The Twins Quotes

Everything I was, everything I did, everything I am, was forged from the twins of their action and inaction. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Later, at the sink in our van, Mama rinsed the blue stain and the odd spiders, caterpillars, and stems from the bucket.
"Not what we usually start with, but we can go again tomorrow. And this will set up nicely in about six, eight jars."
The berries were beginning to simmer in the big pot on the back burner. Mama pushed her dark wooden spoon into the foaming berries and cicrcled the wall of the pot slowly.
I leaned my hot arms on the table and said, "Iphy better not go tomorrow. She got tired today." I was smelling the berries and Mamaa's sweat, and watching the flex of the blue veins behind her knees.
"Does them good. The twins always loved picking berries, even more than eating them. Though Elly likes her jam."
"Elly doesn't like anything anymore."
The knees stiffened and I looked up. The spoon was motionless. Mama stared at the pot.
"Mama, Elly isn't there anymore. Iphy's changed. Everything's changed. This whole berry business, cooking big meals that nobody comes for, birthday cakes for Arty. It's dumb, Mama. Stop pretending. There isn't any family anymore, Mama."
Then she cracked me with the big spoon. It smacked wet and hard across my ear, and the purple-black juice spayed across the table. She started at me, terrified, her mouth and eyes gaping with fear. I stared gaping at her. I broke and ran.
I went to the generator truck and climbed up to sit by Grandpa. That's the only time Mama ever hit me and I knew I deserve ~ Katherine Dunn

Though the white man is a kind of Satan, and though the black man is Satan for selling his own children into bondage and assassinating the image of his own mother, because he himself wants to be white'I can assure you that Africa has known no greater Satan than the twins, Arab and Islam. ~ Kola Boof

Mind is a forerunner of all actions.
All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.
If one speaks or acts with corrupt mind,
suffering follows,
As the wheel follows the hoof of an ox pulling a cart.

Mind is the forerunner of all actions.
All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.
If one speaks or acts with a serene mind,
happiness follows,
As surely as one's shadow.

'He abused me, he mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.'
Harboring such thoughts keeps hatred alive.

'He abused me, he mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.'
Releasing such thoughts banishes hatred for all time.

Animosity does not eradicate animosity.
Only by loving kindness is animosity dissolved.
This law is ancient and eternal. ~ Dhammapada

The guys in the Twins understand that the better Weezer does, the more people will probably care about us. ~ Brian Bell

- I've missed your company these long days. -
What are you even doing here? You stayed away so long, I thought you weren't coming.
- You missed me, and now are piqued. Know that I was obtaining something that guarantees my success with you. -
More coercion?
- A gift for you. That's why I've allowed the mortal leeway and refrained from a slaying. Because you're about to be mine. -
His confidence unsettled me. Good to know you were worried about your wife alone out on the road. You let me make the journey by myself. And face the twins! Though you knew how much they would hate me.
- I felt confident that you and six other Arcana, one of the largest alliances yet, could take out a pair of insignificant carnates. To guard you on your way, I bade Lark to dispatch the wolf. - ~ Kresley Cole

I had chosen the fifteenth day of July, the day that Roman Knights go out crowned with olive wreaths to honor the Twins in a magnificent horseback procession:from the Temple of Mars they ride through the main streets of the City, circling back to the Temple of the Twins, where they offer sacrifices. The ceremony is a commemoration of the battle of Lake Regillus which was fought on that day over three hundred years ago. Castor and Pollux came riding in person to the help of a Roman army that was making a desperate stand on the lake-shore against a superior force of Latins; and ever since then they have been adopted as the particular patrons of the knights. ~ Robert Graves

I was much distressed by next door people who had twin babies and played the violin; but one of the twins died, and the other has eaten the fiddle, so all is peace. ~ Edward Lear

When he finished up with the Twins and even after he was done, he was always down on the field, so I had a chance to talk to him every time we came into town. Even my first couple of years - when I was still wet behind the ears - he was more than willing to come over and say, 'Hi.' Obviously, he didn't have to introduce himself, but he spent a little time and asked me how I was doing. And it always meant a lot. Anytime you have somebody of that stature on and off the field to take time and be willing to come talk to you, it means a lot. ~ Tony Clark

Duchess was barking her head off as she raced after a snarling, hissing, yowling white ball of Maleficent. Aphrodite was chasing after the dog, screaming for her to 'Come! Stay. Be good, damnit!' Damien was close behind her, flailing his arms and yelling 'Duchess! Come!' All of a sudden the Twins' cat, the huge and very stuck-up Beelzebub joined in the chase, only he was tearing around after Duchess.
'Ohmygod! Beelzebub! Honey!' Shaunee ran into my view, yelling at the top of her very healthy lungs.
'Beelzebub! Duchess! Stop!' Erin wailed, right behind her twin.
Darius suddenly burst out into the hallway, and I stepped back behind the curtains, not sure is my shrouding could be detected by him. Apparently he didn't notice me, or anything else, because he ran into the Council Room. I peeked through the drapes and could hear him telling Neferet that she was needed on the school grounds-that there was an 'altercation.' Then Neferet was hurrying out of the room and down the hall, following Darius into the dog-barking, cat-yowling, kid-screaming craziness.
I noticed that through all of it I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Jack.
Talk about an excellent diversion! ~ Kristin Cast

Annabelle gnawed her bottom lip. "I know I have to tell him the truth. I just need to find the right moment."

Krystal cocked her hip. "Girl, there is no right moment to die."

Charmaine clucked her tongue. "You are going straight on the top of my prayer list."

