Alan Quotes

“ — This world is full of trouble, umfundisi.
— Who knows it better?
— Yet you believe?
Kumalo looked at him under the light of the lamp. I believe, he said, but I have learned that it is a secret. Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. There is my wife, and you, my friend, and these people who welcomed me, and the child who is so eager to be with us here in Ndotsheni – so in my suffering I can believe.
— I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering, umfundisi. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering.
Kumalo looked at his friend with joy. You are a preacher, he said.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

“Sin met Mae and Alan coming into the flat.

Mae frowned. "Is it no-shirts festival day?"

"Every day with Nick is no-shirts festival day," Alan said absently, but he was frowning too.”
― Sarah Rees Brennan, The Demon's Surrender

“Nick could see the gun shaking in Alan's hand now, in tight, terrified spasms. "Last night we put a magician in the river," Alan said, his voice low and intense as if he was making a promise."Maybe we should send you to join him."
"You know the rules," the woman whispered. "Don't shoot the messenger."
Nick interrupted, leaning down to speak in her ear. "Do they say 'Don't cut the messenger in half with your great big sword'?”
― Sarah Rees Brennan, The Demon's Lexicon

“Actually," Alan said, earnest and clear-eyed, "this is my first time playing poker.”
― Sarah Rees Brennan, The Demon's Surrender

“There's no other word that comes close to describing how you make me feel. Nothing.”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“I'll have you eating healthy eventually.
Probably so. Seems like I'll do about anything for you.”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“A cheerleader? Do I look like a guy who'd be interested in talking to a cheerleader?”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“It's going to come to fists eventually.”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“I had to keep telling her I'd promised not to let her violate me.”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“Not ugly for someone her age, but what she's doing with those numbers and letters seem unholy.”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“Finally the bell rings and the teenage Pavlovian dogs mosve to the next kennel.”
― Carrie Jones, After Obsession

“The exhaustion apparent in his slumped shoulders made her heart twist. He looked so tired she wanted to rub his back and stroke his hair, as a mother would for a child. This was natural compassion, she decided, and walked toward him to give him what comfort she could.
He finally heard her and lifted his head from his arms. Locks of sandy hair fell over his forehead and he looked up at her with deep indigo eyes. Even in the dim light, she could see pain etched across his features. What horrors stalked his dreams? What could she do to help him sleep peacefully?
For a long moment they gazed at one another and then Huiann rested her hand on his shoulder. At the same time, Alan leaned into her body. They came together like two halves of an eggshell carefully broken. He slid a hand around her waist and pulled her closer. His face pressed against her breast. His arms wrapped around her.
She held him, cradling his head, rubbing his back. His body was so warm in her embrace. Her heart beat steadily and her stomach flipped in slow, lazy somersaults. The moment she’d sensed coming for so long was here. What would happen next?
For a long time, they remained locked in perfect union, contented, safe, no longer alone. As she caressed his hair, soft as she’d imagined, he tilted his face to look up at her. His eyes glittered in the lamplight. He wanted more and Huiann realized she did too.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Alan shrugged. “I love the CBC, really, but being voted its president—” “Co-president,” Sputnik corrected. “—is kind of like being declared King of Nerds.” “Co-king,” Sputnik asserted.”
― J.M. Richards, Tall, Dark Streak of Lightning

“As he left Chinatown behind, Alan thought of the woman he’d seen on the wharf the other day, the golden splendor of her gown, her glossy hair and the turbulent emotion in her eyes. He wondered what she was doing right now and if she’d found happiness in her new home.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“When she’d finished, she cut the thread with a pair of scissors, patted the wound once more and stepped back. “Better.”
“No bandage?”
She shook her head. “No bandage. Need air.”
“All right. I guess you’re the doctor.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his lap. Even in the midst of inflicting pain she’d aroused his lust. “Don’t I get a reward for being a good patient?”
“I don’t understand.” She delivered the all-purpose phrase he’d taught her.
“Reward. A kiss.”
The grooves in her cheeks flashed as her lips turned up. “Yes, you need a kiss.” And she bent her head to give him one.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Listening to her spooling out impractical and transcendental picture-concepts like a hyperventilating tickertape he felt the weight lift from him, floating in a sweet and putrid lager fart to dissipate beneath the starry, vast obsidian pudding bowl of closing time, inverted and set down upon the Burroughs as though keeping flies away.”
― Alan Moore, Jerusalem

“Her protector and savior was shirtless and barefoot, dressed only in a pair of drawers. He stood beside the bed with his back to her, turning down the covers. She studied the rippling muscles of his shoulders and arms as he performed the mundane task. His back was a beautiful, pale canvas on which she could imagine painting letters and designs. She admired the bands of muscle and the shadows beneath his shoulder blades. His drawers sagged low, revealing narrow hips and the intriguing curve of his rear. Her sex tightened at the glimpse of his buttocks.
His face was in profile and his nose no longer seemed too big or his features too coarse as she’d once thought, so long ago it seemed. Instead, they appeared assertively masculine except for the thick sweep of eyelashes and the generous fullness of his lips.
Alan noticed her and turned. The blanket fell from his fingers as he gazed at her with the eyes of a hungry dragon. His lips parted and the exhalation of his breath floated to her across the quiet room. Then he walked toward her.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Huiann swallowed, her hands clasped together and her eyes glassy with tears, then she spoke some more.
“Her heart is full of feeling for you, but she knows it is wrong for her to stay with you. She wishes for you to find a white woman who will fit into your life and be the wife you need.”
Alan started shaking his head before Dong Li even finished translating. “No. Tell her she makes me happy. She is exactly the wife I need.” He breathed deeply, steadying the quaver in his voice. “Ask Chua Huiann if she will do me the honor of marrying me.”
Dong clicked his tongue, but offered Alan’s proposal.
Huiann’s eyes opened wide and she spoke rapidly.
“How would your family and your people react to you marrying a foreign bride? You would be ostracized. It cannot be.” Dong added his own thoughts to the translation. “The girl speaks sense and sees more clearly than you.”
Alan frowned. He couldn’t promise his family would accept Huiann or ever welcome them home as a couple, but he didn’t care. Maybe she was seeing reason, but he was only seeing her.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Alan:I used rabbit-skin glue to size the panels. I got it from the art
shop. I don’t know if they use real rabbits in it. It seems kind of a
shame if they do, but then it’s not like there’s a rabbit shortage, is
it? And maybe they only used rabbits that would’ve died anyhow.”
― J.L. Merrow

“Alan:I asked him what cat we should get,
and he said it was my choice, so I got this little black one called
Minnie. I think the cat place must not have known Minnie’s a
mouse’s name. I thought maybe we should change it, but then I
thought, if Minnie doesn’t know, either, then it’s probably okay.”
― J.L. Merrow

“Alan prayed she wasn’t complying from some sense of obligation. He didn’t want that, but neither could he bear for her to leave him to spend another night alone.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Together they sank onto the mattress, lying face-to-face. The bed was too narrow for two, but Alan would’ve been entwined as close as possible with her even if they were lying in his parents’ huge tester bed, the one his Dutch grandfather, a wealthy merchant, had brought over from Amsterdam.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“When the last peak died away, Alan opened his eyes. Huiann was watching his face. He was embarrassed until he saw the glitter of tears in her eyes.
He touched her cheek. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” His sticky spunk was all over her hand and his belly and he felt like a fool. He reached to grab the undershirt he’d tossed aside and wiped both of them clean. “I’m sorry.”
“No. No, Alan.” She touched her fingers to his mouth. “Gou. It is good. You face is beau-ti-ful.” She pronounced each syllable with exquisite care.
He kissed the fingers pressed to his lips. “No, you’re beautiful. A damn miracle.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Alan shook his head. Jeremy was hopeless. Either he’d find an equally soft-headed girl and they’d live happily ever after like two cooing doves, or he’d be eaten alive by some she-spider.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“Alan lowered the lamp flame until there was only a glimmer of light in the room. His skin burned with fever as he climbed into bed beside Huiann. He felt like a groom on his wedding night except, he reminded himself, there would be no copulation. None. Not tonight.”
― Bonnie Dee, Captive Bride

“His sister, in a big turquoise Angora sweater, leaned upon the wood frame of the open nursery door, anxiously looking out to see if he was really going to show, beaming and waving like a pastel colored TV Muppet when she spotted him.”
― Alan Moore, Jerusalem

“the slap:
kinda feeling quirky today not gna lie”
― alan

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
― Alan Laken

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it.”
― Alan Laken

“She hated religion as much as she loved its architecture. She detested the pomposity of its spiritual leaders, be they Muslim, Christian or Jews. Whenever she spoke to them, she was outraged by their confident certainty that they were right and all others were wrong, their self-righteousness, haughtiness and aggrandizement. The art and architecture of religion had been amongst mankind's finest achievements, but its inspiration had brought destruction to countless millions. Even the ancient artefacts she'd personally uncovered in the desert, monuments to humanity's earliest attempts to come to terms with spiritual explanations for natural phenomena, had been exquisite, but etched into their stone or marble were the blood and bones of those who believed differently.”
― Alan Gold, Bell of the Desert