Sentences Quotes - Page 30

• An ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led up to it, it would always have the last word.

  Sarah Dessen

  Stories, Pages, Matter

  Sarah Dessen (2009). “Along for the Ride”, p.175, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not know what I regret. I sit with my pen, and cannot find an end to that sentence.

  Matthew Tobin Anderson

  Regret, Ends, Pens

  10 Copy quote

• You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

  Annie Proulx

  Teacher, Reading, Writing

  48 Copy quote

• For some time now the impression has been growing upon me that everyone is dead. It happens when I speak to people. In the middle of a sentence it will come over me: yes, beyond a doubt this is death. There is little to do but groan and make an excuse and slip away as quickly as one can.

  Walker Percy

  People, Doubt, Growing

  Walker Percy (2011). “The Moviegoer”, p.45, Open Road Media

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Here's your first problem," he said, pointing at a sentence. "'Religion is the opium of the people.' Well, I don't know about people, but I think you'll find that the opium of pirates is actual opium.

  Gideon Defoe

  Thinking, People, Pirate

  Gideon Defoe (2012). “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists: Reissued”, p.96, A&C Black

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Just start the sentence...and see what happens. This is how we write.

  Jincy Willett

  Writing, Happens

  15 Copy quote

• Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper not eternal bronze: Let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes.

  Jacques Barzun

  Block, Stupid, Writing

  6 Copy quote

• Vaguely, as when you are studying a foreign language and read a page which at first you can make nothing of, till a word or a sentence gives you a clue; and on a sudden suspicion, as it were, of the sense flashes across your troubled wits, vaguely she gained an inkling into the workings of Walter's mind. It was like a dark and ominous landscape seen by a flash of lightning and in a moment hidden again by the night. She shuddered at what she saw.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Dark, Night, Giving

  7 Copy quote

• For a sentence is not complete unless each word, once its syllables have been pronounced, gives way to make room for the next...They are set up on the course of their existence, and the faster they climb towards its zenith, the more they hasten towards the point where they exist no more.

  Saint Augustine

  Giving, Zenith, Way

  5 Copy quote

• What mattered to Abu was the music of the sentence. 'A shadow does not belong to the object that casts it.' To Abu, it was a little poem. And in general, it was the poetics, the music of things that tossed his confetti.

  Tom Robbins

  Shadow, Doe, Littles

  14 Copy quote

• That moment - to this ... may be years in the way they measure, but it's only one sentence back in my mind - there are so many days when living stops and pulls up and sits and waits like a train on the rails. I pass the hotel at 8 and at 5; there are cats in the alleys and bottles and bums, and I look up at the window and think, I no longer know where you are, and I walk on and wonder where the living goes when it stops.

  Charles Bukowski

  Cat, Thinking, Years

  Charles Bukowski (2016). “On Love”, p.9, Canongate Books

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• You've got a lifetime to mull over the Buddhist understanding of interconnectedness." He spoke every sentence as if he'd written it down, memorized it, and was now reciting it. "But while you were looking out the window, you missed the chance to explore the equally interesting Buddhist belief in being present for every facet of your daily life, of being truly present. Be present in this class. And then, when it's over, be present out there," he said, nodding toward the lake and beyond.' ~Dr. Hyde, pg 50

  John Green

  Buddhist, Class, Lakes

  John Green (2008). “Looking for Alaska”, p.54, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, 'Write what you know.' It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given. If we write simply about what we know we never grow. We don't develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head-on. We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves. What one should write about is what interests one.

  Annie Proulx

  Stupid, Writing, Self

  26 Copy quote

• Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion.

  Francis Bacon

  Plato, Imagination, Remembrance

  Francis Bacon (2012). “Complete Essays”, p.168, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories.

  Michael Ende

  Thinking, Twenties, Stories

  14 Copy quote

• Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Book, Forests, Despite

  Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857”, p.215, Harvard University Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sam Vimes could parallel process. Most husbands can. They learn to follow their own line of thought while at the same time listening to what their wives say. And the listening is important, because at any time they could be challenged and must be ready to quote the last sentence in full. A vital additional skill is being able to scan the dialogue for telltale phrases such as "and they can deliver it tomorrow" or "so I've invited them for dinner?" or "they can do it in blue, really quite cheaply.

  Terry Pratchett

  Husband, Blue, Skills

  "The Fifth Elephant". Book by ‎Terry Pratchett, 1999.

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• She hopes for nothing except fine weather and a resolution. She wants to end properly, like a good sentence.

  Zadie Smith

  Weather, Want, Resolution

  4 Copy quote

• Getting cut off from the knights' magic rock also required a period of exile from their giant glass mushroom. (Those of you in the Hushlands, I dare you to work that last sentence into a conversation. "By the way, Sally, did you know that getting cut from the knight's magic rock also requires a period of exile from their giant glass mushroom?")

  Brandon Sanderson

  Cutting, Rocks, Mushrooms

  Brandon Sanderson (2016). “The Knights of Crystallia: Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians”, p.127, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance in an hour pulls down.

  George Eliot

  Ignorance, Common, Hours

  George Eliot (2009). “Daniel Deronda”, p.194, Oxford Paperbacks

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.

  William Safire

  Passive Voice, Negative, Splits

  16 Copy quote

• If you sincerely believed in God, how could you form one thought, speak one sentence, without mentioning Him?

  Neal Stephenson

  Speak, Form, One Sentence

  Neal Stephenson (2010). “Anathem”, p.178, Atlantic Books Ltd

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone.

  Richard Hugo

  Giving Up, Communication, Writing

  8 Copy quote

• The prospect of his future life stretched before him like a sentence; not a prison sentence but a long-winded sentence with a lot of unnecessary subordinate clauses, as he was soon in the habit of quipping during Happy Hour pickup time at the local campus bars and pubs. He couldn’t say he was looking forward to it, this rest-of-his-life.

  Margaret Atwood

  Long, Bars, Looking Forward

  Margaret Atwood (2009). “Oryx And Crake”, p.106, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Code of the Vampires decreed that anyone who violated the Sacred Law was condemned to death, the blood burning. Charles had refused to subject Allegra to the sentence. But Mimi was a different matter. Mimi walked out of the church, knowing that if she ever saw Jack again, she would have to kill him.

  Melissa de la Cruz

  Blood, Law, Knowing

  4 Copy quote