Time Like This Quotes

One man who could understand it very well was the architect of these stop-gap measures: General the Viscount Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force. A big burly man of 53, Lord Gort was no strategist - he was happy to follow the French lead on such matters - but he had certain soldierly virtues that came in handy at a time like this. He was a great fighter - had won the Victoria Cross storming the Hindenburg Line in 1918 - and he was completely unflappable. ~ Walter Lord

Roosevelt pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit it. "How can you smoke at a time like this?" asked the captain. His eyes were aimed up at the falling flames.

"Hell, if I'm going to die, it's going to be doing something I enjoy. And since none of you are of the female persuasion, it's the cigar."

"At this point the fall would probably just pulverize our legs. If we could avoid cardiac arrest, we'd live. As invalids of course," replied Smith.

"Don't ruin my cigar, Schmitty. ~ Andrew Mayne

The nation, as you know, is at a critical point. At a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing.'Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens also have to rise to the occasion. ~ Mitt Romney

You know when you go into a restaurant, and it gets busy and they start a waiting list, and they start calling out names, "DuFresnes, party of two." They say again, "DuFresnes, party of two." But then if no one answers, they'll just go to the next name, "Bush, party of three." Yeah, but what happened to the DuFresnes? No one seems to care. Who can eat at a time like this? People are missing! And they're hungry! That's a double whammy! "Bush, search party of three!" You can eat once you find the DuFresnes! ~ Mitch Hedberg

Oh, you're a picky sort, huh?" He laughed. "That takes balls, being choosy at a time like this. ~ Domashita Romero

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. ~ Frederick Douglass

Hurricane Charley is the worst natural disaster to befall our state in a dozen years, and it is unthinkable that anyone would try to take advantage of neighbors at a time like this,. ~ Charlie Crist

This is the best time, Tatiana," Alexander said. "Do you want to know why?" "Please don't tell me." "There will never be a time like this again. Never this simple, this uncomplicated." "You call this uncomplicated?" Tatiana shook her head. "Of course." Alexander paused. "We're just friends, walking through Leningrad in the lucent dusk. ~ Paullina Simons

They avoided one another's faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard ...
No one said anything. The cowards, thought each man. ~ Terry Pratchett

Her father said, "You know, my dears, the world has been abnormal for so long that we've forgotten what it's like to live in a peaceful and reasonable climate. If there is to be any peace or reason, we have to create it in our own hearts and homes." "Even at a time like this?" Meg asked. The call from Calvin, the sound of her husband's voice, had nearly broken her control. "Especially at a time like this," her mother said gently. ~ Madeleine L'Engle

There was no way she was staying trapped with tea at a time like this. ~ Gail Carriger

And now, she felt the presence of Grandmother Deal, as always--that same unexplainable presence of the woman who had mothered them all, whose love for her children and her children's children was so deep that after all the years it still seemed a tangible thing, delicate and rare, like the faint subtle odor of a fine perfume.

Could such things be, she wondered vaguely...? Could the loved dead come back? At a time like this, was the memory of them so keen to one sensitive like herself, that they only seemed to return and mingle with those to whom they had been devoted? Or was there in some way unknown to humans, a definite magical blending of these imperishable spirits with the mortal spirits of those they had so deeply loved? ~ Bess Streeter Aldrich

I used to joke that we had prepared ourselves for a time like this by living with Mother. The problem with such a state of affairs was not that you did not get to do what you wanted
sometimes you did
but the effort to appease or resist the reigning deities left you so exhausted that it prevented you from ever really having fun. To this day having fun, just plain enjoying myself, comes at the cost of a conviction that I have committed an undetected crime. ~ Azar Nafisi

-Are you afraid?
-No. Not even for the children. I always thought I would be frightened to death, but I'm not.
-Where's that spirit of self-preservation the scientists talk about so much?
-I don't know. You don't get too excited when you feel things are logical. This is logical. Nothing else but this could have happened from the way we've lived.
-We haven't been too bad, have we?
-No, nor enormously good. I suppose that's the trouble. We haven't been very much of anything except us, while a big part of the world was busy being lots of quite awful things.
-I always imagined people would be screaming in the streets at a time like this.
-I guess not. You don't scream about the real thing. ~ Ray Bradbury

There wasn't enough gratitude in the world for a server who kept drinks coming at a time like this. ~ Jennifer Crusie

Because friends have to be brutally honest with each other. I'd feel terrible if I didn't tell you what I was thinking, especially at a time like this ~ Don DeLillo

After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I. ~ Harper Lee

Everybody who works in the computer industry is in an industry that didn't exist twenty-five years ago. We are talking on cell phones, and there were no such things. All the people who work for Nextel and so on, those are lost jobs that became found jobs. We are in a constant state of changing, and there are numerous opportunities in a time like this, but people are still going back to the fear. ~ Wayne Dyer

You have to dance especially at a time like this. That's the whole point. The dancing will bring you back into the moment. It's the dance that will save you. ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde

It's no surprise that academics in this country have been generally suspicious of business or that in a time like this, when general public confidence in the corporation has fallen, the expressions of hostility grow sharper. ~ James Q. Wilson

Even at a time like this, the street is bright enough and filled with people coming and going - people with places to go and people with no place to go; people with a purpose and people with no purpose; people trying to hold time back and people trying to urge it forward. After ~ Haruki Murakami

how much time like this
it holds on
how much time resting
is going to start up again --- knows it --- at the edge already
the first words are waiting --- speech being reborn --- hitch still looking for its post ~ Danielle Collobert

He stopped and after a while went on. 'Try to choose carefully, Arren, when the great choices muct be made. When I was young I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt to the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, blinds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.'
How could such a man, thought Arren, be in doubt as towho and what he is? He had believed such doubts were reserved for the young, who had not done anything yet. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

He laughs under his breath, though I'm not sure what is so funny about that. Maybe it's evil laughter? There's no dramatic dom dom dom like Anna would provide in the background to steer me toward the appropriate conclusion in a time like this.

I really did grow entirely too reliant on her ghostly cues and tension breakers. ~ Kristy Cunning

Not your weapons," Agrona sneered. "Your artifacts. Sigyn's bow. The Horn of Roland. The Swords of Ruslan. And, of course, Vic."
"Well, naturally," the sword crowed, his voice swelling with pride. "I do put the art in artefact."
I looked down on him. "Really?" I whispered. "You're really going to talk about how awesome you are at a time like this?"
"Certainly," Vic said. "Why wouldn't I? ~ Jennifer Estep

I know what happened to you sucks and I'm not gonna give you some Pollyanna shit about everything happens for a reason or this was gods gift to make you strong cause if anybody said that to me i would punch them right in the mouth. But all you can do at a time like this is just hang out until the scenery changes. ~ QUEER AS FOLK

How can you be kissing at a time like this? Have you no respect for the dead? ~ Mark Zero

You," she said, bending an icy eye on Elizabeth, "come with me. You have much to explain, madam, and you can do it while Faulkner attends to your appearance."
"I am not," Elizabeth said in a burst of frustrated anger, "going to think of my appearance at a time like this."
The duchess's brows shot into her hairline. "Have you come to persuade them that your husband is innocent?"
"Well, of course I have. I-"
"Then don't shame him more than you already have! You look like a refugee from a dustbin in Bedlam. You'll be lucky if they don't hang you for putting them to all this trouble!" She started up the staircase with Elizabeth following slowly behind, listening to her tirade with only half her mind. "Now, if your misbegotten brother would do us the honor of showing himself, your husband might not have to spend the night in a dungeon, which is exactly where Jordan thinks he's going to land if the prosecutors have their way."
Elizabeth stopped on the third step. "Will you please listen to me for a moment-" she began angrily.
"I'll listen to you all the way to Westminster," the dowager snapped back sarcastically. "I daresay all London will be eager to hear what you have to say for yourself in tomorrow's paper!"
"For the love of God!" Elizabeth cried at her back, wondering madly to whom she could turn for speedier help. An hour was an eternity! "I have not come merely to show that I'm alive. I can prove that Robert is alive and that he came to no h ~ Judith McNaught

I think about this for a long time, secretly hoping he forgets he ever asked the question. His mind has a way of wandering, but something in the way he looks at me says he's not forgetting anything now, he's holding on tight to that thought, and he's waiting for my answer. I don't know what makes a man great. I've never thought about it before. But at a time like this "I don't know" just won't do. This is an occasion one rises to, and so I make myself as light as possible and wait for a lift. "I ~ Daniel Wallace

...Every giant accomplishment is made of very small steps... and to take them one at a time like this is not weak, but precise. ~ Stephen Guise

Instead, I gave them the only salute I could think of.
Two middle fingers. Held high for emphasis.
The six fiery orbs winked out at once. Hopefully, they'd died from affront.
Ben eyed me sideways as he maneuvered from shore. "What in the world are you doing?"
"Those red-eyed jerks were on the cliff," I spat, then immediately felt silly. "All I could think of."
Ben made an odd huffing sound I couldn't interpret. For a shocked second, I thought he was furious with me.
"Nice work, Victoria." Ben couldn't hold the laughter inside. "That oughta do it!"
I flinched, surprised by his reaction. Ben, cracking up at a time like this?
He had such a full, honest laugh - I wished I heard it more. Infectious, too. I couldn't help joining in, though mine came out in a low Beavis and Butthead cackle. Which made Ben howl even more.
In an instant, we were both in stitches at the absurdity of my one-finger salutes. At the insanity of the evening. At everything. Tears wet my eyes as Sewee bobbed over the surf, circling the southeast corner of the island. It was a release I desperately needed.
Ben ran a hand through his hair, then sighed deeply. "I love it," he snickered, steering Sewee through the breakers, keeping our speed to a crawl so the engine made less noise. "I love you, sometimes."
Abruptly, his good humor cut off like a guillotine. Ben's body went rigid. I felt a wave of panic roll from him, as if he'd accidently triggered a nuclear ~ Kathy Reichs

When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

...there was about five minutes of time left for him to live.

"...he seemed to be living, in these minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time into portions--one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying good- bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had allotted to looking into himself... He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and where? He thought he would decide this question once for all in these last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Girls," their mother interjected, "you must both stop being strange - it is unattractive. And don't forget your hats. It would be absolutely the end for me if you two came down with freckles at a time like this. ~ Anna Godbersen

Earl's chair creaked against the floorboards as he rocked. "I couldn't hope for a better man to be at my son's side in a time like this," he said, and Zane was shocked to see his eyes glistening. Their eyes locked, and Earl gave him a nod. "Not a better man. ~ Anonymous

He shouldn't be alone at a time like this. This is a special time for me to be around as much as I can. He needs his family and his friends and his fans. ~ Joseph Jackson

And you consider yourself as what, some sort of Count of Monte Cristo?"
He gave a nonchalant shrug. "Not particularly, though the book is a favorite of mine."
Farah frowned. "I thought you said you couldn't read."
That Dorian Blackwell could laugh at a time like this astounded her. But he did. The sound so devoid of true mirth, it caused goose pimples to rise on her skin and her nipples to tighten painfully. It was a dark sound, like the rest of him, and it washed over her with chilling totality. ~ Kerrigan Byrne

God give us men! A time like this demands. Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not die. ~ J.G. Holland

Quotin' bad movies at a time like this! ~ Julie Ann Walker

Courage, Liam thought to himself, wasn't a hot, blistering emotion held only in the hands of men who joined the special forces and jumped out of airplanes and scaled unnamed mountains. It was a quiet thing, ice-cold more often than not; the last tiny piece you found when you thought that everything was gone. It was facing your children at a time like this, holding their hands and brushing their tears away when you were certain you hadn't the strength to do it. It was swallowing your own grief and going on, one shallow, bitter breath at a time. ~ Kristin Hannah

