amy as the TARDIS lurched away into space and time. The Doctor had only briefly met her fiancé, Rory Williams, once before. She didn't think the Doctor understood what she saw in Rory. Some days, she was not entirely sure what she saw in Rory. But she was certain of this: nobody took her fiancé away from her.
'Good question. Where's Rory? Also, where's seven billion other people?' he asked.
'I want my Rory. ~ Neil Gaiman

That's a good question. I don't really remember what it was like before. Whatever I had going on, it was bullshit. It wasn't important. It's kind of a nice thing about being a dad. My identity is really about them now, and what I can do for them, so it sort of takes the pressure off of your own life. What am I going to do, who am I? Who cares, you've got to get your kids to school. So I like it that way. ~ Louis C.K.

You're dead," I repeated. "So why are you in my dream?"
He raised the bill of his olive drab ball cap with one finger. " Good question. Morbid, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Dreaming about dead peolpe. Creepy. You ever see a therapist about that?"
"I'm not -" Even in dreams, I couldn't win an argument. Even when he was dead. ~ Rachel Caine

You boys going to get somewhere, or just going? We didn't understand his question, and it was a damned good question. ~ Jack Kerouac

I thank the bullies who bullied me in many ways they taught how not to treat other human beings, not to manipulate, to not to lack empathy, to not lack morals, not to to abuse physically and/or emotionally. I thank them for the assumptions that I was "slow", "stupid", "thick".
I often wonder with most them hitting their late 20's would they want their children/loved ones to be treated how they treated me? Good question isn't it and I probably know the answer. Because the scary thing is looking into the lense of someone else acting the same as YOU to your loved one must be difficult to take. ~ Paul Isaacs

Come all ye conservatives and liberals
who want to conserve the good things and be free,
come away from the merchants of big answers,
whose hands are metalled with power;
from the union of anywhere and everywhere
by the purchase of everything from everybody at the lowest price
and the sale of anything to anybody at the highest price;
from the union of work and debt, work and despair;
from the wage-slavery of the helplessly well-employed.

From the union of self-gratification and self-annihilation,
secede into care for one another
and for the good gifts of Heaven and Earth. ~ Wendell Berry

My! we couldn't get him out, Tom. And besides, 'twouldn't do any good; they'd ketch him again." "Yes - so they would. But I hate to hear 'em abuse him so like the dickens when he never done - that." "I do too, Tom. Lord, I hear 'em say he's the ~ Mark Twain

As Aristotle said, you have to be an aristocrat or a reactionary to write a good proletarian poem. ~ Kenneth Rexroth

Popularity, Fame or money does not mean you are a good person, but your heart, behavior, characteristics and action do. ~ Kyos Magupe

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. ~ Plato

When I left Merle was wearing a bungalow apron and rolling pie crust. She came to the door wiping her hands on the apron and kissed me on the mouth and began to cry and ran back into the house, leaving the doorway empty [ ... ] I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again. (p. 262) ~ Raymond Chandler

I don't know about other writers, but for myself, to write I must be relatively quiet - it's very difficult to write with the telephone and the doorbell ringing and conversation going on; I'm not that good a writer to write through all that! ~ Ray Charles