Lisa > Lisa's Quotes

“I don’t have a gun and I don’t have even one wife and my sentences tend to go on and on and on, with all this syntax in them. Ernest Hemingway would have died rather than have syntax. Or semicolons. I use a whole lot of half-assed semicolons; there was one of them just now; that was a semicolon after “semicolons,” and another one after “now.”

And another thing. Ernest Hemingway would have died rather than get old. And he did. He shot himself. A short sentence. Anything rather than a long sentence, a life sentence. Death sentences are short and very, very manly. Life sentences aren’t. They go on and on, all full of syntax and qualifying clauses and confusing references and getting old. And that brings up the real proof of what a mess I have made of being a man: I am not even young. Just about the time they finally started inventing women, I started getting old. And I went right on doing it. Shamelessly. I have allowed myself to get old and haven’t done one single thing about it, with a gun or anything.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination

“She need never feel apologetic about wanting to read a book—or be herself—again.”
― Sarah Vaughan, Anatomy of a Scandal

“Reading solves most things. Or at least assuages the heart.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“I bet Obama had a great one prepared,” says Seb. “I almost wish we’d been invaded by Martians, just so I could have heard it.”
― Sophie Kinsella, I Owe You One

“Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.”
― Jill Santopolo, More Than Words

“And every book ever written is about love, really, whether it knows it or not. So, yeah, I know a thing or two about love.”
― Dan Gemeinhart, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

“And out in front of the grocery store, there was still that plastic horse you could ride that’d buck and rock if you put a quarter in.”
― Dan Gemeinhart, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

“And for the most part, human beings try to do the right thing, if they can see what that is.”
― Dan Gemeinhart, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

“I’m so, so tired of always worrying about our world splitting into a before and an after again.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“Now I don’t go anywhere except in sneakers.”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“I want us to do a series of interviews with my grandmother and record some of her best stories and memories before they all get eaten up by her dementia. I want to literally make them into tangible things. Do you think you can help me?”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punch Lines

“this is a magical land where every one of you can find exactly the book you need at any given time—even if you don’t know you need it. Every one of you can find the book that will change your life.”
― Anne Ursu, The Lost Girl: A Magical Realism Story About Twin Sisters in Fifth Grade for Children

“That was before Iris understood that there is a difference between the things you have in your head and the things you present to the world—that sometimes you have to fit yourself into certain shapes, ones other people can easily name.”
― Anne Ursu, The Lost Girl: A Magical Realism Story About Twin Sisters in Fifth Grade for Children

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.” Albert Einstein”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees only what he has come to see.” G.K. Chesterton”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.” Gautama Buddha”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page.” Augustine of Hippo”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.” Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” Margaret Lee Runbeck”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.” Leigh Hunt”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” Lao Tzu”
― Helena Hunting, Hilariously Ever After

“Listening to him complain about Stella was as satisfying as watching a rant-filled hour of cable news that confirmed all of your biases.”
― Anna Pitoniak, Necessary People

“It’s one of only five perfect things in the world.” “And the other four are?” “Cats, dogs, Honeycrisp apples, and coffee.”
― Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

“It didn’t matter what hit the fan; as long as there were unread books in the world, she would be fine. Being surrounded by books was the closest she’d ever gotten to feeling like the member of a gang. The books had her back, and the nonfiction, at least, was ready to fight if necessary.”
― Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

“He was calling back their conversation at Trivia Night.”
― Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

“The Human Comedy by William Saroyan.”
― Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

“Always choose love. Always choose the adventure. You’ll never regret it.”
― Tracey Garvis-Graves

“People are rotten everywhere you go. They’re no good. You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

“This mess is yours, and I feel sorry for that baby because his mother is a liar and a cheater and a manipulator. With you as a role model, you’re either going to raise a serial killer or the next president.”
― Helena Hunting, Making Up

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”
― Penny Reid, Beard with Me