Naomi Barger > Naomi's Quotes

“Do you know the song Violet Crowned Athens?” he asked. Yellow hair like hers was rare among the Greeks. Though some people say that Helen of Troy . . .”
― Yvonne Korshak, Pericles and Aspasia: A Story of Ancient Greece

“He was planning to take my shape and marry you. Then he was going to kill your father and take over his business empire."
    "And you? What are your plans?"
    "I have no plans to kill your father.”
― Max Nowaz, The Polymorph

“What she needs,' Tom said aloud 'is a husband.' Agnes said crisply, 'Well, she can't have mine.”
― Ken Follett

“Now that I know there’s more? I want to have more. If there really is more to life, I want to live all of it. And why shouldn’t all of us? Don’t we deserve that?”
― Patrick Ness, More Than This

“The serpent tries to engulf my head. No, not a snake, an oxygen mask.”
― Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle

“The depressed man longs for heavy clouds, fog, mist, chilly weather, downpours, hail.”
― Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full

“When her muzzle grew more white than brown, the chipmunk forgot that she and the squirrel had had nothing to talk about. She forgot the definition of "jazz" as well and came to think of it as every beautiful thing she had ever failed to appreciate: the taste of warm rain; the smell of a baby; the din of a swollen river, rushing past her tree and onward to infinity.”
― David Sedaris, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

“The peculiar idea that bigger is better has been around for at least as long as I have, and it's always bothered me. There is within it the implication that it is more difficult for God to care about a gnat than about a galaxy. Creation is just as visible in a grain of sand as in a skyful of stars.

The church is not immune from the bigger-is-better heresy. One woman told of going to a meeting where only a handful of people turned out, and these faithful few were scolded by the visiting preacher for the sparseness of the congregation. And she said indignantly, 'Our Lord said *feed* my sheep, not count them!' I often feel that I'm being counted, rather than fed, and so I am hungry.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Irrational Season

“The contemplative clinking and methodical chewing are a little weird, but it is proof that souls are housed
inside the physical body.”
― Tom Hillman, Digging for God

“Out of the bedroom window, Tara watches the silver moon in the night sky cast a faint glow on the pine trees.  Ian was right.  It’s time to move on.  Not to forget, but to forge ahead.”
― Dawn Chalker

“You arrogant, insufferable asshole; you scared me to death. If I hadn’t been so afraid that you were already dead, I’d have killed you myself.”
― Lotchie Burton, Gabriel's Fire

“The sunset bled into the edges of the village. Smoke curled out of the cottage chimney like a crooked finger.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

“Snake Street is an area I should avoid. Yet that night I was drawn there as surely as if I had an appointment. 
The Snake House is shabby on the outside to hide the wealth within. Everyone knows of the wealth, but facades, like the park’s wall, must be maintained. A lantern hung from the porch eaves. A sign, written in Utte, read ‘Kinship of the Serpent’. I stared at that sign, at that porch, at the door with its twisted handle, and wondered what the people inside would do if I entered. Would they remember me? Greet me as Kin? Or drive me out and curse me for faking my death?  Worse, would they expect me to redon the life I’ve shed? Staring at that sign, I pissed in the street like the Mearan savage I’ve become.
As I started to leave, I saw a woman sitting in the gutter. Her lamp attracted me. A memsa’s lamp, three tiny flames to signify the Holy Trinity of Faith, Purity, and Knowledge.  The woman wasn’t a memsa. Her young face was bruised and a gash on her throat had bloodied her clothing. Had she not been calmly assessing me, I would have believed the wound to be mortal. I offered her a copper. 
She refused, “I take naught for naught,” and began to remove trinkets from a cloth bag, displaying them for sale.
Her Utte accent had been enough to earn my coin. But to assuage her pride I commented on each of her worthless treasures, fighting the urge to speak Utte. (I spoke Universal with the accent of an upper class Mearan though I wondered if she had seen me wetting the cobblestones like a shameless commoner.) After she had arranged her wares, she looked up at me. “What do you desire, O Noble Born?”
I laughed, certain now that she had seen my act in front of the Snake House and, letting my accent match the coarseness of my dress, I again offered the copper.
 “Nay, Noble One. You must choose.” She lifted a strand of red beads. “These to adorn your lady’s bosom?”
            I shook my head. I wanted her lamp. But to steal the light from this woman ... I couldn’t ask for it. She reached into her bag once more and withdrew a book, leather-bound, the pages gilded on the edges. “Be this worthy of desire, Noble Born?”
 I stood stunned a moment, then touched the crescent stamped into the leather and asked if she’d stolen the book. She denied it. I’ve had the Training; she spoke truth. Yet how could she have come by a book bearing the Royal Seal of the Haesyl Line? I opened it. The pages were blank.
“Take it,” she urged. “Record your deeds for study. Lo, the steps of your life mark the journey of your soul.”
  I told her I couldn’t afford the book, but she smiled as if poverty were a blessing and said, “The price be one copper. Tis a wee price for salvation, Noble One.”
  So I bought this journal. I hide it under my mattress. When I lie awake at night, I feel the journal beneath my back and think of the woman who sold it to me. Damn her. She plagues my soul. I promised to return the next night, but I didn’t. I promised to record my deeds. But I can’t. The price is too high.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Captain Scultetus said, “Sir, I am the commander of the Swakopmund Coast Guard. My name and rank  are Captain Oskar Scultetus! I respectfully beg you not to open fire upon my city!”
― Michael G. Kramer, His Forefathers and Mick

