One Damn Thing After Another Quotes

ODTAA syndrome: the syndrome of One Damn Thing After Another. ~ Atul Gawande

Well, gentlemen, life's just one damn thing after another. ~ John Dustin Archbold

Most people's lives are cluttered up with things: material things, things to do, things to think about. Their lives are like the history of humanity, which Winston Churchill defined as "one damn thing after another." Their minds are filled up with the clutter of thoughts, one thought after another. ~ Eckhart Tolle

I was conscious of a passing pang for the oyster world, feeling
and I think correctly
that life for these unfortunate bivalves must be one damn thing after another. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

No wonder modern humanity, even as it loudly proclaims its freedom and power to choose, is really an impotent herd drive this way and that, paralyzed by the disconnectedness of it all. It's just one damn thing after another. ~ Stanley Hauerwas

It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it's one damn thing over and over. ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

It's just a thing. You deal with it."
"As in, one damn thing after another?"
"Yes, very like. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold

History is one damn thing after another. ~ H.A.L. Fisher

The problem with aging is not that it's one damn thing after another - it's every damn thing, all at once, all the time. ~ John Scalzi

Matthew once said to me, after one of my more finely worded rants about stupid people who have the wrong opinions, "Nadia, the thing that sucks is that every time we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is always on the other side of it." Damn. ~ Nadia Bolz-Weber

When you're right, you're right." "That's it?" He was suddenly furious with her and didn't care that it showed. Damn it, she had told him she loved him, and after a one-minute argument, she caved. What the hell kind of love was that? "That's all you have to say?" "No, actually there is one more thing I'd like to mention." "Yeah? What's that?" "You're an idiot. ~ Julie Garwood

A pen, you see, you hold it between your thumb and your index finger. No, wait, you hold it however you want. After that, it's not hard, you don't even think about it. Your hands don't exist anymore. The important thing happens elsewhere. No, this won't do, it's still too pretty. You're not being asked to come up with something pretty, you know. No one gives a damn about pretty. There are children's drawings and glossy magazines for that. So put on your mittens, little genius, little empty shell, yes, go on, put them on, I tell you, and maybe at last you'll see, you'll draw an almost perfect failed circle. ~ Anna Gavalda

Where do people get off saying the Beatles should give $200,000,000 to South America? You know, America has poured billions into places like that. It doesn't mean a damn thing. After they've eaten that meal, then what? It lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then what? It goes round and round in circles. You can pour money in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of our lives to one world concert tour, and I'm not ready for it. Not in this lifetime, anyway. ~ John Lennon

. . . [E]very single writer I met likened writing for television to one thing--laying track for an incoming speeding train. The story is the track and you gotta keep laying it down because of the train. That train is production. You keep writing, you keep laying track down, no matter what, because the train of production is coming toward you--no matter what. Every eight days, the crew needs to being to prepare a new episode--find locations, build sets, design costumes, find props, plan shots. And every eight days after that, the crew needs to film a new episode. Every eight days. Eight days to prep. Eight days to shoot. Eight days, eight days, eight days, eight days. Which means every eight days, that crew needs a brand-new script. And my job is to damn well provide them with one. Every. Eight. Days. That train of production is a'coming. Every eight days that crew on that soundstage better have something to shoot. Because the worst thing you can do is halt or derail production and cost the studio hundreds of thousands of dollars while everyone waits. That is how you go from being a TV writer to being a failed TV writer. ~ Shonda Rhimes

