Tongue Quotes - Page 15

• So what rhyming poems do is they take all these nearby sound curves and remind you that they first existed that way in your brain. Before they meant something specific, they had a shape and a way of being said. And now, yes, gloom and broom are floating fifty miles away from each other in you mind because they refer to different notions, but they're cheek-by-jowl as far as your tongue is concerned. And that's what a poem does. Poems match sounds up the way you matched them when you were a tiny kid, using that detachable front phoneme.

  Nicholson Baker

  Kids, Curves, Brain

  Nicholson Baker (2009). “The Anthologist: A Novel”, p.111, Simon and Schuster

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• And when he had put his hand on mine with a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, he brought me within to the secret things. Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding through the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utterances, words of woe, accents of anger, voices high and faint, and sounds of hands with them, were making a tumult which whirls always in that air forever dark, like the sand when the whirlwind breathes.

  Dante Alighieri

  Dark, Air, Hands

  Dante Alighieri (2005). “The Divine Comedy: Inferno”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

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• when you [lose someone], it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all nerves are still a little raw

  Jodi Picoult

  Fall, Empty Places, Teeth

  Jodi Picoult (2010). “House Rules: A Novel”, p.166, Simon and Schuster

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• The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap And seeing that it was a soft October night Curled once about the house, and fell asleep

  T. S. Eliot

  Fall, Night, Fog

  T.S. Eliot (2011). “The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot”, p.7, Faber & Faber

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• At the heart of the matter is a battle between wish and fear. Fear generally proves stronger than a wish, but it leaves a taste of disappointment on the tongue.

  George Packer

  Disappointment, Fear, Heart

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• Cat tongues are awesome." --Nellie Gomez, The 39 Clues, Beyond The Grave

  Judy Blundell

  Cat, Clue, Graves

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• You needn't tell a bird it's a bird. Or remind a fish of its purpose. It's only us who lose our way. We have names because we must. - from Golden Tongue: The Poems of Steven Slaughter

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Names, Bird, Purpose

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• We dance, we dance. You hold the thread of my soul. You spin, you spin. And you unravel the part from the whole. We laugh, we laugh. I'm so far from where I began. I fall, I fall. And I forget that I am.-from Golden Tongue:The Poems of Steven Slaughter

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Fall, Laughing, Soul

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• Shutup, lapdog, this isn’t your fight, either. Boy, you better counsel that tongue before you find yourself without it.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Fighting, Boys, Finding Yourself

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2009). “Bad Moon Rising: A Dark-Hunter Novel”, p.244, Macmillan

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• Where is the sound?" someone hastily scribbled on the blackboard, and they all waited anxiously for the reply. Milo caught his breath, picked up the chalk, and explained simply, "It's on the tip of my tongue.

  Norton Juster

  Sound, Caught, Chalk

  Norton Juster (2011). “The Phantom Tollbooth”, p.134, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• This is not to say that I wasn't completely repulsed. I mean, I wasn't exactly proud that my stepbrother was in there tongue wrestling with the second stupidest person in our class, after himself.

  Meg Cabot

  Mean, Wrestling, Class

  Meg Cabot (2009). “High Stakes”, p.12, Pan Macmillan

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• You’ve no idea...my tongue has been known to let blood on four continents. (Geary)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Blood, Ideas, Four

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• I haven't anything against whores, except this: some of them may have an honest tongue but they all have dishonest hearts.

  Truman Capote

  Heart, May, Honest

  Truman Capote (2012). “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, p.82, Vintage

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• In the face of brutality I was prudent. Before injustice I held my peace. I sacrificed the things in hand for the good of the hypothetical whole. I believed in the tongue instead of the fist. As an armor against oppression I taught patience and faith in the human soul. I know now how wrong I was. I have been a traitor to myself and to my people. All that is rot.

  Carson McCullers

  Fighting, Hands, People

  "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter".

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• One single word and I swear I’ll rip your tongue out. (Zephyra)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Rip, Single Word, Swear

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2013). “The Dark-Hunters”, p.1553, Macmillan

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• Poetry [is] more necessary than ever as a fire to light our tongues.

  Naomi Shihab Nye

  Fire, Light, Poetry Is

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• Total?" I called. He looked up alertly, then ran over to me, small pink tongue hanging out. Total?" I said when he was close. "Can you talk?" He flopped down on the grass, panting slightly. "Yeah. So?" Jeezum. I mean, mutant weirdos are nothing new to me, you know? But a talking dog?

  James Patterson

  Dog, Mean, Talking

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• she got a reputation for an easy smile and a sharp tongue, and using one to balance the other, she seemed friendly but distant

  Dorothy Allison

  Balance, Friendly, Reputation

  Dorothy Allison (2005). “Bastard Out of Carolina: A Novel”, p.18, Penguin

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• Those women like to see their tongues dance.

  Ray Bradbury

  Ray Bradbury (2013). “Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales”, p.2, Harper Collins

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• Your Majesty, you just-" Costis stopped. "Just what?" the king prompted wickedly. Nothing would induce Costis to say out loud that the king had almost fallen from the palace wall and that Costis had seen him manifestly saved by the God of Thieves. The king smiled. "Cat got your tongue?" "Your Majesty, you are drunk," Costis pleaded. "I am. What's your excuse?

  Megan Whalen Turner

  Kings, Wall, Cat

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• He was the only person in the world she was tongue-tied around, and yet the only person she really wanted to talk to.

  Sarah Addison Allen

  World, Wanted, Persons

  Sarah Addison Allen (2008). “The Sugar Queen”, p.14, Bantam

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• Then he kissed her, not just a brush of lips as she'd done, but a kiss a kiss that scalded her tongue. The tree burst into full blooms. The garden fluttered around her. A riot of flowers shot out of the earth. She was mud-covered as he pulled back.

  Melissa Marr

  Flower, Kissing, Garden

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• Tush! Fear not, my lord, we will not stand to prate; Talkers are no good doers: be assured We come to use our hands and not our tongues.

  William Shakespeare

  Hands, Use, Doers

  William Shakespeare (2000). “The Tragedy of King Richard III”, p.192, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Now the tattoos," Zia announced. "Brilliant!" I said. "On your tongue," she added. "Excuse me?

  Rick Riordan

  Tattoo, Brilliant, Excuse

  Rick Riordan (2010). “The Kane Chronicles, The, Book One: Red Pyramid”, Hyperion

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• I haven't come to you only to take , I haven't come to you empty handed : I bring you poetry as great as yours but in anther tongue , I bring you black eyes and golden skin and curly hair , I bring you Islam and Luxor and Alexandria and Lutes and tambourines and date-palms and silk rugs and sunshine and incense and voluptuous ways

  Ahdaf Soueif

  Eye, Sunshine, Hair

  Ahdaf Soueif (1999). “In the Eye of the Sun”, p.512, A&C Black

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