Big Books of 2026

Shelley > Shelley's Quotes

Showing 1-30 of 37
« previous 1
sort by

    like
  • #1
    Steve Martin
    “Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.”
    ― Steve Martin
    tags: criticize, empathy, funny, humor
    258 likes

    • like
  • #2
    Stephen King
    “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
    ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
    tags: books, magic, reading
    17574 likes

    • like
  • #3
    Stephen King
    “A short story is a different thing altogether – a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.”
    ― Stephen King, Skeleton Crew
    tags: reading, writing
    2536 likes

    • like
  • #4
    Oscar Wilde
    “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
    ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
    tags: books, morality, reading
    20162 likes

    • like
  • #5
    Patti Smith
    “Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.”
    ― Patti Smith
    212 likes

    • like
  • #6
    Taylor Jenkins Reid
    “I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else's muse.
    I am not a muse.
    I am the somebody.
    End of fucking story.”
    ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
    3054 likes

    • like
  • #7
    Taylor Jenkins Reid
    “I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it's not faith, right?”
    ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
    1247 likes

    • like
  • #8
    Taylor Jenkins Reid
    “All I will say is that you show up for your friends on their hardest days. And you hold their hand through the roughest parts. Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.”
    ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
    756 likes

    • like
  • #9
    Taylor Jenkins Reid
    “The Chosen ones never know they are chosen. They think everyone gets a gold carpet rolled out for them.”
    ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
    60 likes

    • like
  • #10
    Ernest Hemingway
    “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
    ― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
    tags: paris
    1107 likes

    • like
  • #11
    Ernest Hemingway
    “You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.”
    ― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
    338 likes

    • like
  • #12
    Ernest Hemingway
    “The people that I liked and had not met went to the big cafes because they were lost in them and no one noticed them and they could be alone in them and be together.”
    ― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
    tags: alone-in-a-crowd, cafes, hemingway, paris, people
    103 likes

    • like
  • #13
    Ernest Hemingway
    “You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know”
    ― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
    tags: hemingway, inspirational, writing
    55 likes

    • like
  • #14
    “Why is it that we understand that playing the cello will require work but we relegate writing to the magic of inspiration?”
    ― Ann Patchett, The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life
    tags: writing-process
    6 likes

    • like
  • #15
    “Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this, because it is the key to making art and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.”
    ― Ann Patchett, The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life
    tags: forgiveness, happiness
    2 likes

    • like
  • #16
    John Berendt
    “Keep a diary, but don't just list all the things you did during the day. Pick one incident and write it up as a brief vignette. Give it color, include quotes and dialogue, shape it like a story with a beginning, middle and end—as if it were a short story or an episode in a novel. It's great practice. Do this while figuring out what you want to write a book about. The book may even emerge from within this running diary.”
    ― John Berendt
    67 likes

    • like
  • #17
    Susan Orlean
    “The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”
    ― Susan Orlean, The Library Book
    124 likes

    • like
  • #18
    Gabrielle Zevin
    “They didn’t put a scarlet letter on her chest, but they didn’t need to. That’s what the Internet is for.”
    ― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young
    10 likes

    • like
  • #19
    Gabrielle Zevin
    “...the things we don't have are sadder than the things we have. Because the things we don't have exist in our imaginations, where they are perfect.”
    ― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young
    tags: desire, dreams, loss, regret, sadness
    10 likes

    • like
  • #20
    Steve Martin
    “Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”
    ― Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
    tags: artists, self-aggrandizement
    173 likes

    • like
  • #21
    Steve Martin
    “I opened the show with this line: "I have decided to give the greatest performance of my life! Oh, wait, sorry, that's tomorrow night.”
    ― Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
    tags: humor
    25 likes

    • like
  • #22
    Steve Martin
    “Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening.”
    ― Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
    tags: comedians, comedy, comedy-humor, humor
    16 likes

    • like
  • #23
    Martin Luther King Jr.
    “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
    ― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
    tags: darkness, drive-out, hate, inspirational, light, love, peace
    78304 likes

    • like
  • #24
    Terry Pratchett
    “Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”
    ― Terry Pratchett, Jingo
    tags: humor, proverb
    12933 likes

    • like
  • #25
    Vanessa Lillie
    “This is probably the advice I didn’t want to hear, but it’s held true: just keep writing. No path is smooth or certain, but if you focus on your writing, you’ll be happier for it. Also, as much as you can, connect with other writers and readers. From Twitter to Instagram to in-person events, readings, and conferences, book people are the best people, and the more support you can gather and give, the happier you’ll be.”
    ― Vanessa Lillie
    5 likes

    • like
  • #26
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt
    “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
    ― Franklin D. Roosevelt
    tags: insanity, misattributed, perseverance, sanity
    779 likes

    • like
  • #27
    Andy Warhol
    “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
    ― Andy Warhol
    386 likes

    • like
  • #28
    If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor
    “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    tags: achievement, authors, elements-of-style, favors, grammar, happiness, writing, writing-process
    529 likes

    • like
  • #29
    Dorothy Parker
    “Now I know the things I know, and I do the things I do; and if you do not like me so, to hell, my love, with you!”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    441 likes

    • like
  • #30
    Alice Munro
    “You cannot let your parents anywhere near your real humiliations.”
    ― Alice Munro, Open Secrets
    tags: parents, secrets, shame
    169 likes



Rss
« previous 1
All Quotes



Tags From Shelley’s Quotes

criticize
empathy
funny
humor
books
magic
reading
writing
morality
paris
alone-in-a-crowd
cafes
hemingway
people
inspirational
writing-process
forgiveness
happiness
desire
dreams
loss
regret
sadness
artists
self-aggrandizement
comedians
comedy
comedy-humor
darkness
drive-out
hate
light
love
peace
proverb
insanity
misattributed
perseverance
sanity
achievement
authors
elements-of-style
favors
grammar
parents
secrets
shame