Are you sorry it happened?" Her fingers clenched as she waited tensely for his answer.
"Good Lord, no." He brought her small fist to his mouth and kissed it open, and flattened her palm against the side of his face. "It's what I've wanted most in my entire life. And the one thing I knew I could never have. I'm surprised. Shocked, even. But never sorry."
Daisy turned and snuggled against him, sandwiching one of his thighs between her own.
The rain beat out a brisk song against the side of the house, some of it coming through the window. Considering the idea of getting out of bed, Daisy shivered a little, and felt Matthew draw the covers higher over her bare shoulder.
"Daisy," he asked without heat, "where is the damn key?"
"I put it in your coat pocket," she said helpfully. "Didn't you see? No?…well, I suppose you were distracted at the time." She trailed her hand over his chest, letting her palm graze the point of his nipple. "You're probably angry with me for locking us in the bedroom."
"Enraged," he agreed. "I insist you do it every night after we're married."
"Are we going to get married?" Daisy whispered, raising her head.
His eyes were warm, but there was no hint of pleasure in his voice. "Yes, we're going to marry. Although you'll probably hate me for it someday."
"Why in the world would I…oh." Daisy remembered what he had told her about the likelihood of his past catching up to him someday. "I could never hate you," ~ Lisa Kleypas

Broken heart. A pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day. One fine day it gets bunged up and there you are ... Old rusty pumps: damn the thing else. The resurrection and the life. Once you are dead you are dead. ~ James Joyce

Do I need to ask if you had anything to do with what I'm not wearing?" She wouldn't freak out. She would remain calm, cool, collected. Oh shit, she didn't remember a damn thing about falling into bed.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Pepper, but I left you standing at the door. What you did after you closed it - in my face, I might add - is all on you." He reached for the cover, but she grabbed it and pulled it tight around her body. "But I'm flattered that you include me in your fantasies."

"Why has no one murdered you by now? Or at least taken a soap-filled sock to you?" That was a fun thought. Jaime on the floor, all tied-up and being flogged. "No, on second thought, murder is better. It's more permanent."

"My, but aren't you bloodthirsty in the morning." He leaned against the post at the foot of the bed, his eyes traveling her body, belying his stated disinterest. "Do you always sleep naked? Or just when you're drunk?"

"You got me drunk, you prick, while you were drinking water. You poured enough gin into me to fill a damn bathtub."

"You could have said no at any time."

"That's what your mother should have said the night you were conceived. ~ Mercy Celeste

E L James, Party Games

you're looking kind of smug
inserting that god damn anal plug
giving me your kinky love

after writing Fifty Shades
you're acting like some kind of renegade
giving me your kinky love

sit me on a dildo and spin me right around
chain me up and hang me upside down
giving me your kinky love

god damn you E L James
making me into some kind of party game
giving me your kinky love

put me in a dream
and wheel in the Fucking Machine
god damn you E L James

spank a hand on my bum
see how much I can cum
god damn you E L James

stand me up and sit me down
lay me out and roll me about
god damn you E L James

BDSM
electro impulses up my brainstem
god damn you E L James

cast me in a submissive role-play
with my genitals on display
god damn you E L James

suspend me high in the air
slap me around like I don't care
god damn you E L James

take that whip off the shelf
make me forget myself
god damn you E L James

Why are you wearing oven mittens?
branding iron your name written
inner goddess don't keep in hidden
god damn you E L James

holy crap
my mind has snapped
to forget one thing that I have heard
I'm never going to use the safe-word
god damn you E L ~ R.M. Romarney

She thought she loved him. What do you have in your pocket?"
He smiled, drew out the gray button that had fallen off her very ugly suit the first day they'd met.
"See?" She couldn't say why that stupid button moved her so damn much. "People in love keep things. Sentimental things."
"What do you have?"
She pulled the chain, and the tear-shaped diamond from under her shirt. "I wouldn't wear this for anybody but you. It's embarrassing. And - "
"Ah, something else."
"Shit. I'm tired. It makes me gabby. I have one of your shirts."
His brow creased in absolute bafflement. "My shirts?"
"In my drawer, under a bunch of stuff. You lent it to me the morning after our first night together. It still sort of smells like you."
For a moment, the worry on his face simply dissolved. "I believe that's the sweetest thing you've said to me in all our time together."
"Well, I owed you. Besides, you have enough shirts to outfit a Broadway troupe. So, help me toss the room?"
"Absolutely. ~ J.D. Robb

He pointed a clawed finger at me. "That one is mine."
"Sorry, I'm already taken." I swung the crossbow up and aimed it, earning a laugh from him. He bared his fangs at me.
"You took me by surprise the first time. Do you really think you can hit me in the heart with that thing before I get to –?" Trevor let out an earsplitting shriek and doubled over, clutching at the arrow protruding from his smoking crotch.
"I wasn't aiming for your heart." Jordan whistled. "Damn, girl, you do have an evil streak after all."
"If he can't walk, he can't attack. ~ Karen Lynch

I'm about to take a shower because I smell like an all-nighter, then I think I'll take a bath so I can have a faucet orgasm. After all, I didn't get any last night. A faucet orgasm is pretty much the same principle as a bidet orgasm except upside-down. When we were growing up we had bidets in all the bathrooms and when I was about ten I accidentally discovered one of the things they were good for. After that I used to spend hours on the damn thing. This dump we rent doesn't have a bidet so I have to get in the tub and slide up toward the front, running my legs up the wall on either side of the faucet. Turn on the warm water and smile. Actually, you've got to get the water temperature just right first or you could really be in for a nasty shock. I've made that mistake a few times. This time I get it just right and I come three times before I get around to actually taking a bath. ~ Jay McInerney

One of our meditators, after a program with us, came back and said, "After all this yoga, now I am able to understand what is my life, but I am unable to understand what is my wife." (Laughter). You cannot understand, you just have to include. If you make her a part of yourself, you somehow have a wonderful relationship. You do not have to understand every damn thing that the other person is. In fact, they will feel threatened if you understand everything. Isn't it? They will get scared. People are not looking for understanding, though they claim that they are looking for understanding. It is inclusiveness that you are seeking in a relationship. Nobody likes to be managed. But everybody longs to be included. Inclusion does not mean you have to go and hug everybody on the street. It is just the way you are, that is all. ~ Sadhguru

Jade, you're doing the exact same thing you did after the pool that night. Don't you know how to do this?"
"Do what?"
"Give a person a hug."
"I'm not much of a hugger."
"Well, you need one, so don't just stand there. Put your damn arms around me. ~ Allie Everhart

She is pissed off all the time," he mumbled and I remained silent, letting him ramble. "She wants chocolate ice cream, I go in search of chocolate, but the time I get back she's pissed because she wants strawberry instead. I can't win."
He looked me straight in the eyes and I swear his expression was one of desperation.
"It wasn't like this before. With Liam she was so sweet. But I swear the damn devil has possessed my wife and she might kill me in my sleep one night."

It was then I laughed.


"What the hell is so funny?" he asked. "I sleep with one eye open and one leg hanging off the bed touching the floor at my side. This way if I have to move fast I feel I'm one step closer."

He didn't smile. There was absolutely no humor in his words.

"Weren't you the one that said you wanted five kids?" I asked.

"I changed my mind. After this one, we're done. I want Trinity back."

Again, complete seriousness. Poor guy looked lost. And it was the best damn thing to witness. Within four months of having Liam, Trinity was pregnant again. And this time she was cranky as hell. Everyone noticed it, but she directed all that aggravation toward the man she said was to blame. And the rest of us loved to witness his hell.

"Go home, Chase," I told him and he looked as if he wanted to argue. "Stop at the store and pick up every flavor of ice cream they got," I told him. "Tell her she's beautiful and r ~ C.A. Harms

Okay, here are the rules," said Lu-Tze, walking straight past. "Word one is, you don't call me 'master' and I don't name you after some damn insect. It's not my job to discipline you, it's yours. For it is written: 'I can't be having with that kind of a thing.' Do what I tell you and we'll get along fine. All right? ~ Terry Pratchett

I've reached a point, where I no longer believe I am unworthy of greatness,
If the people I'm surrounded by; aren't Intune with my growth, I'm happy to let go,
If the job I'm working, isn't bringing out the best in me, I'm happy to find something that will.
If I complain about one thing, I must be grateful for 2 more.
if I can't always have everything I want, I'll make damn sure I have everything I need.
If life's Thunder hands me tears, I'll be sure to laugh through it.
If I lose some, I trust it's because i am about to win more.
If there is darkness, the light is almost in reach.
Every obstacle, is the gateway to concious living and every heartache is the gateway to the most empowered love you could feel. ~ Nikki Rowe

