Harriette Heckathorn > Harriette's Quotes

“Scott glanced at his watch but didn't register what it said. The notion of time had become as absurd as the quietly glowing trees.”
― R.D. Ronald, The Elephant Tree

“He was his own victim, his own slave. He had made personality a profession, created a career out of selling himself. And he could not stray far, or for long, from his self-made self.”
― Jim Thompson, The Grifters

“Talia ta, szanowne obywatele, znajduje się tera w siódmym rzędzie, u obywatela Parczewskiego, jak raz między banknotem trzyrublowym a wezwaniem do sądu w sprawie o zaległe alimenty dla obywatelki Zielkowej.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov

“It was quiet in the cell. Rubashov heard only the creaking of his steps on the tiles. Six and a half steps to the door, whence they must come to fetch him, six and a half steps to the window, behind which night was falling. Soon it would be over. But when he asked himself, For what actually are you dying? he found no answer.

It was a mistake in the system; perhaps it lay in the precept which until now he had held to be uncontestable, in whose name he had sacrificed others and was himself being sacrificed: in the precept, that the end justifies the means. It was this sentence which had killed the great fraternity of the Revolution and made them run amuck. What had he once written in his diary? "We have thrown overboard all conventions, our sole guiding principle is that of consequent logic; we are sailing without ethical ballast.”
― Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon

“I;m not going to compete with you. I'm better than you are at what I do. And you're better than I am at what you do.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

“And if all womankind banded together and took the male path, the world would turn into one huge brothel.”
― M. Ageyev, Novel with Cocaine

“(When your mom is gone, the thing no one ever tells you is that the little compass needle inside keeps spinning around and around, never finding north.)”
― Megan Abbott, Give Me Your Hand

“[T]he cardboard bookcase of her character had already collapsed under the strain.”
― Lionel Shriver, So Much for That

“Because the beings from that planet are now circling Earth in a ship the size of a small moon, threatening to destroy all human life if we don’t cooperate.”
― Steven Decker, The Balance of Time

“The oak trees seemed as though they were playing instruments; here a gentle violin, over there two harps in harmony, flutes and other woodwinds joined the tree orchestra.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress:

“We raced around, drinking and shouting out the windows into the night, finding parties to sneak into or bars that never closed. We wandered the night without fear, went skinny dipping in Central Park Lake at 3 a.m., and found dark clubs playing deafening EDM to dance to until we collapsed.”
― Alan Bradley, The Sixth Borough

“The telegram was sealed – an old-fashioned touch, I thought, but then I’d never had a telegram before. I took my time opening it. I said nothing.”
― Michael Wyndham Thomas, The Erkeley Shadows

“I don’t think ‘fear’ is the right word for his kind,” Hoffman observed. “It’s milked out
of them before they are released on to an unsuspecting world.”
― Michael Parker, The Eagle's Covenant

“Why do you have such faith in me, Aurelia?" 
"I've told you a million times that I love you, you make me feel safe and cherished, and you care deeply for our people. Why wouldn't I have faith in you?”
― Therisa Peimer, Taming Flame

“When I'm hung-over I try to imagine being old and look- ing back fondly on now, on this bit I'm currently living, and how in retrospect it might seem adventurous. In the future when I only ever sit in a chair because I'm too gnarled for pleasure or movement I'll remember when I stayed out all night and had life-changing conversations and walked all the way home because I lost my phone.”
― Sara Pascoe, Weirdo

“In marriage, we’re equals. You’re not only a babymaker; I didn’t need to marry you if it was only for that. You’re my life partner. The whole nine yards of it.”
― Andri E. Elia, Yildun: Worldmaker of Yand

“And who doesn't long for the door in the air.”
― Leif Enger

“Funny thing about the army, they always promise to teach you “marketable skills,” but they never mention that, by far, there’s nothing more marketable than knowing how to kill some people while keeping others from being killed.”
― Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“I can only hope that, upon learning of my imminent execution, Good Samaritans in Colorado will be moved to ship me a plump love apple from their backyard patch - and should they happen to be friendly with Hunter S. Thompson, perhaps persuade him to inject it with a little something beforehand. Hunter will know just what I mean, and trust me, it won't affect the taste of the tomato.*


*When I wrote those lines, Thompson was alive and blooming. Now, with his sad demise, still more color has faded out of the American scene. Where are the men today whose lives are not beige; where are the writers whose style is not gray?”
― Tom Robbins, Wild Ducks Flying Backward

“Antago”
― Walter Farley, The Island Stallion's Fury

“Thank you for your childhood.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Julian Singh,” he said, extending his hand. No one (a) introduces himself and then (b) extends his hand to be shaken while (c) wearing shorts and (d) knee socks and (e) holding a genuine leather book bag on (f) the first day of school.”
― E.L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday