If somebody from the past doesn't rise up from the grave and start talking to me, I haven't got a book. I have to hear that voice, the voice of the narrator. How she sounds will tell me who she is, and who she is will tell me how she will act - and that starts the plot in motion. ~Geraldine Brooks
#quotes #geraldine-brooks #books #past

Nakata is empty inside. Do you know what it means to be completely empty? Being empty is like a vacant house. An unlocked, vacant house. Anybody can come in, anytime they want. That is what scares me the most. ~Haruki Murakami
#quotes #haruki-murakami #emptiness

The success of the dinner depends as much upon the company as the cook. Discordant elements, people invited alphabetically, or to pay off debts, are fatal. ~Ward McAllister
#quotes #ward-mcallister #eating

Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs. ~Proverb
#proverbs #exaggeration

We should go into His presence as a child goes to his father. We do it with reverence and godly fear, of course, but we should go with a childlike confidence and simplicity. ~David Lloyd Jones
#quotes #david-lloyd-jones #god #christianity

I never read the tabloids. ~Dana Carvey
#quotes #dana-carvey #tabloids

I am defeated all the time, yet to victory I am born. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
#quotes #ralph-waldo-emerson #success #failure

I must go on living. And, though it may be childish of me, I can't go on in simple compliance. From now on I must struggle with the world. I thought that Mother might well be the last of those who can end their lives beautifully and sadly, struggling with no one, neither hating nor betraying anyone. In the world to come there will be no room for such people. The dying are beautiful, but to live, to survive; those things somehow seem hideous and contaminated with blood. ~Osamu Dazai
#quotes #osamu-dazai #life #mother #hardship

We learn little from victory, much from defeat. ~Japanese Proverb
#proverbs #japanese-proverbs #success #failure #learning

You're out on stage, the music is blaring, the crowd is screaming, the lights are flashing, your heart is pumping, the sweat is flying, and it's the greatest feeling in the whole world. ~Michael Flatley
#quotes #michael-flatley #music #concert

A friendship built on business can be glorious, while a business built on friendship can be murder. ~John D. Rockefeller
#quotes #john-d-rockefeller #friendship #business

I don't buy trends, because the pieces don't last and I wind up never wearing them. That's why I like to shop with my children; they'll always tell me the truth. ~Danielle Steel
#quotes #danielle-steel #shopping

Autumn is the hush before winter. ~French Proverb
#proverbs #french-proverbs #autumn #winter #seasons

Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose; anything goes. ~Cole Porter
#quotes #cole-porter #writing

In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find, if it's a good novel, that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little. But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed. ~Ursula K. Le Guin
#quotes #ursula-k-le-guin #reading #novels

I keep my house tidy, because then I can think clearly. I feel the same about myself. Presenting yourself well is a working-class thing; my dad was a printer, but he wore a tie most days. The ungroomed look belongs more to the middle classes. ~Gary Kemp
#quotes #gary-kemp

Truly, there are terrible primal arcana of earth which had better be left unknown and unevoked; dread secrets which have nothing to do with man, and which man may learn only in exchange for peace and sanity; cryptic truths which make the knower evermore an alien among his kind, and cause him to walk alone on earth. ~H. P. Lovecraft
#quotes #h-p-lovecraft #earth #life #pessimism

Patty Griffin is iconic, and there's no other word to really describe her. She is iconic for a lot of people; not only for me but for a lot of fans. Her voice is one of a kind, and she's such an important figure in the American music scene. ~Dierks Bentley
#quotes #dierks-bentley #patty-griffin #music

Without consciousness, space and time are nothing. ~Robert Lanza
#quotes #robert-lanza #conscious #time #space

If you've found some way to educate yourself about engineering, stocks, or whatever it is, good employers will have some type of exam or interview and see a sample of your work. ~Bill Gates
#quotes #bill-gates #education #career

A human heart that matched what we think of as heart-shaped; a perfectly formed bright red thing with two halves of equal size; would be one that was horribly diseased. The origin of this stylized representation is somewhat obscure, but it probably appeared at the same time as St. Valentine's Day, about whose history there is much dispute. ~George Fetherling
#quotes #george-fetherling #heart #valentines

Each person we meet has the potential to teach us something. ~John C. Maxwell
#quotes #john-c-maxwell #knowledge

Sometimes we are devils to ourselves. When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, presuming on their changeful potency. ~William Shakespeare
#quotes #william-shakespeare #evil

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. ~African Proverb
#proverbs #african-proverbs #adversity

Every step of life shows much caution is required. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#quotes #johann-wolfgang-von-goethe #life #caution #caring