Ahhhhhhhh. There is nothing natural about natural childbirth. It is as close to a freak accident as anything I can think of. Why I picked a time like this to go off drugs. ~ Jane Wagner

A bolt of lightning speared down into the lake, followed by a clap of thunder so loud Norah swore she felt the lighthouse quake.
"Jeez," she said, shrinking back against Trip and not feeling stupid about it because it was nice to have a strong man around at a time like this. "Did you feel that?"
"Like the earth moved? That was nothing." And he spun her around and took her mouth. ~ Penny McCall

The honky-tonk bartender, who doubled as bouncer, waiter, and cashier, was in no mood to compromise. Mercy was not in him. He came out around the open end of the long counter, waddled threatening across the floor in a sullen, red-faced fury and began to shake the inanimate figure lying across the table with its head bedded on its arms. "Hey, you! Do your sleeping in the gutter!"

If you gave these bums an inch; they took a yard. And this one was a particularly glaring example of the genus bar-fly. He was in here all the time like this, inhaling smoke and then doing a sunset across the table. He'd been in here since four this afternoon. The boss and he, who were partners in the joint - the bartender called it jernt - would have been the last ones to claim they were running a Rainbow Room, but at least they were trying to give the place a little class, keep it above the level of a Bowery smoke-house; they even paid a guy to pound the piano and a canary to warble three times a week. And then bums like this had to show up and give the place a bad look!

He shook the recumbent figure again, more roughly than the first time. Shook him so violently that the whole reedy table under him rattled and threatened to collapse. "Come on, clear out, I said! Pay me for what you had and get outa here!" ("I'm Dangerous Tonight") ~ Cornell Woolrich

She kept thinking that a time like this required words-one million lines of type, laid out perfectly, with no ink stains, no backward letters-to say what should be said. But that couldn't happen, and she didn't know what else to put in its place. ~ Beth Brower

If you can't make a joke at a time like this, what's the point of living? ~ Chloe Neill

She sits and listens with crossed legs under the batik house-wrap she wears, with her heavy three-way-piled hair and cigarette at her mouth and refuses me - for the time being, anyway - the most important things I ask of her.

It's really kind of tremendous how it all takes place. You'd never guess how much labor goes into it. Only some time ago it occurred to me how great an amount. She came back from the studio and went to take a bath, and from the bath she called out to me, "Darling, please bring me a towel." I took one of those towel robes that I had bought at the Bon Marche' department store and came along with it. The little bathroom was in twilight. In the auffe-eua machine, the brass box with teeth of gas
burning, the green metal dropped crumbs inside from the thousand-candle blaze. Her body with its warm woman's smell was covered with water starting in a calm line over her breasts. The glass of the medicine chest shone (like a deep blue place in the wall, as if a window to the evening sea and not the ashy fog of Paris. I sat down with the robe over my; shoulder and felt very much at peace. For a change the apartment seemed clean and was warm; the abominations were gone into the background, the stoves drew well and they shone. Jacqueline was cooking dinner and it smelled of gravy. I felt settled and easy, my chest free and my fingers comfortable and open. And now here's the thing. It takes a time like this for you to find out how sore your heart has bee ~ Saul Bellow

Try to choose carefully, Arren, when the great choices must be made. {...} But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

It was days like this when I felt it more than ever: I wasn't a real human. ~ Melanie Cusick-Jones

The warm, pulsing breath of the sweet grass surged through the open windows in a fashion to turn the head of a stone image. It was exotic, too sweet, exaggerated, like everything else in this climate! Cornelis turned over again, seeking a cool place on the broad bed. Then he sat up in bed, impatiently throwing off the sheet. A thin streak of moonlight edged the bed below his feet. He slipped out of bed, walked over to a window. He leaned out, looking down at the acres of undulating grass. There seemed to be some strange, hypnotic rhythm to it, some vague magic, as it swayed in the night wind. The scent poured over him in great, pulsing breaths. He shut his eves and drew it in, abandoning his senses to its effect.

