Anise Eden > Anise's Quotes

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“Ben's words called to my heart. Instead of responding with terror, it opened like a fist uncurling, as though it had been waiting twenty-six years just to hear his voice.”
― Anise Eden, All the Broken Places

“I froze in place, bracing myself for the coming panic attack. Ben had said he was falling for me. That sounded serious, and whenever past relationships had approached “serious,” I had promptly freaked out. I sat in trepidation, waiting for the heart palpitations, the shallow breathing, the sweaty palms, and worst of all, the feeling of dread.

But by some miracle, none of those things came. Instead, in that moment with Ben, I fell into a great calm. I felt comforted and warmed, like I was sitting by a campfire on a cold night. Ben’s words called to my heart, and instead of responding with terror, it opened up like a fist uncurling, as though it had been waiting twenty-six years just to hear his voice.”
― Anise Eden, All the Broken Places

“It is the writer's privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart.”
― William Faulkner

“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
― Samuel Johnson, Works of Samuel Johnson. Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, A Grammar of the English Tongue, Preface to Shakespeare, Lives of the English Poets & more [improved 11/20/2010]

“For me, submerging into you was like looking at the ocean for the first time, or visiting a place that feels more like home than any place you've ever been. And what I feel for you--it's in a completely different dimension than anything I've ever felt before. There's a power, a clarity.... I'm not even sure exactly how to describe it except to say that it feels like for the first time, I know what really matters.”
― Anise Eden, All the Wounds in Shadow

“I already knew that my heart called out to his, and his to mine, every moment of every day. The portal that connected us was strong and primal. I didn't want to anything except be with him, just like that, lying in bed, talking. We could have been floating in space for all I cared. Being there with Ben felt like home.”
― Anise Eden, All the Light There Is

“Wait a minute, did you just say you thought you were going to worry about me...forever?"

"After what happened tonight? Yes, probably."

"Hmm." He took his finger back and used it to stroke my cheek. "You do realize that would require spending the rest of your life with me."

The gold in his eyes was sparkling and jumping, so I knew he was only being half-serious, not trying to pressure me. What unsettled me was the absolute calm I felt when he said those words. Nothing inside of me tensed up from anxiety, or shouted in objection, or felt even the slightest bit uncomfortable. Rather, the deep sense of rightness I felt lying there next to him in the hospital bed grew stronger, infused with joy. I already knew that my heart called out to his, and his to mine, every moment of every day. The portal that connected us was strong and primal. I didn't want to do anything except be with him, just like that, lying in bed, talking. We could have been floating in space for all I cared. Being there with Ben felt like home.”
― Anise Eden, All the Light There Is

“I already knew that my heart called out to his, and his to mine, every moment of every day. The portal that connected us was strong and primal. I didn't want to anything except be with him, just like that, lying in bed, talking. We could have been floating in space for all I cared Being there with Ben felt like home.”
― Anise Eden, All the Light There Is

“Nine years of nurtured anger tangled with this thing. This gripping attraction and wistfulness—a deep missing of this woman from my life.”
― Kelly Siskind, Licks

“We were fifteen then, and I’d wanted to kiss him.
I was one day from twenty-eight now, and I wanted to devour him.”
― Kelly Siskind, Licks

“Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth

“I could be stronger than all the gods in the pantheon, Maia, but without you it means nothing. Nothing.” - from Rosanna Leo's For the Love of a God.”
― Rosanna Leo

“Hopefully, he’ll be able to persuade Hades not to kill you. That wouldn’t be conducive to the start of a good relationship.”
― Rosanna Leo, Sunburn

“Any time life threw Melanie a curveball, she merely threw her hands up and shouted, “Plot twist!”
― Rosanna Leo, Covet

“Time is a lot of the things people say that God is. There's always preexisting, and having no end. There's the notion of being all powerful-because nothing can stand against time, can it? Not mountains, not armies. And time is, of course, all-healing. Give anything enough time, and everything is taken care of: all pain encompassed, all hardship erased, all loss subsumed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Remember, man, that thou art dust; and unto dust thou shalt return.

And if time is anything akin to God, I suppose that memory must be the devil.”
― Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“We reached the hallway, each flashing a goodbye wave. As we headed in opposite directions, a sweet ache tugged at my heart like a stitch being pulled tight. I glanced over my shoulder and watched as Con turned down an adjacent hallway, feeling as I imagined the sun and moon must, morning after morning, night after night, meeting only briefly before watching one another disappear over the horizon.”
― Anise Eden, Dead Sound

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”
― Pablo Neruda, Love: Ten Poems

“Laughter is the language of the soul.”
― Pablo Neruda

“I’ve always seen writing as a form of activism. If nothing else, books give us a glimpse into lives that we may not have known about before; they can promote empathy.

(from a Q&A interview with Publishers' Weekly, Feb. 16, 2017)”
― Angie Thomas

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“We burned there between the rails of the bed, combusting with such cosmic force and heat that the whole of the room, the hospital, the entire city of Galway, and the rest of the world dropped away and spun out of existence.”
― Anise Eden, Dead Keen

“I choose to love you in silence, for in silence I find no rejection.
I choose to love you in loneliness, for in loneliness no one owns you but me.
I choose to adore you from a distance, for distance will shield me from pain.
I chose to kiss you in the wind, for the wind is gentler than my lips.
I choose to hold you in my dreams, for in my dreams you have no end.”
― Rumi

“Con felt Neve’s heart beating against his rib cage. She was alive, and she was okay.

The sound of the river rushing along had a soothing quality, and the lights of the city danced on the water. The iconic Port of Cork sign was lit up like a welcome at the end of Custom House Quay. Clouds rushed across the swollen moon as though they were late for something. If they had taken a tour of the brewery, this could have been quite a romantic spot to spend the rest of the evening—if their lives weren’t in danger, that was.”
― Anise Eden, Dead Late