Emily > Emily's Quotes

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”
― Winston Churchill

“Do you know how to read?'
'No. It is one of the black arts.'
He nodded. 'But a useful one,' he said.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan

“I think fiction lends itself to messiness rather than the ideal, and plays well with the ironies surrounding what happens versus what should happen. And yes, I suppose I was interested in that story in the gap between memory itself, the real business of being alive, and the imagination.”
― Colm Tóibín

“...I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.”
― Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“I want my world to be fun. No parents, no rules, no nothing. Like, no one can stop me. No one can stop me.”
― Justin Bieber

“The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.”
― Katherine Mansfield

“The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.”
― Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“I like to do things certain ways and I disagree with everybody but I don't even want to argue.”
― George Balanchine

“In short, if we wish to see anything sensible done about the situation, we will clearly have to do it ourselves.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

“Alas," murmured Poirot to his mustaches, "that one can only eat three times a day ...”
― Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead

“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“But there is much that cannot go into books, and that is the loss with which I become increasingly concerned.”
― John Williams, Augustus

“Listening's reading if you close your eyes. Music's a wood you walk through.”
― David Mitchell, Black Swan Green

“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

“Your daily war chant: ( screaming it is mandatory! )
Ooooooooh today, today I will see,
what a happy place the world can be!
I will make someone smile,
refuse to being vile!
I will share what I love,
take someone high above,
in the sky, between the clouds
with joyful shouts!

Today, today even you will see,
What a happy place the world can be!
Make it happen, enjoy your day,
Remember it is a temporary stay,
here on earth, this single hour,
today I give my love a flower!

YEAAAAAH! Today I kick life’s behind,
making good what is unkind!
Making smile who is not grinning!
And this is only the beginning!
Today.I.am. AAAAAAALIVEE!”
― Janosch Fingerhut

“What appalling tales we shall have to tell of the strange lands we visited; and of those lands, surely none was stranger or more barbaric than Rome!”
― Steven Saylor, A Gladiator Dies Only Once

“It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
― Gertrude Stein

“What ho!" I said.
"What ho!" said Motty.
"What ho! What ho!"
"What ho! What ho! What ho!"
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.”
― Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves

“I hadn't the heart to touch my breakfast. I told Jeeves to drink it himself.”
― P.G. Wodehouse

“Genius is of small use to a woman who does not know how to do her hair.”
― Edith Wharton

“Every instance of undying love was only half an hour young, once upon a time.”
― David Mitchell

“It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“I wonder: If you think of someone you love, do you become a little more like them? I would like to think so.”
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road

“There is no such thing as a perfect leader. We have to learn to lead ourselves.”
― Gloria Steinem

“Looking out of the window at the infinite sky, I prayed out, 'Dear Baby Jesus, I am sorry for my sin, even though I do not know what they are, which seems a bit unfair if it is going to be held against me. But that is your way. And I am not questioning your wisdomosity. In future, however, would it be possible for my life to be not so entirely crap? Thank you.”
― Louise Rennison, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel

“He had everything a dream boy should have. Back, front, sides, Everything. A head.”
― Louise Rennison, Withering Tights

“All boys are swines. They snog you and dump you. Or lick your face. Or put bats in your mouth.”
― Louise Rennison, A Midsummer Tights Dream

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

“No proper princess would come out looking for dragons," Woraug objected.

"Well I'm not a proper princess then!" Cimorene snapped. "I make cherries jubillee and I volunteer for dragons, and I conjugate Latin verbs-- or at least I would if anyone would let me. So there!”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Dealing with Dragons