Paragraph Quotes - Page 4

• To one who has enjoyed the full life of any scene, of any hour, what thoughts can be recorded about it seem like the commas and semicolons in the paragraph-mere stops.

  Margaret Fuller

  Writing, Hours, Scene

  Margaret Fuller (1860). “At Home and Abroad, Or, Things and Thoughts in America and Europe”, p.8

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• This infantile sense of order tended to infect my life at large. Up at 5:30 a.m., coffee, oatmeal, perhaps sausage (homemade), and fresh eggs giving one of the yolks to Lola. Listening to NPR and grieving more recently over the absence of Bob Edwards who was the sound of morning as surely as birds. Reading a paragraph or two of Emerson or Loren Eiseley to raise the level of my thinking. Going out to feed the cattle if it was during our six months of bad weather.

  Jim Harrison

  Morning, Reading, Coffee

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• Read him slowly, dear girl, you must read Kipling slowly. Watch carefully where the commas fall so you can discover the natural pauses. He is a writer who used pen and ink. He looked up from the page a lot, I believe, stared through his window and listened to birds, as most writers who are alone do. Some do not know the names of birds, though he did. Your eye is too quick and North American. Think about the speed of his pen. What an appalling, barnacled old first paragraph it is otherwise.

  Michael Ondaatje

  Girl, Fall, Believe

  Michael Ondaatje (2011). “The English Patient”, p.94, Vintage

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• He wrote one more paragraph for his own sake, to see what he had to say.

  Sebastian Faulks

  Sake

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• I’m a word freak. I like words. I’ve always compared writing to music. That’s the way I feel about good paragraphs. When it really works, it’s like music.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Writing, Way, Freak

  FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Jul 22, 2014

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• He was a man who wrote, who interpreted the world. Wisdom grew out of being handed just the smallest sliver of emotion. A glance could lead to paragraphs of theory.

  Michael Ondaatje

  Men, World, Emotion

  Michael Ondaatje (2011). “The English Patient”, p.258, A&C Black

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• I write the paragraph, then I'm crossing out, changing words, trying to improve it. When it seems more or less OK, then I type it up because sometimes it's almost illegible, and if I wait, I might not be able to read it the next day.

  Paul Auster

  Writing, Next Day, Waiting

  "Paul Auster talks" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. October 29, 2008.

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• Welcome to freakdom, Dave. It’ll be time to start a Web site soon, where you’ll type out everything in one huge paragraph.

  David Wong

  Welcome, Dave, Type

  David Wong (2011). “John Dies at the End”, p.75, Titan Books

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• Elisabeth Sheffield's new novel is multilayered, smart, beautifully written, and funny. I was taken in by the first paragraph and held firmly through the roller coaster of a ride. The depth of the novel was evidenced by the constantly shifting meaning of the title itself. In fact, the entire work never changes its meaning, but somehow, seamlessly, simply means more. This is a rare and memorable piece of work.

  Percival Everett

  Smart, Taken, Mean

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• I just wanted to speak to you about something from the Internal Revenue Code. It is the last sentence of section 509A of the code and it reads: 'For purposes of paragraph 3, an organization described in paragraph 2 shall be deemed to include an organization described in section 501C-4, 5, or 6, which would be described in paragraph 2 if it were an organization described in section 501C-3.' And that's just one sentence out of those fifty-seven feet of books.

  Ronald Reagan

  Book, Government, Organization

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

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• I'll get a three-page letter and the last paragraph says 'I know you'll never read this, but here's my number.' I love to call those people because the first thing they say is, 'Governor, I didn't mean everything I said in the letter about you.'

  Dave Heineman

  Love, Mean, Numbers

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• Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday.

  Ernest Gaines

  Writing, Yesterday, Pages

  "Author Ernest Gaines comes home to where his ancestors were enslaved" by Wayne Drash, www.cnn.com. November 9, 2010.

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• I've been lucky. I've met a lot of baseball people, and I've learned to value people who talk - people who talk well and in long sentences and even long paragraphs.

  Roger Angell

  Baseball, Long, People

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• There are so many ways of saying Hi. Hiss it, trill it, bark it, sing it, bellow it, laugh it, cough it. A simple stroll in the hallway calls for paragraphs, sentences in your head, decisions galore.

  Frank McCourt

  Simple, Laughing, Decision

  Frank McCourt (2005). “Teacher Man: A Memoir”, p.245, Simon and Schuster

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• It was a short one-paragraph item in the morning edition.

  Haruki Murakami

  Morning, Items

  "A Wild Sheep Chase". Book by Haruki Murakami, October 13, 1982.

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• since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; wholly to be a fool while Spring is in the world my blood approves, and kisses are a far better fate than wisdom lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry --the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids' flutter which says we are for eachother: then laugh, leaning back in my arms for life's not a paragraph And death i think is no parenthesis

  e. e. cummings

  Spring, Flower, Fate

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• Bubble gum angels swooped from top margins or scraped their wings between teeming paragraphs, maidens with golden hair dripped sea blue tears into the books spine, grape-colored whales spouted blood around a newspaper item (pasted in) listing arrivals to the endangered spieces list. Six hatchlings cried from shattered shells near an entry made on Easter. Cecilia had filled the pages with a profusion of colors and curlicues, candyland ladders and striped shamrocks.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Easter, Book, Angel

  Jeffrey Eugenides (1993). “The Virgin Suicides: A Novel”, p.29, Macmillan

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• My sentences tend to be very short and rather spare. I'm more your paragraph kind of gal.

  Geraldine Brooks

  Kind, Gals, Sentences

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• I like to try to do a little work before I do anything in the morning, even if it's a paragraph.

  Sloane Crosley

  Morning, Trying, Littles

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• If you want to lose 40 pounds, you order salad instead of fries. If you want to be a better friend, you take the phone call instead of screening it. If you want to write a novel, you sit down and write a single paragraph. It's scary to make major changes, but we usually have enough courage to take the next right step.

  Regina Brett

  Writing, Phones, Order

  Regina Brett (2010). “Life's Little Detours: 50 Lessons to Find and Hold onto Happiness”, p.11, Hachette UK

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• A little more matriarchy is what the world needs, and I know it. Period. Paragraph.

  Dorothy Thompson

  Women, Needs, World

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• And I love the twist. I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, and on the very last page, quite often - very last paragraph sometimes - I like to just play with your perception one more time in a way that makes everything that came before just a little bit different.

  Harlan Coben

  Play, Perception, Lasts

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• It's not that you get a cliché and then wiggle it about or use synonyms. You don't take an ordinary decorative paragraph and give it style. What you're trying to do is be faithful to your perceptions and transmit them as faithfully as you can. I say these sentences until they sound right. There's no objective reason why they're right. They just sound right to me.

  Martin Amis

  Writing, Giving, Faithful

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• Look. (Grown-ups skip this paragraph) I'm not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending. I already said in the very first line how it was my favorite in all the world. But there's a lot of bad stuff coming.

  William Goldman

  Book, Looks, World

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• So this is supposed to be about the how, and when, and why, and what of reading -- about the way that, when reading is going well, one book leads to another and to another, a paper trail of theme and meaning; and how, when it's going badly, when books don't stick or take, when your mood and the mood of the book are fighting like cats, you'd rather do anything but attempt the next paragraph, or reread the last one for the tenth time.

  Nick Hornby

  Book, Reading, Cat

  Nick Hornby (2006). “The complete polysyllabic spree”

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