("Sweet Grass") ~ Henry S. Whitehead

I don't feel like a dream girl, but I think it's really nice. I guess a part of me wishes I got that sort of attention in my real life. Because in my real life, I'm this weird, dorky girl who just hangs out with her dog. ~ Alicia Silverstone

Let me put it like this: I am not prepared to officiate over on behalf of the British government what I think is a disastrous strategy which will impact on some of the most vulnerable and poorest people within our society. ~ Martin McGuinness

People who don't like you almost never come up to you. That's a lot of years of saying things that I know a lot of people in this country hate me for. And the number of times someone has come up to me and said something negative, I could count on one hand. ~ Bill Maher

And in a small house five miles away was a man who held my mud-encrusted charm bracelet out to his wife.
Look what I found at the old industrial park," he said. "A construction guy said they were bulldozing the whole lot. They're afraid of sink holes like that one that swallowed the cars."
His wife poured him some water from the sink as he fingered the tiny bike and the ballet shoe, the flower basket and the thimble. He held out the muddy bracelet as she set down his glass.
This little girl's grown up by now," she said.
Almost. Not quite.
I wish you all a long and happy life. ~ Alice Sebold

Dead. I had to be dead. But dead men don't think about death. What do dead men think about? Dead men don't think. I was thinking - but I was dead. That struck me as funny and set off hysterics. And then I'd get myself under control and go 'round and 'round with it again. Dead. This was like nothing any religion had ever taught. Not that I'd ever 'caught' any of the religions going around. But none had warned of this. ~ Jerry Pournelle

I feel that the kinks, curls, or tight coils in Afro hair is beautiful and unique. No other race on this planet has hair like ours - that makes me proud. ~ Monica Millner

I'd had Jean-Claude drive the metaphysical bus before, but I'd never felt it like this, never been so aware of how terribly aware he was of his power, of my power, of the power we all offered him. He was vampire, which meant he was a cold power, a thing of logic, because emotions do not trouble the dead. He shifted through our talents, like Edward would have looked through his gun safe. Which gun will do the job? Which will make this shot? ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

No matter what, I'm never going to get an anthology from an actual publisher, though I could always score another music anthology. But if this is going to be a document of a multiplicity of my writings, it'll do. It feels like a birthday party or something. ~ Richard Meltzer

The 'cleverness' syndrome has taken the place of melody. It's like everyone has come down with this terrible disease in jazz ... you are always expected to do your own material, which is a strange thing to do if you're a poor composer but a great player. ~ Keith Jarrett

Like eggs, I'm scrambling to get ahead in this economic depression. ~ Jarod Kintz

Creativity is connected to your passion, that light inside you that drives you. That joy that comes when you do something you love. That small voice that tells you, "I like this. Do this again. You are good at it. Keep going." That is the juicy stuff that lubricates our lives and helps us feel less alone in the world. ~ Amy Poehler

You don't have to pretend like this...him...us...like we don't turn you on. So kiss me, Jane. ~ Amelia LeFay

Επιθυμίες
Σαν σώματα ωραία νεκρών που δεν εγέρασαν
και τάκλεισαν, με δάκρυα, σε μαυσωλείο λαμπρό,
με ρόδα στο κεφάλι και στα πόδια γιασεμιά --
έτσ' η επιθυμίες μοιάζουν που επέρασαν
χωρίς να εκπληρωθούν· χωρίς ν' αξιωθεί καμιά
της ηδονής μια νύχτα, ή ένα πρωϊ της φεγγερό."