Only Phoebe looked pleased, and her amber eyes glowed like a cat's. "I love this. Not the fact that you'll end up in a shallow grave – I'm really sorry about that, and I'll make sure he's prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But I love knowing that a mere slip of a female put one over on the great Python."

Molly glared at her sister. "This is the exact reason why Christine Jeffreys won't let her daughters have a sleepover with the twins. You frighten people. ~ Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The Twins stood on their tower
as the slaughter began below
and the knuckles bouncing wild
to their delight, now turned sudden
sudden and sour and this game
they played – the mortals bleeding
and crying in the dark – they saw
it turn and the game they played
tossed to a new wind, a gale
not their own – and so the Twins
were played, oh how they were
played.

Slayer's Moon
Vatan Urot ~ Steven Erikson

Once, in Thessaly, there was a poet called Simonides. He was commissioned to appear at a banquet, given by a man called Scopas, and recite a lyric in praise of his host. Poets have strange vagaries, and in his lyric Simonides incorporated verses in praise of Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins. Scopas was sulky, and said he would pay only half the fee: 'As for the rest, get it from the Twins.' A little later, a servant came into the hall. He whispered to Simonides; there were two young men outside, asking for him by name. He rose and left the banqueting hall. He looked around for the two young men, but he could see no one. As he turned back, to go and finish his dinner, he heard a terrible noise, of stone splitting and crumbling. He heard the cries of the dying, as the roof of the hall collapsed. Of all the diners, he was the only one left alive. The bodies were so broken and disfigured that the relatives of the dead could not identify them. But Simonides was a remarkable man. Whatever he saw was imprinted on his mind. He led each of the relatives through the ruins; and pointing to the crushed remains, he said, there is your man. In linking the dead to their names, he worked from the seating plan in his head.
It is Cicero who tells us this story. He tells us how, on that day, Simonides invented the art of memory. He remembered the names, the faces, some sour and bloated, some blithe, some bored. He remembered exactly where everyone was sitting, at the moment the roof f ~ Hilary Mantel

The next morning, when the Otis family met at breakfast, they discussed the ghost at some length. The United States Minister was naturally a little annoyed to find that his present had not been accepted. "I have no wish," he said, "to do the ghost any personal injury, and I must say that, considering the length of time he has been in the house, I don't think it is at all polite to throw pillows at him" - a very just remark, at which, I am sorry to say, the twins burst into shouts of laughter. "Upon the other hand," he continued, "if he really declines to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall have to take his chains from him. It would be quite impossible to sleep, with such a noise going on outside the bedrooms. ~ Oscar Wilde

That is a beautiful tuxedo," Phury announced as he and Z pushed the door wide. "I have one just like it ."
"Fritz has the candles lit," Rehv said from behind the twins. "Hey, nice tux. I haveone just like it."
"Me, too," Phury agreed. "The fit is fantastic, isn't it."
"The shoulders, right? Tom Ford is the best - ~ J.R. Ward

I took the stairs two at a time, excited to have company today. When I opened the door I gasped and stood there in shock a moment before saying, "Patti, it's awesome!"

She had decorated with my school colors. Royal blue and gold streamers crisscrossed the ceiling, and balloons were everywhere. I heard her and the twins come up behind me, Patti giggling and Marna oohing. I was about to hug Patti, when a movement on the other side of the room caught my eye through the dangling balloon ribbons. I cursed my stupid body whose first reaction was to scream.

Midshriek, I realized it was my dad, but my startled system couldn't stop its initial reaction. A chain reaction started as Patti, then both the twins screamed, too.

Dad parted the balloons and slunk forward, chuckling. We all shut up and caught our breaths.

"Do you give all your guests such a warm welcome?"

Patti's hand was on her heart. "Geez, John! A little warning next time?"

"I bet you're wishing you'd never given me that key," Dad said to Patti with his most charming, frightening grin. He stared at her long enough to make her face redden and her aura sputter.

She rolled her eyes and went past him to the kitchen. "We're about to grill," she said without looking up from the food prep. "You're welcome to stay." Her aura was a strange blend of yellow and light gray annoyance.

"Can't stay long. Just wanted to see my little girl on her graduat ~ Wendy Higgins

Hey, nit squat! These are written by norms to scare norms. And do you know what the monsters and demons and rancid spirits are? Us, that's what. You and me. We are the things that come to the norms in nightmares. The thing that lurks in the bell tower and bites out the throats of the choirboys - that's you, Oly. And the thing in the closet that makes the babies scream in the dark before it sucks their last breath - that's me. And the rustling in the brush and the strange piping cries that chill the spine on a deserted road at twilight - that's the twins singing practice scales while they look for berries. ~ Katherine Dunn

The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two. Let us pretend to lie here among the sugar-cane and watch them as they steal by in single file, each with his hand on his dagger. ~ J.M. Barrie

When the twins asked what cuff-links were for - "To link cuffs together," Ammu told them - they were thrilled by this morsel of logic in what had so far seemed an illogical language. Cuff+link = cuff-link. This, to them, rivaled the precision of logic and mathematics. Cuff-links gave them an inordinate (if exaggerated) satisfaction, and a real affection for the English language. ~ Arundhati Roy

Do a lot of internet groups meet up at conventions?"

"Sure."

"How about your Starfield peeps? The online ones you talk to?"

"Oh - well, yeah. A few of them are here." We break apart for a moment as an elf with a scythe squeezes between us. "Anyway, we should get to the costume contest area and sign in, what do you say? And try not to run into the twins."

"If we do I'll shove them in a closet," Sage mutters.

I laugh. "Ready to kick some Nox butt?"

She scoffs. "Elle, I'm ready to tell them to get down on both knees and call you Queen."

"I thought you were going somewhere completely different with that."

"Eh, this is a PG sort of moment."

