Jacqueline Kelly Quotes

They all knew this, but this didn't stop them from good-naturedly crowding around the front door every time it opened, every single time, despite the fact that they were never -EVER- let into the house. I loved this particularly fine thing about dogs: Despite a lifetime of denied entrance, hope never died in their hearts. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

But my mother's life was a never-ending round of maintenance. Not one single thing did she ever achieve but that it had to be done all over again, one day or one week or one season later. Oh, the monotony. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

Eww, he said. I almost said the same thing, but unlike my brother, I had been annealed in the furnace of Scientific Thought. Scientists do not say such things aloud (although we may think them from time to time). ~ Jacqueline Kelly

When two people love each other, they do not comply and does not dominate, only complement each other. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

It's amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

My grandfather had given me Mr. Darwin's book to read. He had given me the possibility of a different kind of life. but none of it mattered. Instead there was The Science of Housewifery for me. I was blind; I was pathetic. The century was about to change, but my own little life would not change with it. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

Could anything top the promise and potential of a blank page? What could be more satisfying? Never mind that it would soon be crammed with awkward penmanship, that my handwriting inevitably sloped downhill to the right-hand corner, that I blotted my ink, that my drawings never came out the way I saw them in my head. Never mind all that. What counted was possibility. You could live on possibility, at least for a while. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

I didn't want anyone getting close to me. I pushed people away. Built a wall around my heart to keep them out. I let one person take down the bricks, and I suppose it was a good idea, but, sometimes, he hurts me too. And it hurts so much worse then any other hurt I've felt because he is one of the very few that matter anymore. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

I don't understand the modern educational system at all."
"Neither do I. We have to learn sewing and knitting and smocking. In Deportment, they make us walk around the room with a book on our heads."
Granddaddy said, "I find that actually reading the book is a much more effective way of absorbing. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

I don't have that many days left," he said as we sat together in the library. "Why would I want to spend them on matters of drainage and overdue accounts? I must husband my hours and spend every one of them wisely. I regret that I didn't come to this realization until I reached fifty years of age. Calpurnia, you would do well to adopt such an attitude at an earlier age. Spend each of your allotted hours with care. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

We had been so close to missing each other, he and I. He had turned out to be the greatest gift of all. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

It was interesting that such a slight frame could contain so large a person. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

I consoled myself with Granddaddy's words on the fossil record and the Book of Genesis: It was more important to understand something than to like it. Liking wasn't necessary for understanding. Liking didn't enter into it. ~ Kelly Jacqueline

By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

And then it came to me, like the first shocking glimpse of the sun's disk rising over the horizon, what it was I did want to do. It was so obvious that I wondered why I hadn't seen it before. I only had to say it aloud. Did I have the courage to do that? To reveal it in the open air? ( ... ) 'I think,' I said, then stopped. 'I think maybe I want to go to the university. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

It turned out to be a young Dasypus novemcinctus, a nine-banded armadillo, about the size of a small loaf of bread. Although they were becoming more common in Texas, I'd never seen one up close before. Anatomically speaking, it resembled the unhappy melding of an anteater (the face), a mule (the ears), and a tortoise (the carapace). I thought it overall an unlucky creature in the looks department, but Granddaddy once said that to apply a human definition of beauty to an animal that had managed to thrive for millions of years was both unscientific and foolish. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

I put on my thickest red flannel nightie and dove into bed. Mercifully, SanJuanna had taken the chill off the sheets with a warming pan. I intended to lie there for a while and take stock of my life. That's what you do at the end of the century, don't you? I think I actually fell asleep right away and only dreamed I was taking stock. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

It was the first morning of the first day of the new century. Snow blanketed the ground. Anything was possible. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

See, that's the thing about second chances. It's two people that are there for each other and support each other and care about each other no matter how much they want to deny it. It's about one person doing everything they can to make sure the other doesn't fall and vice-versa. Second chances are about holding on to that other persons hand no matter how hard they beg to let go. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

That night, when SanJuanna had cleared the main course and brought dessert in, my mother called for quiet and said,
"Boys, I have an announcement to make. Your sister made the apple pies tonight. I'm sure we will all enjoy them very much."
"Can I learn how, ma'am?" said Jim Bowie.
"No, J.B. Boys don't bake pies," Mother said.
"Why not?" he said.
"They have wives who make pies for them."
"But I don't have a wife."
"Darling, I'm sure you will have a very nice one someday when you're older, and she'll make you many pies. Calpurnia, would you care to serve?"
Was there any way I could have a wife, too? I wondered as I cut through the browned C and promptly shattered the entire crust. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

One day I would have all the books in the world, shelves and shelves of them. I would live my life in a tower of books. I would read all day long and eat peaches. And if any young knights in armor dared to come calling on their white chargers and plead with me to let down my hair, I would pelt them with peach pits until they went home. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

I had never seen a real live dead person. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

On inspection it turned out to be a tiny toad, a quarter of an inch long, hopping mightily after an escaping millipede, itself no bigger than a thread, both going for all they were worth until they disappeared in the grass. Then a wolf spider, stratling in size and hairiness, streaked over the gravel, either chasing something smaller or being chased by something bigger, I couldn't tell which. I reckoned there must be a million minor dramas playing out around the place without ceasing. Oh, but they were hardly minor to the chaser and the chasee who were dealing in the coin of life and death. I was a mere bystander, an idler. They were playing for keeps. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

Peace is not just the absence of mass destruction, but a positive internal and external condition in which people are free so that they can grow to their full potential. ~ Petra Kelly

Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Cam started a fire at work. And she got an erection! ~ Kelly Moran

Hey, sister buzz-kill," she said languorously to Jen. "What crawled up your ass and died?"
"I don't know," Jen retorted. "What died and crawled up your ass?"
There were times I regretted being an only child. This wasn't one of them. ~ Jacqueline Carey

Never judge a journey by the distance... ~ Jacqueline Winspear

When addressing religion in morphology the average person will seek religious texts and otherwise human instruments and tools to explain the Universe or their own spiritual experience. Yet human hands are not paws or clawed. Humans are not quadrupeds so texts for cats is kind of out of the question one might think. ~ Leviak B. Kelly

Like a serpent, this demon had coiled and nested into those empty and cavernous spaces of his heart. Like a harpy, she had preyed on his absolute aloneness. ~ Kelly Creagh

What exists beneath the sea?
I'd always pictured it in colors of emerald and aquamarine, where black velvet fish with sequined eyes swim among plankton.
But, when my eyes adjust, I see gray stones, lost anchors, wet wood, buttons, hooks, and eyes, the salem witches who wouldn't float, stars and stripes, missing vessels, windup toys, the souls of Romeo and Juliet, peaches, cream, pistons, screams, cages of ribs and birds, tunnels, nutcracker soldiers, satin bows, drugstore signs, Pandora box ripped open at its hinges. ~ Kelly Easton

I used to wonder if we were destined to fail from the start, two people who lived hard and loved fast. Afraid to slow down. But now I know that my fingers weren't long enough to reach your wounds, to caress the places that ached from the sharp words and careless actions of others. People had confused your gentleness for weakness. You carried everything heavy.

Had I known, I would have danced delicate language all around you. I would've told you that your internal brightness illuminated mine. And that I only saw the beauty in myself when I looked at my reflection in your eyes. If only I had known that behind that strong gaze was everything else. Everything you didn't want me to know. Your shine came from what you felt when you looked at me. And you feared that I would be yet another to use your light and leave you alone. In even more darkness.
But I wouldn't have.
I didn't know how to tell you, but I know that pain too. ~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn

My teacher, my great cello teacher Leonard Rose, was such a great cellist, and nurturing man, very patient. But I grew up not only admiring him, but obviously Casals, Rostrotovich, Jacqueline du Pre, and many others, including many of my peers and contemporaries. ~ Yo-Yo Ma

There are people who live their entire lives and never know this kind of love. ~ Kelly Braffet

Making art has first of all to do with honesty. My first lesson was to see objectively, to erase all meaning of the thing seen. Then only could the real meaning of it be understood and felt. ~ Ellsworth Kelly

If initiative is the ability to do the right thing, then efficiency is the ability to do the thing right. ~ Kelly Miller

Sometimes a friendship is more like a war. ~ Kelly Link

Please welcome Professor Varen Nethers, famous depressed dead poets historian and author of the bestselling books Unlocking your Poe-tential: A Writer's Guide, and Mo Poe Fo Yo: When You Just Can't Get Enough. ~ Kelly Creagh

We'll build our own world in the shape of us. ~ Kelly Moran

However, the good news was that smaller, more flawed diamonds could potentially yield exceptional brilliance if given just the right cut and polish - only at a lesser price, which often gave more people hope. It is thanks to these smaller, more imperfect diamonds that the vast majority with modest means could experience the elation of sporting the empress of gemstones. Smaller diamonds undoubtedly possessed this unique power in their numbers. ~ Chiara Kelly

President Kennedy said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. I would say that the converse is true. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

If the greatest danger one faces as a slave is displeasing one's masters, this is the second: pleasing them. ~ Jacqueline Carey

I wouldn't mind the early autumn if you came home today I'd tell you how much I miss you and know I'd be okay. It's funny how we never know exactly how our life will go It's funny how a dream can fade with the break of day. Time can't erase the memory and time can't bring you home Last Summer was a part of me and now a part is gone. - Margaret ~ Jacqueline Woodson

It's really important in any historical fiction, I think, to anchor the story in its time. And you do that by weaving in those details, by, believe it or not, by the plumbing. ~ Jacqueline Winspear

My mother has a gap between
her two front teeth. So does Daddy Gunnar.
Each child in this family has the same space
connecting us. ~ Jacqueline Woodson

I think the most attractive thing for me when I meet a guy is confidence and him being comfortable in his own skin. I like someone who doesn't need approval or validation. ~ Minka Kelly

If women were totally satisfied with their sexual and lovemaking experiences, women would welcome the lovemaking experience as much as men. ~ J.F. Kelly

I seek words of such surpassing beauty that they might melt the hardest heart of stone. ~ Jacqueline Carey

I have a shoe habit. If I'm in New York, it's a problem because I'm walking and I have access to more stores. In L.A., it's not as bad. ~ Kelly Rowan

Zane's hand began to tremble. "God," he said under his breath. "The first ship holds seventeen hundred men. We might be here awhile," Kelly warned. And ~ Abigail Roux

Come to me in the dark, bring me all of your scars. I want to know every crack in your heart, every ache, every memory that haunts you. I want to see the realness in your face, the way your eyes stay light even when you talk of pain, and the way your lips are uneven when you smile. The grooves carved into your soul have made you beautiful and I want to run my fingers across the etches. I know people cover wounds and disguise their damage, but this is what makes you, you, and I want to know you. I want to sink inside of you and feel your depth. Don't protect me from your story. We all have a story and I'm tired of drowning alone. ~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn

I think we so often equate leadership with being experts - the leader is supposed to come in and fix things. But in this interconnected world we live in now, it's almost impossible for just one person to do that. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

In about three seconds, I'm going to pick you up and carry you into your bedroom, strip your clothes from your body, and bury myself so deep inside of you." He leaned in toward her. "So deep, you're gonna scream. It's going to be fast and hard, and it will hurt, but when I start, there will be nothing - and I mean nothing - that will be able to stop me ... ~ Kelly Gendron

Why was the world so obsessed with sameness? ~ Tara Kelly

But it has perks -- personal pride, financial security, and the feeling of accomplishment and control that comes when you just swap in a new toilet paper roll rather than resorting to fast-food napkins. ~ Kelly Williams Brown

I didn't see a ton of movies growing up. ~ Kelly Preston