Gripping Quotes

• My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea.

  David Brin

  Character, Writing, Ideas

  15 Copy quote

• If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.

  Carlisle Floyd

  Musical, Pieces, Serious

  6 Copy quote

• Everybody has a ‘gripping stranger’ in their lives, Andy, a stranger who unwittingly possesses a bizarre hold over you. Maybe it’s the kid in cut-offs who mows your lawn or the woman wearing White Shoulders who stamps your book at the library—a stranger who, if you were to come home and find a message from them on your answering machine saying ‘Drop everything. I love you. Come away with me now to Florida,’ you’d follow them.

  Douglas Coupland

  Book, Love You, Kids

  51 Copy quote

• Like a child who suddenly stops sobbing when he is clasped in the arms of his mother, such will be the grip of heaven upon our souls.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Inspirational, Christian, Mother

  Twitter post from May 10, 2015

  24 Copy quote

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• Father, we long for the clarity of Your truth to dawn upon our minds and for the immensity of Your love to grip our hearts.

  Alistair Begg

  Father, Heart, Long

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• You spend a good deal of your life gripping a baseball, and it turns out it was the other way around all the time.

  Jim Bouton

  Success, Sports, Baseball

  51 Copy quote

• I don't even own a computer. I write by hand then I type it up on an old manual typewriter. But I cross out a lot - I'm not writing in stone tablets, it's just ink on paper. I don't feel comfortable without a pen or a pencil in my hand. I can't think with my fingers on the keyboard. Words are generated for me by gripping the pen, and pressing the point on the paper.

  Paul Auster

  Writing, Thinking, Typewriters

  "A Connoisseur of Clouds, a Meteorologist of Whims: The Rumpus Interview with Paul Auster". Interview with Juliet Linderman, therumpus.net. November 16, 2009.

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• I am not who I was,' he whispered, gripping the edges of the column, 'but I know who I am.'... 'And I won't give up.

  Christopher Paolini

  Giving Up, Who I Am, I Won't Give Up

  Christopher Paolini (2012). “Inheritance Deluxe Edition (The Inheritance Cycle, Book 4)”, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• How it felt to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if I fell, at least I wouldn't do it alone.

  Sarah Dessen

  Moving, Hands, Knowing

  Sarah Dessen (2011). “What Happened to Goodbye”, p.136, Penguin

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• Where are you now?’ Where was I now? Gripping the receiver, I raised my hand and turned to see what lay beyond the telephone booth. Where was I now? I had no idea. No idea at all. Where was this place? All that flashed into my eyes were the countless shapes of people walking by to nowhere. Again and again, I called out for Midori from the dead center of this place that was no place.

  Haruki Murakami

  Eye, Hands, Ideas

  FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Mar 30, 2016

  3 Copy quote

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• At the door , she made him promise to go without goodbyes .She closed the door on him . Laila leaned her back against it , shaking against his pounding fists , one arm gripping her belly and a hand across her mouth , as he spoke throughout the door and promised that he would come back for her . She stood there until he tired , until he gave up , and then she listened to his uneven footsteps until they faded , until all was quiet , save for the gunfire cracking in the hills and her own heart thudding in her belly , her eyes , her bones .

  Khaled Hosseini

  Goodbye, Tired, Heart

  5 Copy quote

• So much had happened that morning. Yet it was this image, this moment, that i kept going back to hours later, after we'd made it safely to the walkway and gone our separate ways to classes. How it felt to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if i fell, at least i wouldn't do it alone.

  Sarah Dessen

  Morning, Moving, Hands

  Sarah Dessen (2011). “What Happened to Goodbye”, p.136, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

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• A person shows signs of clutching on too fast, of being needy, of not hearing the word "no," of jealousy, of guarding you and your freedom. But the signs can be so small they skitter right past you. Sometimes they dance past, looking satiny, something you should applaud. Someone's jealousy can make you feel good. Special. But it's not even about you. It's about a hand that is already gripping. It's about their need, circling around your throat

  Deb Caletti

  Past, Hands, Feel Good

  Deb Caletti (2012). “Stay”, p.158, Simon and Schuster

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• Even if the steering wheel fits, you don't have to keep gripping it.