"Fair enough. ~ Ashley Poston

It's not you it's me' she couldn't use that line. Even though it really was her and not him, everyone thought that line really meant, 'it's not me. It's definitely you.'
There was still a part of her that thought perhaps she shouldn't do it at all. In Andrew she had all the raw ingredients for a perfect life. Here was a grown-up, good-looking, solvent, generous, warm-hearted man who adored her. A man who adored her even when she looked like the loch ness monsters little sister and had a terrible temper to match.
It didn't take a huge leap of imagination to see Andrew standing at the top of the aisle, looking back at lou walking towards him with a grin as wide as the English channel. She could see him painting the nursery yellow; pushing a pram that contained two lovely brown haired twins (one boy, one girl); presenting her woth an eternity ring on their tenth anniversary, taking the twins to school, teaching them how to play football on long, summer holidays in Tuscany, giving the daughter away at her own wedding, cosying up to Lou on the veranda of their perfect house as their retirement stretched ahead of them- a long straight road of well-planned for, financially comfortable and perpetually sunny days.
'oh god' Lou poured herself a vodka. ~ Chris Manby

And b-t-w, if anyone asks you what's in the box, I'd say 'feminine supplies.'"
The box was large and heavy, and there was a distinct clanging sound as I carried it. "As in tampons?"
"Keely's not going to ask questions. Ali's busy with the twins, and everyone else around here is male. Tampons scare the bejeezus out of them, my dad included, but if the person who asks is a Were, they'd smell a lie. Hence, feminine supplies."
"Because we're females, and they're our supplies?" I guessed.
"No. Because weapons are feminine." Lake gave me an insulted look. "Why do you think I named my gun Matilda? ~ Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Check it out-this is a copy of a painting of a Greek High Priestess named Calliope. it says she was also the Poet Laureate after Sappho. Doesn't she look exactly like Cher?'
Wow, that's insane. She does look just like young Cher,' Erin said.
Yeah, before she started wearing those white wigs. What the hell's up with that?' Shaunee said.
Damien gave the Twins a look. 'There is nothing wrong with Cher. Absolutely. Nothing.'
Uh-oh,' Shaunee said.
Stepped on a gay nerve,' Erin agreed. ~ P.C. Cast

You been forgetting Who's in charge and who ain't. So here's what I'm gone do: I'm gone send a storm so big it rips the roof off the shed where you keep that mule you so proud of. Then I'm gone send hail big as walnuts down on that mule, making it break its leg trying to bust out of there. Then, just so you know for sure it's Me you dealing with, the next morning after you put that mule down and buried it and you up on the ladder trying to nail the roof back onto the shed I'm gone to let that weak top rung, the one you ain't got around to fixing yet, I'm gone let it rot all the way through so you fall off and break your own leg, and I'm gone to send Florence and Lilly Mae to a birthing and the twins out to the far end of the field so you laying there half the day. That'll give you time to think real hard on what I been trying to tell you. ~ Hillary Jordan

Okay, more disclosure. I'm not a fugitive at the moment, but I might become one. I don't know if I'm going back for a trial. I can't go to prison and leave the twins alone. We'll leave before it comes to that. I don't want to get you in trouble."
Hilda waved off the words. "I'm an old woman. They ain't gonna take me out of here in shackles. I've seen most of the local officers run around in diapers."
Luanne was pretty sure that didn't mean immunity. She'd seen Chase naked, and that hadn't stopped him from arresting her. She didn't tell that to Aunt Hilda. ~ Dana Marton

And how will you afford to buy them in the first place?"

"I shall save up."

"But that will take you years and years and years," said the twins.

"I've got years and years and years," said Sophie. ~ Dick King-Smith

And me all the while having to pee - coughing into the mike when my throat was tired and raw - eyes stinging and lips and chin crumpling in grief at his anger. The sweet tinkle of Electra on the bass and Iphy on the treble with Mama's voice counting, "One and two and ... " as the twins had their piano lesson inside the trailer. The gurgle and hum of the pumps that filtered my brother Arty's "Aqua Boy" tank. And the dim round moon of baby Fortunato's face peering at me from the dark of the risers above Papa. ~ Katherine Dunn

The moment the game (AL Pennant versus the Twins) was over I sprinted for the dugout. The fans were pouring onto the field. If they'd caught me they'd have torn my uniform into shreds for souvenirs. ~ Carl Yastrzemski

Foes and false friends are all around me, Lord Davos. They infest my city like roaches, and at night I feel them crawling over me." The fat man's fingers coiled into a fist, and all his chins trembled. "My son Wendel came to the Twins a guest. He ate Lord Walder's bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast with his friends. And they murdered him. Murdered, I say, and may the Freys choke upon their fables. I drink with Jared, jape with Symond, promise Rhaegar the hand of my own beloved granddaughter ... but never think that means I have forgotten. The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer's farce is almost done. My son is home. ~ George R R Martin

They're Twin-like," Shaunee said.
"Hilarious," Erin agreed.
"Shut up!" Aphrodite and Stevie Rae said together, which made the Twins convulse into laughter. ~ P.C. Cast

I wasn't in any type of way trying to neglect my son, it's just every day that I woke up, I was hit with the constant reminder that I no longer had the twins here with me. ~ Diamond Johnson

What interests me, ... is why people are so repelled when, after all, everyone started life attached. In a sense, the twins have never been born because they are still tied by an umbilical cord. Relationships between women - daughters, mothers, friends - are one of my strong interests. ~ Judith Perelman Rossner

A girl is never born alone. From birth she is accompanied by two invisible twin sisters named Lajja and Sharm. Lajja is the older of the twins, split seconds ahead. She whispers warnings, advises modesty, advocates caution. Sharm is the nasty number, the tattletale, the teaser, the guilt-tripper. ~ Manjul Bajaj

Alex and Conner looked up and saw a large city-limits sign above them. The sign read:

BIG CITY, USA
POPULATION 7,654,321

Once the handwritten words finished constructing the new dimension, the twins saw that the highway led to an enormous city a couple of miles in the distance. It had the tallest and leanest skyscrapers Alex had ever seen; the skyline looked more lie a bundle of pencils and pens than a row of buildings.
"Big City, USA?" Alex asked. "You couldn't come up with anything more original than that?"
"It was supposed to be a placeholder until I came up with a better name, but Big City, USA, grew on me," Conner said. ~ Chris Colfer

Lady Helen, who had been accompanied by her husband, Mr. Rhys Winterborne, was far more reserved than the twins. Instead of Pandora's raw and radiant energy, or Cassandra's effervescent charm, she possessed a quality of sweet, patient gravity. With her silver-blonde hair and willowy slenderness, Helen seemed as ethereal as a figure form from a painting by Bougereau. ~ Lisa Kleypas

When I learned the news about Harmon today, I felt like I lost a family member. He has treated me like one of his own. It's hard to put into words what Harmon has meant to me. He first welcomed me into the Twins family as an 18-year-old kid and has continued to influence my life in many ways. He is someone I will never forget and will always treasure the time we spent together. Harmon will be missed but never forgotten. ~ Joe Mauer

Signs and wonders, eh? Pity if there is nothing wonderful in signs, and significant in wonders! There's a clue somewhere; wait a bit; hist--hark! By Jove, I have it! Look, you Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter; and now I'll read it off, straight out of the book. Come, Almanack! To begin: there's Aries, or the Ram--lecherous dog, he begets us; then, Taurus, or the Bull--he bumps us the first thing; then Gemini, or the Twins--that is, Virtue and Vice; we try to reach Virtue, when lo! comes Cancer the Crab, and drags us back; and here, going from Virtue, Leo, a roaring Lion, lies in the path--he gives a few fierce bites and surly dabs with his paw; we escape, and hail Virgo, the Virgin! that's our first love; we marry and think to be happy for aye, when pop comes Libra, or Scales--happiness weighed and found wanting; and while we are very sad about that, Lord! how we suddenly jump, as Scorpio, or the Scorpion, stings us in rear; we are curing the wound, when whang comes the arrows all round; Sagittarius, or the Archer, is amusing himself. As we pluck out the shafts, stand aside! here's the battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat; full tilt, he comes rushing and headlong we are tossed; when Aquarius, or the the Waterbearer, pours out his whole deluge and drowns us; and, to wind up, with Pisces, or the Fishes, we sleep. There's a sermon now, writ in high heaven, and the sun goes through it every year, and yet comes out of it all alive and hearty. ~ Herman Melville

Why do old houses creak so much?" he asked idly, playing with her braid and drawing the silky end across her cheek.
"When all the warmth fades at night, it makes the old boards contract and slip against each other."
"A bloody massive house, it is. And you were left to your own devices in this place for too long. I didn't understand before, how alone you were."
"I had the twins for company. I watched over them."
"But there was no one to watch over you."
A sense of uneasiness came over her, as it always did whenever she reflected on her childhood. It had seemed as if her very survival had depended on never complaining or drawing attention to herself. "Oh I- I didn't need that."
"All little girls need to feel safe and wanted. ~ Lisa Kleypas

He greeted the twins like they were all from the same hood in Compton and gave Dex and me the head nod. ~ Karina Halle

The thing about having friends who are as close as blood, as true as your own heart, as the twins had been to her, is you don't bother much with other people. And if you have the misfortune to get left behind, well, you've made yourself a lonely nest to live in. ~ Laini Taylor

The holy one reveals,​
The demon child conceals.
By the twins, the soul temple's key be obtained
To unlock the way to the land untamed.
Goddess of dark and soulless night,
Open the gate as Lunella loses sight.
Life of the loved one, key to the dark,
Eternal darkness, universal war.
Loved one's life for the gate to Sheol.
Complete the cycle for the savior of old.​ ~ Rishab Borah

You've just got to keep playing hard. You have to remember that you are not just playing for the Twins. There are other teams out there. If anybody needs a shortstop they are going to come knocking on the door. So, you just have to be ready at all times. ~ Jason Bartlett

Matt pointed at Fen, "Fen's a descendant of Loki, trickster and troublemaker. Laurie is, too."
Laurie smiled at Baldwin.
Then Matt gestured at the twins. "They're Frey and Freya. She was a goddess of love and beauty, he was weather and fertility. And I'm, uh, a descendant of Thor. I'll ... umm ... fight the Midgard Serpent."
"Thor smash," Reyna interjected.
"That's the Hulk, not Thor," Matt started to explain.
"Whatever," Reyna muttered. ~ K.L. Armstrong

I love the Twins, ... I bleed the Twins. That's all I know. If I go anywhere else, I'd be a foreigner. ~ Torii Hunter

The twins hobbled forward. "Freaks and dames and boys and things, drinks and bones and shiny rings," said the twin on the left.
"Ashes and earth will imprison the frail, blood of love will lift the veil," said the other. ~ J.A. Redmerski

I do not dance,' said Jean-Claude, who had forsworn that exercise for much the same reasons as Miss Stevenson.

But here he spoke too soon, for Lady Dorothy Bingham, merciless to what she called 'ballroom skulkers', saw him standing about, ordered John to introduce him to her, and became his patroness.

Not till he had miserably danced twice with her and once with each of the twins did he have the brilliant idea of introducing her to his mother. The master minds met, and recognised each other, and for the greater part of the evening they discussed the care and subjugation of a family... ~ Angela Thirkell

As we go forward in attempting to control bump drafting in those areas, there's going to be some very subjective calls being made. That's the reason we'd like to get this under way as quickly as possible ... Hopefully we don't have to make a call. But if we do make a call in the twins, it wouldn't be quite as painful as having to make it in the Daytona 500. ~ John Nelson Darby

I was about to admit to the twins how much braver they were than me, when Gabe cut in quietly. "You never talk about your mom." The twins watched me try to form a response. "It's because I miss her. So every time I talk about her, I get sad." As Gabe took my hand, Gracie stood, sending the last bits of funnel cake scattering onto the ground. "We're your family now. ~ Jenn Marie Thorne

I am truly honored because I know, obviously, what Bob meant to the Twins. I always told myself, when I put a uniform on for the first time in 1998, that I'm going to give everything I have. ~ Mike Redmond

It's always an honor to work with the Twins Community Fund and be a part of all the good that they do. They help people in so many ways. To be part of not only a baseball team, but being a part of something where you're helping people who need help, that's what life is all about really. ~ Ron Gardenhire

There are things I need to ask her. Not what happened, back then in the time I lost, because now I know that. I need to ask her why.
If she remembers. Perhaps she's forgotten the bad things, what she said to me, what she did. Or she does remember them, but in a minor way, as if remembering a game, or a single prank, a single trivial secret, of the kind girls tell and then forget.
She will have her own version. I am not the centre of her story, because she herself is that. But I could give her something you can never have, except from another person: what you look like from outside. A reflection. This is part of herself I could give back to her.
We are like the twins in old fables, each of whom has been given half a key. ~ Margaret Atwood

I'm trained as an architect; writing is like architecture. In buildings, there are design motifs that occur again and again, that repeat
patterns, curves. These motifs help us feel comfortable in a physical space. And the same works in writing, I've found. For me, the way words, punctuation and paragraphs fall on the page is important as well
the graphic design of the language. That was why the words and thoughts of Estha and Rahel, the twins, were so playful on the page ... I was being creative with their design. Words were broken apart, and then sometimes fused together. "Later" became "Lay. Ter." "An owl" became "A Nowl." "Sour metal smell" became "sourmetal smell."
Repetition I love, and used because it made me feel safe. Repeated words and phrases have a rocking feeling, like a lullaby. They help take away the shock of the plot
death, lives destroyed or the horror of the settings
a crazy, chaotic, emotional house, the sinister movie theater. ~ Arundhati Roy

The twins were loitering over their cereal, and Mrs. Walpole, with one eye on the clock and the other on the kitchen window past which the school bus would come in a matter of minutes, felt the unreasonable irritation that comes with being late on a school morning, the wading-through-molasses feeling of trying to hurry children. ~ Shirley Jackson

For example, when Seymour told one of the twins or Zooey or Franny or even Mme. Boo Boo (who was only two years younger than myself, and often entirely the Lady), to take off his or her galoshes on coming into the apartment, each and all of them knew he mostly meant that the floor would get tracked up if they didn't and that Bessie would have to get out the mop. When I told them to take off their galoshes, they knew I mostly meant that people who didn't were slobs. It was bound to make no small difference in the way they kidded or ragged us separately. ~ J.D. Salinger

One of the things that fascinated people about the twins, and one of the first things that comes to people's minds when they see Siamese Twins is: well, how do you have sex? ~ Erin Davie

Glancing around the entrance hall, she realized the crate was no longer in the corner. The twins must have raced downstairs the moment it had been mentioned. Clutching it on either side, they lugged it furtively toward the receiving room.
"Girls," Kathleen said sharply, "bring that back here at once!"
But it was too late. The receiving room's double doors closed, accompanied by the click of a key turning in the lock. Kathleen stopped short, her jaw slackening.
West and Helen staggered together, overcome with hilarity.
"I'll have you know," Mrs. Church said in amazement, "it took our two stoutest footmen to bring that crate into the house. How did two young ladies manage to carry it away so quickly?"
"Sh-sheer determination," Helen wheezed.
"All I want in this life," West told Kathleen, "is to see you try to pry that crate away from those two."
"I wouldn't dare," she replied, giving up. "They would do me bodily harm. ~ Lisa Kleypas

one of the twins went for a long trip in a spaceship at nearly the speed of light. When he returned, he would be much younger than the one who stayed on earth. This is known as the twins paradox, but it is a paradox only if one has the idea of absolute time at the back of one's mind. In the theory of relativity there is no unique absolute time, but instead each individual has his own personal measure of time that depends on where he is and how he is moving. ~ Stephen Hawking

Tom said, "Let me beg you never to tell that story to Will. He'd have you locked up." "But the house wasn't worth what I asked!" "I repeat what I said about Will. What's Adam want with your house?" "He's going to move there. Wants the twins to go to school in Salinas." "What'll ~ John Steinbeck

Jeems was their body servant and, like the dogs, accompanied them everywhere. He had been their childhood playmate and had been given to the twins for their own on their tenth birthday. ~ Margaret Mitchell

You" or "Your" never meant one of us. When we replied to a question, no one cared which of us had spoken; an answer from one was an answer for The Twins. ~ Abraham Verghese

Now, anyway, we knew who was which blood type.
In addition to the beating he'd received from Chloe, Max was also starting to blister up (type A). The McKinley twins were hiding from us - they clearly had the paranoia (type AB). Ulysses was chattering to himself in Spanish, a rapid-fire monologue that made me pretty sure he had the paranoia type - type AB - as well as the twins.
Batiste had type B, the blood type that exhibited no symptoms, as did Alex, Jake, and Sahalia (sterility and reproductive failure - hooray!).
"We have to get them clean," Brayden said.
"You think?" I sort of shouted at him (type O). ~ Emmy Laybourne

I wonder, for example, if the twins' piano training had given them the Tomaini brand of dexterity with hand jobs? Could a non-musician learn it? Could I?

