Graff Quotes

Kids know when you're pulling a fast one, storywise, and I think that even when they're being entertained, children want to hear the truth, just like adults do. ~ Lisa Graff

We met when we were only 16, at a high school dance. When he died, we were 50. I remember how I didn't want that day to end, terrible as it was. I didn't want to go to sleep because as long as I was awake, it was still a day that I shared with Sean. ~Beverly Eckert ~ Garrett M. Graff

Colonel Graff: We won! That's all that matters.
Ender Wiggin: No. The way we win matters. ~ Orson Scott Card

I've been a children's book editor, a nanny, a camp counselor, a barista, a research lab assistant, and a movie theater ticket-taker. ~ Lisa Graff

Memory is a curious thing. Some details stick in our minds like peanut butter on crackers, and refuse to budge, as much as we might wish they would. Other memories - heavy ones sometimes, ones that seem unbudgeable - can be plucked right out when we least expect it. Lost memories leave remnants, of course, flavors that linger in the mind, but it's difficult to taste things when you don't know they're there ~ Lisa Graff

Do not be disingenuous with me, Colonel Graff. Americans are quite apt at playing stupid when they choose to, but I am not to be deceived. ~ Orson Scott Card

I desperately want to visit the Galapagos and meet some giant tortoises. ~ Lisa Graff

At the Pentagon, for instance, in the NMCC's secure Emergency Actions room, military officials could find anyone in the Constitution's line of succession by checking the screen of a dedicated Zenith Z-150 Central Locator System computer. The CLS computers are protected by a special NSA protocol known as TEMPEST that shields them from electromagnetic snooping. II ~ Garrett M. Graff

You made them hate me." Said Ender
"So? What will you do about it? Crawl in a corner? Start kissing their little backsides so they'll love you again? There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you. I told them you were the best. Now you damn well better be." -Graff ~ Orson Scott Card

You're not crazy. You're not evil. But you can't stop. ~ Orson Scott Card

One of the things I like to do during an 'overhaul' revision is bust out my highlighters and colored pens. Tools like these make me feel like a real writer. ~ Lisa Graff

Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. He just wins - thoroughly. ~ Orson Scott Card

And when thoughts wiggle their way in, sometimes it can be very difficult for them to wiggle out again. ~ Lisa Graff

The influence of blogging is overall a very positive force in the media. ~ Garrett Graff

He nodded, like that made sense. Then he said, "So why does it bother you when someone calls you a dummy?"...."I'm not going to say that other kids can't be mean sometimes. Sometimes people say things that are just awful." I looked down into my Kleenex. "But you know what to are, Albie. You know what you're worth. At least I hope you do." I folded the tissue over on itself once, then twice, then three times. "And you get to decide what words are hurtful to you. If you ask me, 'dummy' shouldn't hurt you one bit. ~ Lisa Graff

Sir, your baseball career may be over. You need to find a new profession. Gatewood answered, I've heard that before. (He had always come back. He would prove them wrong again.) (From Love and Death at the Encierro) ~ Hal Graff

The Graff Hallucination is a sculptural masterpiece; a celebration of the miracle of coloured diamonds. For many years I have thought about creating a truly remarkable watch that illustrates our all-consuming passion for diamonds. The Hallucination has made my diamond dream a reality. ~ Laurence Graff

The cultural code of the stiff upper lip is not for her boys. She is teaching them that it is not "sissy" to show their feelings to others. When she took Prince William to watch the German tennis star Steffi Graff win the women's singles final at Wimbledon last year they left the royal box to go backstage and congratulate her on her victory. As Graff walked off court down the dimly lit corridor to the dressing room, royal mother and son thought Steffi looked so alone and vulnerable out of the spotlight. So first Diana, then William gave her a kiss and an affectionate hug.
The way the Princess introduced her boys to her dying friend, Adrian Ward-Jackson, was a practical lesson in seeing the reality of life and death. When Diana told her eldest son that Adrian had died, his instinctive response revealed his maturity. "Now he's out of pain at last and really happy." At the same time the Princess is acutely aware of the added burdens of rearing two boys who are popularly known as "the heir and the spare." Self-discipline is part of the training. Every night at six o'clock the boys sit down and write thank-you notes or letters to friends and family. It is a discipline which Diana's father instilled in her, so much so that if she returns from a dinner party at midnight she will not sleep easily unless she has penned a letter of thanks.
William and Harry, now ten and nearly eight respectively, are now aware of their destiny. On one occasion the boys were discussing their ~ Andrew Morton

When I was in fourth grade, I had a lot of upheaval in my life. Both of my parents remarried, and we all got new houses. That was also the year my older brother got very sick. ~ Lisa Graff

Her favorite animal was sea lions. Mine was giraffes. Her favorite movie was Casablanca, which she said was old and black-and-white and very romantic. She tried to tell me what it was about, but it all sounded about as much fun as eating burned bread crusts. ~ Lisa Graff

My assignment from Graff, thought Theresa, is to become an assassin in order to protect my son. And the truly horrifying thing is that I'm not questioning whether to do it, but how. And when. ~ Orson Scott Card

When you do choose to speak, she told me, speak truths. ~ Lisa Graff

the weeks following the war's end, Truman announced a redesign of the presidential flag - the first since the Wilson years. Chief among the changes was the shifting of the eagle's head away from the arrows of war instead toward the olive branch of peace, reflecting the nation's desire for a universal peace. ~ Garrett M. Graff

I had the foolish idea that we should test for desirable and useful traits so that we could assemble ideally balanced teams to the colonies. [...] It's like those foolish attempts to control immigration to America based on the traits that were deemed desirable, when in fact the only trait that defines Americans historically is "descended from somebody willing to give up everything to live there. ~ Orson Scott Card

