Brenda > Brenda's Quotes

“Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know.”
― Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot

“I hate being driven—driving is like karaoke—your own is epic, other people’s is just embarrassing or alarming.”
― Ruth Ware, In a Dark, Dark Wood

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.”
― Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair

“so, what happened next will have to go down in my book of Bad Decisions, planted firmly in the chapter entitled, I have no idea what I was thinking”
― Paul Feig

“She might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don't let that put you off. It could be part of cleverness.

I am not, of course, telling you for one second that your teacher actually is a witch. All I am saying is that she might be one. It is most unlikely. But—here comes the big "but"—not impossible.”
― Roald Dahl, The Witches

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“There is a (slight) chance that I might be going to hell.”
― Laurie Notaro

“Freedom of expression truly exists only when a society’s most repugnant nitwits are allowed to spew their nonsense in public.”
― Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

“In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“His boss, Isaac (Robert Guillaume), agrees but tells him to do it anyway “because it’s television and this is how it’s done.” Dan replies, “Yeah, well, sitting in the back of the bus was how it was done until a forty-two-year-old lady moved up front.” A few minutes later Isaac looks Dan in the eye and tells him, “Because I love you I can say this. No rich young white guy has ever gotten anywhere with me comparing himself to Rosa Parks.” Finally, the voice of reason, which of course was heard on a canceled network TV series on cable.”
― Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot

“Everybody dies … The thing is, to have a life before we die.”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“The world's been waiting for your genius a long time.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“We don't ignore bigotry, Jack. That's how cowardly bigots turn into brave bigots.”
― Jessica Townsend, Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow