Nicole > Nicole's Quotes

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Resist much, obey little.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance.”
― Anne Sexton

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“I understood that as much as I had resisted the outside, as much as I had constricted my life, as much as I had closed and narrowed the channels into me, there were still many takers for the quiet heart.”
― Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

“Mother always said she was a size 7 woman she kept wrapped in fat to prevent bruising.”
― Haven Kimmel

“I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls.”
― Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana

“That cat doesn't have a lick of sense,' I said, sighing.

Well, honey, he's not right in the head,' Dad said, flipping his cigarette into the front yard.

I glared at him. 'And just what do you mean by that?'

Dad counted on his fingers. 'He's cross-eyed; he jumps out of trees after birds and then doesn't land on his feet; he sleeps with his head smashed up against the wall, and the tip of his tail is crooked.'

Oh yeah? Well, how about this: he once got locked in a basement by evil Petey Scroggs in the middle of January and survived on snow and little frozen mice. When I'm cold at night he sleeps right on my face. Of that whole litter of kittens he came out of he's the only one left. One of his brothers didn't even have a butthole.'

I stand corrected. PeeDink is a survivor.”
― Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana

“What kind of good deeds? Like Girl Scouts? Because I got kicked out of Brownies and they won't give me another chance to keep my clothes on at camp.”
― Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana

“Possibility, infinity, beauty -- none of those words were right. [...] What he really wanted to say was: have you felt this? this phantom life streaking like a phosphorescent hound at the edges of your ruin? ”
― Haven Kimmel, The Solace of Leaving Early

“Decoupage hit Mooreland pretty hard...”
― Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana

“It was just your life. You were just living your life.”
― Haven Kimmel

“...every beautiful and strange event made more poignant for having been photographed.”
― Haven Kimmel, Something Rising

“He sang like an angel, he was faithful to God and he waited honorably
for the wife he believed God chose for him. He made two daughters who
shone like mirrors in the direct sun; he blazed his path with a scythe
and his broad shoulders, and he was who he chose to be, which is the
hardest and bravest thing a man can do. He looked at us, his parents,
his sisters, his whole crooked family, and he flexed his jaw muscles,
packed up his truck, and drove away.”
― Haven Kimmel, She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana

“Just being alive should make you late for everything. In case you've never noticed, the dead are always on time.”
― Arlene Ang

“Dying is a universe of its own. ”
― Arlene Ang, Seeing Birds in Church is a Kind of Adieu

“I'm beginning to believe that anything I do to extend my life is just going to be outweighed by the agony of living it.”
― Donald Ray Pollock, Knockemstiff

“A lot of people get the wrong impression, think there's something romantic or tragic about hitting bottom.”
― Donald Ray Pollock, Knockemstiff

“For you, I was a chapter. For me, you were the book.”
― Tom McNeal