Because this, after all, was the basic truth they all chose to live by: that love was no finite commodity. That it was not subject to the cruel reckoning of addition and subtraction, that to give to one did not necessarily mean to take from another; that the heart, in its infinite capacity-even the confused and cheating heart of the man in front of her, even the paltry thing now clenched and faltering inside her own chest-could open itself to all who would enter, like a house with windows and doors thrown wide, like the heart of God itself, vast and accommodating and holy, a mansion of rooms without number, full of multitudes without end. ~ Brady Udall

He instituted this, er, Chair of Chronology to see if there was any particular reason why one thing happened after another and if there was any way of stopping it. Since the answers to the three questions were, I knew immediately, yes, no, and maybe, I realized I could then take the rest of my career off. ~ Douglas Adams

Men wore business suits and carried briefcases, while their wives, who were attractive but not sexy, stayed home, raised the kids, cleaned the house and had a meal on the table for the whole family when they arrived home. Both husband and wife knew their roles. The wife would only apply face cream after 'congress' was completed and the husband was asleep as it was considered that it could be shocking for a man to view his wife this way last thing at night. She would be compliant and forgiving if he suggested some of the more 'unusual' sexual practices, although she might register hesitancy by remaining silent.

The Hippies rebelled against this, growing their hair long, burning their draft cards, taking hallucinogenic drugs and indulging in 'free love,' which in reality was just another term to describe the notion that all the girls were up for it. ~ Karl Wiggins

There was nothing more powerful. Not one thing better to boost a Dom's ego than being a sub's everything. He'd asked her for everything, but this wasn't the same thing at all. In this case he was the need in a literal sense and damn, it was empowering. Scintillating. Dangerous because now that he'd got his first taste of it, he wanted more. ~ Riley Murphy

He drew away and stared down at her, stroking her cheek. I hope to hell this isn't one of those situations where you go a little crazy because we're in a bad situation and you don't think we're going to get out so you do stuff you'd never dream of otherwise. Because baby, when we get out of here, I'm going to spend two days doing nothing but make love to you. And it won't have a damn thing to do with anything but the fact that I want to be inside of you more than I want to breathe. ~ Maya Banks

The dark and the snow are too thick for him to see beyond the first trees. He's been in there before at this time, when the dark shuts down in early winter. But now he pays attention, he notices something about the bush that he thinks he has missed those other times. How tangled up in itself it is, how dense and secret. It's not a matter of one tree after another, it's all the trees together, aiding and abetting one another and weaving into one thing. A transformation, behind your back.
There's another name for the bush, and this name is stalking around in his mind, in and out of where he can almost grasp it. But not quite. It's a tall word that seems ominous but indifferent. ~ Alice Munro

From Caprock Rancher:
Another thing Pa taught me: If you're going to fight ... fight. Talk about it after. ~ Louis L'Amour

If you only write when you're inspired you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist because you're going to have to make your word count today and those words aren't going to wait for you whether you're inspired or not.
You have to write when you're not inspired. And you have to write the scenes that don't inspire you. And the weird thing is that six months later, a year later, you'll look back at them and you can't remember which scenes you wrote when you were inspired and which scenes you just wrote because they had to be written next.
The process of writing can be magical. ... Mostly it's a process of putting one word after another. ~ Neil Gaiman

I think about my education sometimes. I went to the University of Chicago for awhile after the Second World War. I was a student in the Department of Anthropology. At that time they were teaching that there was absolutely no difference between anybody.

They may be teaching that still.

Another thing they taught was that no one was ridiculous or bad or disgusting. Shortly before my father died, he said to me, 'You know – you never wrote a story with a villain in it.'

I told him that was one of the things I learned in college after the war. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Sorry about the question thing," Butch said to the black robes. "But I just... I'm glad I know what's in my veins. And honestly, if I die today, I'm grateful I finally know what I am." He took Marissa's hand. "And who I love. If this is where my life took me after all those years of being lost, I'd say my time here wasn't wasted."
There was a long silence. Then the Scribe Virgin said, "Do you regret that you leave behind your human family?"
"Nope. This is my family. Here with me now and elsewhere in the compound. Why would I need anything else?" The cursing in the room told him he'd thrown another question out there. "Yeah.. ah, sorry-"
A soft feminine laugh came from under the robes. "You are rather fearless,human."
"Or you could call it stupid." As Wrath's mouth fell open, Butch rubbed his face. "You know, I'm trying here. I really am. You know, to be respectful."
"Your hand, human."
He offered his left, the one that was free.
"Palm up," Wrath barked.
He flipped his hand over.
"Tell me, human," the Scribe Virgin said, "if I asked for the one you hold this female with, would you offer it to me?"
"Yeah. I'd just reach over to her with the other guy." As that little laugh came again, he said, "You know, you sound like birds when you do that chuckle thing. It's nice."
Over to the left, Vishous put his head in his hands.
There was a long silence.
Butch took a deep breath. "Guess I'm not allowed to say that. ~ J.R. Ward

If what you seek is freedom, the only person who can teach you anything, the only person who can help you is someone who's already done it, who knows the way. No one else can do a damn thing for you but slow you down. ~ Frederick Lenz

By the next war, the message will have got through.
There will never be another war.
There will always be wars.
Men couldn't be so stupid, John! After all this? Isn't the only real purpose of our being here to teach them that lesson - how bloody useless and pointless the whole thing is?
Men are naturally stupid and they do not learn from experience. ~ Susan Hill

I'd better go," he said, without leaving.
That one eye, the blue one, just kept staring up at him. Bloodshot, with a cut across the brow above it, the thing shouldn't have been able to focus. But it was.
"I have to go," Blay said finally.
Without leaving.
Damn him, he didn't know what the hell he was doing
A tear escaped from that eye. Welling up along the lower lid, it coalesced at the far corner, formed a crystal circle, and grew so fat it couldn't hold on to the lashes. Slipping free, it meandered downward, getting lost in dark hair at the temple. ~ J.R. Ward

That's what art is, he said, the story of a life in all its particularity. It's the only thing that really is particular and personal. It's the expression and, at the same time, the fabric of the particular. And what do you mean by the fabric of the particular? I asked, supposing he would answer: Art. I was also thinking, indulgently, that we were pretty drunk already and that it was time to go home. But my friend said: What I mean is the secret story ... The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every damn thing matters! It's just that we don't realize. We tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, we don't even realize that's a lie. ~ Roberto Bolano

Steady there," he whispered, his lips brushing past my ear as he eased up behind me. His hands settled on my hips, fingers toying with the hem of my shirt. "Focus, Duffy. Are you focusing?"
He was trying to distract me. And shit, it was working.
I jerked away from him, trying to thrust the back of my pool stick into his gut. But of course he dodged, and I succeeded only in knocking the cue ball in the opposite direction of what I'd intended, sending it right into one of the corner pockets.
"Scratch," Wesley announced.
"Damn it!" I whirled around to face him. "That shouldn't count!"
"But it does." He took the white ball out of the hole and placed it carefully at the end of the table. "All's fair in love and pool."
"War," I corrected.
"Same thing." He eased the stick back, staring straight ahead, before shooting it forward again. Half a second later, the eight ball sailed into a pocket. The winning shot.
"Asshole," I hissed.
"Don't be a sore loser," he said, leaning his stick against the wall. "What did you really expect? I'm obviously amazing at everything." He grinned. "But, hey, you can't hold it against me, right? We can't help the way God makes us. ~ Kody Keplinger

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

There was a long period during which nearly every thinking man was in some sense a rebel. Literature was largely the literature of revolt or of disintegration. Gibbon, Voltaire, Rousseau, Shelley, Byron, Dickens, Stendhal, Samuel Butler, Ibsen, Zola, Flaubert, Shaw, Joyce - in one way or another they are all of them destroyers, wreckers, saboteurs. For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had forseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake. The thing at the bottom had not been a bed of roses after all, it was a cesspool full of barbed wire. ~ George Orwell