Desires
"Like beautiful bodies of the dead who had not grown old
and they shut them, with tears, in a brilliant mausoleum,
with roses at the head and jasmine at the feet --
this is what desires resemble that have passed
without fulfillment; without any of them having achieved
a night of sensual delight, or a morning of brightness. ~ Constantinos P. Cavafy

There's definitely been a change this year - and I'd like to have a boyfriend. ~ Nick Grimshaw

Dianthe cleared her throat and said softly, "I do this because I believe a woman should have the right to fight and die for her dominion, just like any man. We are no longer a population in danger of extinction. There's no reason for our leaders to ban women from making this choice. So I help them make it anyway. Even if it means giving up who they are. Even if it means joining Military as ghosts. ~ Tracy Banghart

He had sleepless eyes, his mouth a little swollen, the deeply tanned skin somehow burnished. Kestrel thought that she, too, must look like this: polished by desire, the way a river stone holds a luster from having been made so smooth. ~ Marie Rutkoski

I say I'm the only serious comedian in the presidential race. And I'd like to take this opportunity to ask both Romney and Obama to debate me. Because I think that both of those guys - I think that the American people are being given a false choice, because the choice between the lesser of two evils is a false choice. ~ Roseanne Barr

learned only later what I'd seen: the manufacture of a term that would be used to increase traffic on the Word Exchange. For some users of the Meme - those whose devices had been infected with a new virus that had recently started circulating - terms like this one would replace "obscure" words - "cynical," "morbid," "integrity" - that those of us who'd grown dependent on our Memes no longer fully trusted to our memories. But I knew nothing then about these neologisms, or the virus, or why this "word" had just been fabricated. ~ Alena Graedon

It's like I'm caught between two versions of myself. The person I used to be and the person i'm too scared to become. I feel like I'm looking in a mirror and my reflection doesn't match. I just want to be myself again. Only I'm not sure who that is anymore. Is it the girl in the mirror, the one I've struggled to be my entire life? Or is it this stranger living inside me who wants nothing to do with her? How do you decide between them? How do you know which one is really you? ~ Jessica Brody

A book collection is a cross between a Rorschach test and This Is Y our Life. It marks your life clearly like rings on a tree. ~ Margo Kaufman

Try This: Imagine the world as a place where anyone can safely and even joyfully express themselves the way they've always wanted to. Nothing about the bodies they were born with or what they choose to do with those bodies – how they dress them, or decorate, or trim or augment them – would get people laughed at, or targeted, or in any way deprived of their rights. Can you imagine a world like that? ~ Kate Bornstein

She has not run down the stairs like this since she was a teenager, when your heart reaches the front door before your feet. ~ Fredrik Backman

Because it all derived from Superman. I mean, I love all the characters, but Superman is just this perfect human pop-culture distillation of a really basic idea. He's a good guy. He loves us. He will not stop in defending us. How beautiful is that? He's like a sci-fi Jesus. He'll never let you down. And only in fiction can that guy actually exist, because real guys will always let you down one way or another. We actually made up an idea that beautiful. That's just cool to me. We made a little paper universe where all of the above is true. ~ Grant Morrison

We sat there in silence for a while, just taking in the moment of reflection between us. It's funny how a woman feels different to a man. They feel nice and soft, but because there isn't that spark of attraction there it's more of a sisterly or maternal warmth that you feel from them. It's wonderful. And it brings out this strange protective streak that seems borne from intuition if you have man parts, regardless of whether your man parts like other men's parts. And I wanted to protect Fran. ~ Sean Kennedy

Becky was a weed. Nobody ever wanted them taking over the bigger, prettier plants. People went to all extremes to make them go away. They sprayed poison, pulled until the roots gave way. They felt only like their garden was complete when every tendril was extirpated. This was how she felt from birth. ~ Ruth McLeod-Kearns

People were like, "Oh maybe we can change your teeth" and I thought that was going a bit far. You have to be really strong in this job and realise that you are your own boss and if someone tells you to do something, you don't have to do it. I really like my teeth. ~ Lara Stone

Many people are partial to the notion that ... all writers are somehow mere vessels for Truth and Beauty when they compose. That we are not really in control. This is a variation on that twee little fable that writers like to pass off on gullible readers, that a character can develop a will of his own and 'take over a book.' This makes writing sound supernatural and mysterious, like possession by faeries. The reality tends to involve a spare room, a pirated copy of MS Word, and a table bought on sale at Target. A character can no more take over your novel than an eggplant and a jar of cumin can take over your kitchen. ~ Paul Collins