When there's an opportunity, some people pass it by. I've been lucky enough to recognise opportunities and every day, in my business, there's an opportunity somewhere - to buy, expand, design. ~ Laurence Graff

Some people aren't good at anything. Some people just really like donuts. ~ Lisa Graff

Graff had deliberately set him up to be separate from the other boys, made it impossible for him to be close to them. And he began now to suspect the reasons behind it. It wasn't to unify the rest of the group - in fact, it was divisive. Graff had isolated Ender to make him struggle. To make him prove, not that he was competent, but that he was far better than everyone else. ~ Orson Scott Card

Well, I'll tell you, Mr. Graff-'
'Not Graff,' the big man snapped, looking annoyed. 'The name is Garff-Garff!'
'Say, that's good,' the hunter said. 'Garff-Garff- that's even better than bow-wow. Do you know any other animal imitations? ~ Joe Millard

She began to feel sacred, scared and the voices came and went and her body became brittle, falling, drying, like cold Annihilation, like blue crystal spectrum light, sinking but white. To Nurture, Mist thought, falling cold white crystals, forming, while dying. Returning, falling sky, dying, and finally, on her cold white body, she felt...Snow. ~ J. Jason Graff

I am just a ballplayer on vacation. Why are these things happening to me ? ~ Hal Graff

Graff had isolated Ender to make him struggle. To make him prove, not that he was competent, but that he was far better than everyone else. That was the only way he could win respect and friendship. It made him a better soldier then he would ever have been otherwise. It also made him lonely, afraid, angry, untrusting. And maybe those traits, too, made him a better soldier. ~ Orson Scott Card

He has a chance to make somebody move over on Mount Rushmore. He's working for his place on the coins and the postage stamps. ~ Henry Graff

We didn't install the [Code Red] patch on those DMZ systems because they were only used for development and testing. - Anonymous client, shortly after spending 48 continuous hours removing 2001's Code Red worm from internal corporate servers ~ Mark G. Graff

It's the way we deal with what Fate hands us that defines who we are. ~ Lisa Graff

There was a hint of something lingering in her mind. A memory, perhaps, although Jo could only catch the flavor of a few remaining tendrils. ~ Lisa Graff

We're like the wicked witch. We promise gingerbread, then eat the little brats alive. ~ Orson Scott Card

But the officer stood up and stepped across the room to Ender. He held out his hand. My name is Graff, Ender. Colonel Hyrum Graff. I'm director of primary training at Battle School in the Belt. I've come to invite you to enter the school. ~ Orson Scott Card

I'd like to have a perfect sense of direction. I could get lost with a GPS strapped to my arm. ~ Lisa Graff

I know where The List is-my father has taken me to see it many times. Maybe for just this reason. And I know what it is: The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma. And I know who I am: Daniel, son of Graff, son of Terfdon- The Alien Hunter. No last name, just Daniel X. ~ James Patterson

For me, emotion comes first. If I have to change a scene, invent a scene, change dialogue, or put Graff by the lake in order to feel that dynamic, and the end results feels like 'Ender's Game,' then hopefully it works. ~ Gavin Hood

Graff was floating on his back in the pool when George Wall and I went outside. His brown belly swelled above its surface like the humpback of a Galapagos tortoise. Mrs. Graff, fully clothed, was sitting by herself in a sunny corner. Her black dress and black hair seemed to annul the sunlight. Her face and body had the distinction that takes the place of beauty in people who have suffered long and hard. ~ Ross Macdonald

Find something you'd want to keep doing forever," she said, "even if you stink at it. And then if you're lucky, with lots of practice, then one day you won't stink so much. ~ Lisa Graff

Truman's farewell address on January 15, 1953, delivered five days before he left the renovated White House, is to this day one of the best speeches of the Cold War, containing insightful analysis and a prediction of how, decades later, it would end. "I suppose that history will remember my term in office as the years when the 'Cold War' began to overshadow our lives," he told the American people, speaking late at night from the Oval Office. Winning the Cold War wouldn't be easy - or fast - but the United States, he firmly believed, would win simply by holding the line. ~ Garrett M. Graff

Well, that's the thing about knots, isn't it? If you don't know the trick, it's a muddled predicament. But in fact each loop of every knot is carefully placed, one end twisting into the other in a way you might not have expected. I find them rather beautiful, really. ~ Lisa Graff

I don't know why I'm always screwing up at everything, even when I try so hard, all the time, not to. I'd do better if I could, I really would. But I don't know how.
There are a lot of things I don't know. ~ Lisa Graff

Sister Carlotta, I'm on a leave of absence right now. That means I've been sacked, in case you don't understand how the I.F. handles these things."
"Sacked! A miscarriage of justice. You ought to be shot. ~ Orson Scott Card

I think, though, that people will read into a reporter's story a bias that they want to see in a reporter. ~ Garrett Graff

The Bible was penned by men. The Epistles of Paul were penned by that evangelist salesman and his students, desperate to bring mystery and excitement into a quiet philosophy, turning it into a religion promising the secret of an afterlife, answers to questions that previously no one could answer. Always remember, words written by men have an agenda. Sometimes their agenda is for the better, but it's usually for the self, and that almost always leads down a dangerous path."

~Character Mark from The Awakening, book one of The Judas Curse series. ~ Angella Graff

Everyone deserves a sad day once in a while," Calista told me. "Sometimes things are too big for cheering up. Sometimes the best way to make things better is just to let yourself be sad for a little bit. ~ Lisa Graff

You should do something because you love it, not just because you're good at it. ~ Lisa Graff

And you couldn't be anywhere at all without having been almost there for a while. ~ Lisa Graff

Keep this in mind - it only works because what's between you, that's real, that's what matters. Billions of those connections between human beings. That's what you're fighting to keep alive. ~ Orson Scott Card