Children stumble through these most critical acts with no real help from the elders who are so anxious to teach them everything else. We were given rules and taboos for the toilet, the sneeze, the eating of an artichoke. Papa taught us all a particular brush stroke for cleaning our teeth, a special angle for the pen in our hand, the exact words for greeting elders, with fine-tuned distinctions for male, female, show folk, customers, or tradesmen. The twins and Arty were taught to design an act, whether it lasted three minutes or thirty, to tease, coax, and startle a crowd, to build to crescendo and then disappear in the instant of climax. From what I have come to understand of life, this show skill, this talk-'em, sock-'em, knock-'em-flat information, is as close as we got to that ultimate mystery. I throw death aside. Death is not mysterious. We all understand death far too well and spend chunks of life resisting, ignoring, or explaining away that knowledge.

But this real mystery I have never touched, never scratched. I've seen the tigers with their jaws wide, their fangs buried in each other's throats, and their shadowed hides sizzling, tip to tip. I've seen the young norms tangled and gasping in the shadows between booths. I suspect that, even if I had begun as a norm, the saw-toothed yearning that w ~ Katherine Dunn

She had not been conferred with a practical sense of how one went about this strange and all inverted business of being a girl, where seemingly natural stuff like going on about all the great things you just learned about Siberian tigers on National Geographic was suddenly weird, but totally weird stuff in and of itself like drawing around your eyeball with a pencil became normal, and it impressed to no end that it was a product of meticulous effort that made the twins seem so perfectly and effortlessly feminine. ~ Brian McGreevy

Well, I don't know about you girls," Patti called out, "but I'm starving. You wanna help me throw everything together before I go check on the chicken?"

The twins shared uncertain expressions.

"Sure, we'll help," I answered for them. "What do you need us to do?"

"All right, how about you and Marna make the salad, and Ginger can help me bake this cake."

Their eyes filled with horror.

"You mean like chopping things?" Marna whispered.

"Yeah. It's not hard. We'll do it together." At my prompting they stood but made no move toward the kitchen with me.

"I'm not sure you ought to trust me with a knife," Marna said.

"Or me with baked goods," Ginger added. I'd never seen her so unsure of herself. If it were just me making the request, she'd tell me to go screw myself, but neither girl seemed to know how to act around Patti. They fidgeted and glanced at the kitchen.

Patti came over and took Ginger by the arm.

"You'll both be fine," Patti insisted. "It'll be fun!"

The seriousness of the twins in the kitchen was comical. They took each step of their jobs with slow, attentive detail, checking and double-checking the measurements while Patti ran out to flip the chicken. Somewhere halfway through, the girls loosened up and we started chatting. Patti put Ginger at ease in a way I'd never seen her. At one point we were all laughing and I realized I'd never seen Ginger laugh ~ Wendy Higgins

Billy helped," Jethro said, his voice held hesitation.

"Billy?" Duane didn't try to mask his surprise; he and Beau stared at each other, communicating for several seconds without talking. The twins' ability to impart thoughts through a look had always been frustrating. I didn't like being left out of a conversation.

"Yes. Billy. Billy helped," I confirmed irritably. "And will you two cease discussing with your eyeballs. There are several other people in the room who can't brain-link."

Duane lifted an eyebrow, his eyes darting from me to Beau and then quickly to the floor. "Fine, Cletus. Cool your engine."

I grunted, but said nothing. I didn't want to pick a fight with Duane. I only had a few more weeks of him hanging around and the thought depressed me. He was a grumpy, brooding little bastard who had the habit of only speaking when spoken to - and sometimes not even then. I was going to miss him. ~ Penny Reid

Take down Arty and Chick and Papa and the twins, and all that's left of the Jar Kin, and, by then, Lily and me. Open our metal jars and pour all the Binewski dust together into that big battered loving cup that first held only Grandpa B. Bolt us to the hood of your traveling machine and take us on the road again. ~ Katherine Dunn

They are the two Wills, the twins who in the beginning made themselves heard through dreaming, those two kinds of thought, of speech, of deed, the better and the evil; ~ M.L. West

I know you've lost your husband. I know every day is a battle for you because you miss him. I'm not trying to take his place with you or the twins. I just want to fit into your life. ~ Heidi McLaughlin

they start in the ice garden, through the twins grow impatient with leisurely pace that celia prefers to take around the frozen trees. before they have traveled halfway through the space they are begging to ride the carousel instead. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Now he reduced his progress to the rhythm of his boots -- he walked across the land until he came to the sea. Everything that impeded him had to be outweighed, even if only by a fraction, by all that drove him on. In one pan of the scales, his wound, thirst, the blister, tiredness, the heat, the aching in his feet and legs, the Stukas, the distance, the Channel; in the other, I'll wait for you, and the memory of when she had said it, which he had come to treat like a sacred site. Also, the fear of capture. His most sensual memories -- their few minutes in the library, the kiss in Whitehall -- was bleached colorless through overuse. He knew by heart certain passages from her letters, he had revisited their tussle with the vase by the fountain, he remembered the warmth from her arm at the dinner when the twins went missing. These memories sustained him, but not so easily. Too often they reminded him of where he was when he last summoned them. They lay on the far side of a great divide in time, as significant as B.C. and A.D. Before prison, before war, before the sight of a corpse became a banality.