  Beth Moore

  Wheels, Fit, Steering

  Beth Moore (2009). “Get Out of That Pit: Straight Talk about God's Deliverance”, p.11, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Small, red, and upright he waited, gripping his new bookbag tight in one hand and touching a lucky penny inside his coat pocket with the other, while the first snows of winter floated down on his eyelashes and covered the branches around him and silenced all trace of the world.

  Anne Carson

  Winter, Eyelashes, Hands

  Anne Carson (1999). “Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse”, Vintage

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• Grace. I held on to that name. If I kept that in my head, I would be OK. Grace. I was shaking, shaking; my skin peeling away. Grace. My bones squeezed, pinched, pressed against my muscles. Grace. Her eyes held me even after I stopped feeling her fingers gripping my arms. Sam," she said. "Don't go.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Eye, Names, Grace

  3 Copy quote

• Why are murder mysteries so popular? There's a 3-part "formula" (if you want to call it that) for a genre novel: (1) Someone the reader likes and relates to (2) overcomes increasingly difficult obstacles (3) to reach an important goal. The more important the goal, the stronger the novel. And the most important goal that any of us have is survival. That's why murder mysteries are more gripping than a story titled "Who Stole My TV Set.

  Lois Duncan

  Murder Mysteries, Goal, Survival

  10 Copy quote

• I staggered backward-her one hand gripping my shoulder, the other still holding my wrists behind her-and she followed until my back hit the wall.

  Kim Harrison

  Wall, Hands, Shoulders

  3 Copy quote

• Cam held her closer. "Marry me, Amelia. You're what I want. You're my fate." One hand slid to the back of her head, gripping the braids and ribbons to keep her mouth upturned. "Say yes." He nibbled at her lips, licked at them, opened them. He kissed her until she writhed in his arms, her pulse racing. "Say it, Amelia, and save me from ever having to spend a night with another woman. I'll sleep indoors. I'll get a haircut. God help me, I think I'd even carry a pocket watch if it pleased you.

  Lisa Kleypas

  Sleep, Fate, Thinking

  Lisa Kleypas (2007). “Mine Till Midnight”, p.240, Macmillan

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• You've sort of made up for it tonight,' said Harry. 'Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcux. Saving my life.' 'That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was,' Ron mumbled. 'Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was,' said Harry. 'I've been trying to tell you that for years.' Simultaneously they walked forwards and hugged, Harry gripping the still sopping back of Ron's jacket.

  J. K. Rowling

  Years, Trying, Sound

  5 Copy quote

• Famed value investor Guy Spier has managed to write what is both a gripping memoir and a fascinating study of what it takes to succeed in investing and life. A must read!

  John Mihaljevic

  Writing, Guy, Investing

  4 Copy quote

• Science fiction can be exciting and very gripping, but it doesn't tell us anything about the universe in which we live.

  Stephen Hawking

  Fiction, Exciting, Universe

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

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• GraceQuest is a gripping story of one man's (and his family's) struggle with tremendous weakness and pain, but it is also a narrative theodicy--defense of God's goodness in spite of the undeniable reality of evil. . . . This is an honest and hard-hitting book about God's grace in and through tremendous loss of health and strength. Readers will find hope and help here if they are open to its message about the God-given 'strength to suffer well.'

  Roger E. Olson

  Pain, Struggle, Book

  3 Copy quote

• Chevy Stevens is in top form. ALWAYS WATCHING is a tense and twisty exploration of dark memories, hidden pasts, and a place that seems like heaven but might be hell. This is a deep and exciting novel, as unsettling as it is gripping.

  Lisa Unger

  Memories, Dark, Past

  3 Copy quote

• History meets romance meets suspense! Compelling, original and wildly romantic, Beatriz Williams’ prose is stunning and the plot edge-of-your-seat gripping. OVERSEAS is an absolute triumph—I loved every page.

  Tilly Bagshawe

  Romance, Triumph, Plot

  3 Copy quote