Quiet down! You're supposed to be dead!" snapped a passing Union soldier.
"This is a private conversation," Margaret snapped back.
"This is a battle," he hissed.
"No, honey, this is called pretending. I hate to break it to you, but we're not really in the Civil War. If you'd like to feel a bit more authentic, I'd be happy to stick this bayonet up your ass. ~ Kristan Higgins

The 'swapping' is interesting. This practice one had thought confined to certain earnest Americans in the smaller, more tedious cities, to those wives and husbands who had read sex manuals and radically wanted more of life even if it had to be, like pizza, brought in from around the corner
all of this was accomplished by Bloomsbury in the lightest, most spontaneous and good-natured manner. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick

When I'm with you, I don't feel like a monster. I forget. I forget all the things I've done that make me not deserve this. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

the English general was less concerned for the moment with what he was going to do in Scotland than with the problem of actually getting his army there in working order. His main worry was a shortage of beer for the troops; on September 2 he was indenting for "vi or vii hundred tonne of bere", five days later he was noting that "I feare lak of no thyng so moche as of drynk", and this despite the brewing that was taking place at Berwick, and on September 11 he was announcing flatly that he could not hope to get his army to Edinburgh without beer. Like ~ George MacDonald Fraser

He looks at me, and I don't know what he sees. I used to think it was Rose. But she's not here with us now, in this room. It's just him and me, and the books. I feel like our lives are in those books. I feel like all the words on the pages are for us. ~ Lauren DeStefano

I realize with much shame and self-disgust I am not hating this sex with boy tater tots like I thought I would. I don't even need to repeat "a million dollars" in my head anymore. Though hard to admits, I was starting to actually enjoy the sex with the tots.
Oh, no's! I thinks when I notice I now have erection too!
Could it be that the trillionaire tater tots were causing me gay? ~ Dougliette Juliette

When I was little, I used to pour salt on slugs. I liked watching them dissolve before my eyes. Cruelty is always sort of fun until you realize that something's getting hurt. It would be one thing to be a loser if it meant that no one paid attention to you, but in school, it means you're actively sought out. You're the slug, and they're holding all the salt. And they haven't developed a conscience. There's a word we learned in social studies: schadenfreude. It's when you enjoy watching someone else suffer. The real question though, is why? I think part of it is self preservation. And part of it is because a group always feels more like a group when it's banded together against an enemy. It doesn't matter if that enemy has never done anything to hurt you-you just have to pretend you hate someone even more than you hate yourself. You know why salt works on slugs? Because it dissolved in the water that's part of a slug's skin, so the water on the inside its body starts to flow out. They slug dehydrates. This works with snails, too. And with leeches. And with people like me. With any creature, really, too thin-skinned to stand up for itself. ~ Jodi Picoult

The story of my billion-dollar business starts like this. I borrowed $1,000 from a friend. ~ Barbara Corcoran

I can't believe you're bleeding this much! What, do you have like an ocean of blood in you or something? That was completely cruel to make me think I could shoot you and not hurt you! I have issues with hurting living creatures. You could have warned me!" She glared at him. "I don't like you." "You don't - " Blaine finally comprehended that she was wrecked over the fact she'd shot him. That ~ Stephanie Rowe

Like most problems with technology, pollution is a problem of scale. The biosphere might have been able to tolerate our dirty old friends coal and oil if we burned them gradually, but how long can it withstand a blaze of consumption so frenzied that the dark size of this planet glows like a fanned ember in the night of space. ~ Ronald Wright

I'm not entirely sure there is a formula for this,' I say. But I wish there were. I would have followed it, plugging in all my data for x and all of Ethan's for y. And I would have worked out the results before involving my emotions, and I wouldn't feel as I feel now
like I've been dumped for real by an imaginary guy. ~ Erin McCahan