But these heresies died when he read her last letter. He touched his breast pocket. It was a kind of genuflection. Still there. Here was something new on the scales. That he could be cleared had all the simplicity of love. Merely tasting the possibility reminded him of how much had narrowed and died. His taste for life, no less, all the old ambitions and pleasures. The pro ~ Ian McEwan

Something dropped from above the door onto the nurse, something lunged at her from the floor, and amidst the screaming - lots of it comparing the twins to satanic imps escaped from hell - Melanie laughed. "There's my good boys. Come see Mama. ~ Eve Langlais

Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves-"
"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."
"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once-"
"Or twice-"
"A minute-"
"All summer-"
"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect. ~ J.K. Rowling

He hopes at least after pulling himself up from one branch to another he will be able to see farther, discover where the roads lead; but the foliage beneath him is dense, the ground is soon out of sight, and if he raises his eyes toward the top of the tree he is blinded by The Sun, whose piercing rays make the leaves gleam with every colour against the light. However, the meaning of those two children seen in the tarot should also be explained: they must indicate that, looking up, the young man has realized he is no longer alone in the tree; two urchins have preceeded him, scrambling up the boughs.

They seem twins: identical, barefoot, golden blond. At this point the young man spoke, asked: "what are you two doing here?" or else: "how far is it to the top?" And the twins replied, indicating with confused gesticulation toward something seen on the horizon of the drawing, beneath the sun's rays: the walls of a city.

But where are these walls located, with respect to the tree? The Ace of Cups portrays, in fact, a city, with many towers and spires and minarets and domes rising above the walls. And also palm fronds, pheasants' wings, fins of blue moonfish which certainly jut from the city's gardens, aviaries, aquariums, among which we can imagine the two urchins, chasing each other and vanishing. And this city seems balanced on top of a pyramid, which could also be the top of a great tree; in other words, it would be a city suspended on the highest branches l ~ Italo Calvino

With the certitude of a true believer, Vellya Paapen had assured the twins that there was no such thing in the world as a black cat. He said that there were only black cat chaped holes in the universe. ~ Arundhati Roy

Mark whirled on them. His eyes were blind, unseeing. You bring the twins in front of me and you kill them over and over. My Ty, he doesn't understand why I can't save him. You bring me Dru and when she laughs to see the fairytale castle, all ringed round with hedges, you throw her against the thorns until their pierce her small body. And you bid me wash in Octavian's blood for the blood of an innocent child is magic under the Hill. ~ Cassandra Clare

As they grew sloppier and less alert, the twins argued too loudly about whether Tiger Lily was ugly or beautiful, and finally agreed that she was "ugly beautiful".
Tiger Lily pretended she hadn't heard, but her heart slowed to absorb the blow. ~ Jodi Lynn Anderson

This car was speically ordered for you, Mr. Flamel." There was a pause and the voice added, "The author of one of the most boring books I have ever read, The Philosophic Summary."
Boring?" Nicholas yanked the door open and pushed the twins into the gloom. "It's been acknowledged for centuires as a work of a genius!" Climbing in, he slammed the door.
Franis probably told you to say that."
You'd better buckel up," the driver commanded. "We've got all sorts of company heading this way, none of it friendly and all of it unpleasant. ~ Michael Scott

THE TWINS WERE eighteen months old now, walking (and standing and staring and screaming and sitting) just like other children more or less their age, and Andy found herself increasingly preoccupied with those baby scrapbooks her brother's wife had sent when they were born. Andy had gotten Janny's to the six-month mark - the last photo was of her sitting up in the baby bath with her fingers in her mouth. Richie's and Michael's - not even birth pictures. Birth pictures of the twins existed, but they reminded Andy more of mug shots than of baby photos, naked in incubators, little skinny limbs and odd heads, no hair except where it shouldn't be, on arms and back, like monkeys. She had stuffed the scrapbooks onto the upper shelf in the closet in Richie and Michael's room, and every time she slid open that door, she would see their spines, white, pink, and blue, the silliest objects in her very modern house, ready to get thrown out. ~ Jane Smiley

My family has loved Minnesota and that was one of the big reasons we decided to come back. For me, family decisions were a big part to coming back to the Twins. ~ Jim Thome

All the boys were grown up and done for by this time; so it is scarcely worth while saying anything more about them. You may see the twins and Nibs and Curly any day going to an office, each carrying a little bag and an umbrella. Michael is an engine driver. Slightly married a lady of title, and so he became a lord. You see that judge in a wig coming out at the iron door? That used to be Tootles. The bearded man who doesn't know any story to tell his children was once John. ~ J.M. Barrie

Nowadays it seems you learn only what is reasonable
and relevant. I went to Rome with a young
friend, educated on the latest lines, and who
had taken historical honours at Cambridge.
The first morning the pats of butter came
up stamped with the Twins. " Good old
Romulus and Remus," said I. " Good old
who? " said she. She had never heard of
the Twins and was much bored when I told
her the story; they had no place in " con¬
stitutional history ", and for her the old wolf
of the Capitol howled in vain: " Great God!
I'd rather be "! ~ Jane Ellen Harrison

What about human beings? said the animals. Do you
think we need human beings?
Why not? said the Twins. And as quick as they could the
right-handed Twin created women, and the left-handed
Twin created men.
They don't look too bright, said the animals. We hope
they won't be a problem.
Don't worry, said the Twins, you guys are going to get
along just fine. ~ Thomas King

Okay, so Hildar said that Glaemir only has some of his people with him, forty or so, and I already told the ... goats to meet us there." Matt paused sort of awkwardly. "Hildar gave me directions that the goats could follow, so they're on the move."
"The goats are on the move," Baldwin said in a low voice before cracking up.
The twins smiled at him. Fen rolled his eyes, but like everything Baldwin did, Fen thought it was fine. Even Owen's lips curled in a small grin. ~ K.L. Armstrong

What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar. "Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you - ?" "He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry. "What?" said Harry. "Harry Potter," chorused the twins. ~ J.K. Rowling

Where I came from with the Twins, they were passionate about baseball. Through thick and thin, it was, 'Let's go.' It's something I have to get used to. I'm blocking it out as much as I can. ~ Jacque Jones

I remember one spring when I was doing the team's telecasts, Bob Allison was with me, and we were walking through the clubhouse in Orlando. This kid who was trying to make it with the Twins as an outfielder came up to me and asked who was that with me. I said that's Bob Allison, and you better hope you have as good a career as he had. ~ Harmon Killebrew

I was going to show your brother Gemini-the Twins. ~ Jandy Nelson

Whenever we play the Twins, Torii Hunter has a major impact on defense. He tells the left fielder and the right fielder to take the day off and he covers the whole outfield. ~ Ken Macha

Th-thurlow...?"
His face,so very like her own, lit with pleasure. "Rycca,dear sister! I rejoice to find you well!"
They hugged fiercely while Dragon looked on with as much contentment as he could have mustered had he personally arranged the reunion of the twins.
"I don't understand," Rycca said when she could speak again.Her throat was very tight and tears gleamed in her eyes but she could not stop smiling. "Why are you here?"
"I heard a wild rumor in Normandy, about you fleeing from the marriage arranged for you by the king himself," he said,with a chiding shake of his head. "Really,Rycca,what were you thinking? Dragon here an exemplary fellow.How could you have not wanted to marry him?"
Over her brother's shoulder,Rycca sent the fine fellow in question a look that would have turned a lesser mann to ash. Dragon merely raised his eyebrows, the very image of wounded innocence.
"It was a little more complicated than he may have explained to you."
"Nonsense," Thurlow said with all the certainty of a very young man whose heart is nonetheless in the right place. "I love you dearly, sister,but we both know you can be a tad impulsive. Fortunately,I am assured Dragon will take excellent care of you."
Rycca laughed then and reached out a hand to her husband,who took it with a grin.She she drew him to her,she said softly, "As I will care for him, brother. ~ Josie Litton

The twins ran as fast as their legs could carry them. The Blissworm held on to Conner's helmet like a jockey clutching the reins of a racehorse. It even slapped Conner's bottom as if that would make him run faster. "Cut it out!" he said. "That hurts! ~ Chris Colfer

And it started out fun. We were chattering enthusiastically, flipping between CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. But as the evening wore on, and the numbers rolled in, it got quieter, and I found myself becoming intensely depressed. Why was I putting myself through this? The issues I've devoted my life to have become so marginalized by the coverage that they have no possible relevance to me. I can't even blame the media - people simply don't care about alternate-party politics. And why should they? I'm so far in the minority that my activism is a joke, a punchline that stopped being funny years ago. It goes beyond rooting for the underdog. It's not rooting for the Giants: it's more like, say, rooting for the Twins. But during the Super Bowl. ~ Phillip Andrew Bennett Low

Do you think there'll be someone in the Xanti who'll remember your mother?"
Finn blew on the embers. "I don't know. We may not find the Xanti," he warned her.
Maia shrugged. "It doesn't matter. But if we do, will they accept me? I don't have any Indian blood."
"If they don't, we won't stay. I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I've got my gun."
"I'm not scared," said Maia. And she wasn't. She'd been scared of the nastiness of the twins and of being shut up in the Carters' bungalow, but she wasn't scared of traveling through unknown lands with a boy hardly older than she was herself. She thought perhaps she wouldn't be scared of anything ever again if she was with Finn. ~ Eva Ibbotson

Slowly, slowly, with a drugged, fathomless calm, Henry bent and picked up a handful of dirt. He held it over the grave and let it trickle from his fingers. Then, with terrible composure, he stepped back and absently dragged the hand across his chest, smearing mud upon his lapel, his tie, the starched immaculate white of his shirt.
I stared at him. So did Julian, and Francis, and the twins, with a kind of shocked horror. He seemed not to realise he had done anything out of the ordinary. He stood there perfectly still, the wind ruffling his hair and the dull light glinting from the rims of his glasses. ~ Donna Tartt

The twins in the storyline only makes it have more feels. ~ Rosamund Hodge

Someone asked me what three things I would save if my house was on fire. I said my cat, my salamander and one of the twins. ~ Ricky Gervais

The twins turned out well, not because of anything that Craig or his wife did but because of the kind of people they are. Good, decent people who always put the needs of their children ahead of their own. It was never more complicated than love, one generation raising a better version of the next. ~ Jung Yun

Dodgy bastard," one of the twins spat. A trickle of blood from his temple made it hard to tell which one. "Shite for brains," the other replied, reversing their positions and landing a punch to the gut. "We're twins. If I'm a bastard, you're one too. ~ Tessa Dare

If I ever see the twins again, it looks like I owe them a zombie-girl mud fight. ~ Susan Ee

My firstborn and my baby both tried to shed me like a husk from the start, and the twins came with a fine interior sight with which they could simply look past me at everything more interesting. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

So that's your sister?" asks Dee in a quiet voice.
"Yeah."
"The one you risked your life for?"
"Yeah."
The twins nod politely in that automatic way that people do when they don't want to say something insulting.
"Your family any better?" I ask.
Dee and Dum look at each other, assessing.
"Nah," says Dee.
"Not really," says Dum at the same time. ~ Susan Ee