“Someone else is watching James Ed Hoskins, Ms. Jones. I don’t know who or why, but he is being watched.”
― Shafter Bailey, James Ed Hoskins and the One-Room Schoolhouse: The Unprosecuted Crime Against Children

“You can be a natural athlete with terrible work habits, and that ends up wasting your gifts.”
― Vernon Davis, Playing Ball: Life Lessons from My Journey to the Super Bowl and Beyond

“I knew Dad was concerned about my past associations. I was from the Trash Alley. It was my community. I hung out with thugs from the Frog Bottom, the Burns Bottoms, the Red Line, the S-Curve, the Sandfield, the Morning Side, and a bunch of other places that shall remain nameless. I knew all of the “Legends of the Hood”: Sin Man, Swap, Boo Boo, Emp-Man, Cookie Man, Shank, Polar Bear, Bae Willy, Bae Bruh, Skullhead Ned, Pimp, Crunch, and Goat Turd (just to name a few). I thought maybe Dad had summoned me as a “show and tell” for the kids in his neighborhood—the hardliner to scare those wayward suburban brats back into reality.”
― Harold Phifer, Surviving Chaos: How I Found Peace at A Beach Bar

“Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

“Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?”
― Ann Patchett, Run

“And for all I know he is sitting there still, under his favorite cork tree, smelling the flowers just quietly”
― Munro Leaf, The Story of Ferdinand

“When you've learned to laugh at the things that should be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn't, you've got wisdom and understanding.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island

“When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders.”
― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

“Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“He had an intrusive gaze and quietly confident manner, that seemed to strip away the layers of protective deception Scott would usually adopt around strangers.”
― R.D. Ronald, The Elephant Tree

“Where’s my uncle?” she asked.
“I don’t know who your uncle is, but if it as the guy who owned this place before I bought it, then he’s pushing up daisies.”
“But it can’t be, he’s still young.”
― Max Nowaz, The Three Witches and the Master

“It’s all about the company you keep, isn’t it, Chief Inspector? Now Mr Trenton, who I know wouldn’t hurt a fly, has certain…preferences, if you know what I mean.’ He gave Merlin a meaningful look. ‘I don’t want to get anyone into trouble, of course.”
― Mark Ellis, Death of an Officer

“Every cold case is someone’s failure. And while every failure has many illegitimate parents, usually, one person gets stuck with the kid. Scholz was this ugly baby’s mother. And mommas can be very temperamental about their babies, especially the ugly ones.”
― J.K. Franko, Killing Johnny Miracle

“Quanto a me, che cosa credevo? Non temevo il mondo, e neppure lo disprezzavo. Ad Avalon avevo imparato una dottrina diversa: mi era stato insegnato a percepire lo spirito in ogni cosa e riconoscere che, nella maggior parte dei casi, il mondo procedeva nel proprio corso, interessandosi ben poco dell'umanità. Il corvo che gracchiava sul tetto non sapeva che l'uomo che lo ascoltava avrebbe interpretato il suo gracchiare come un segno: era l'uomo, dunque, che doveva attribuirgli un significato. Lo spirito pervadeva ogni cosa. Imparare a vivere in armonia col suo movimento era la Via della Saggezza.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...”
― Peter Benchley, Jaws

“Do you believe in the life to come? Mine was always that.”
― Samuel Beckett, Endgame