Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[BenG]

Does Carthage even have forests? Did Virgil know for sure or was it just convenient for his story? Virgil was a professional liar. This would not be the only place where he pruned the truth until it was as artificial as an espaliered pear tree against a wall, forced to an expedient shape and bearing the demanded fruit.

― Kij Johnson, "The Story Kit", At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories

[covingtoncat73]

"Don’t look too closely. The truth has no particular shape.”
― from "Dogsbody" by Diana Wynne Jones

[covingtoncat73]

“Jess had never imagined that someone would be so empty that they’d need to destroy something that precious to feel full.”
― Rachel Caine, Ink and Bone

And I'm pretty sure I've shared this one before but it bears repeating:

“Sometimes the fluffy bunny of incredulity zooms around the bend so rapidly that the greyhound of language is left, agog, in the starting cage.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

[BenG]

Doctors combine an air of masculinity with an impression of virginity. They look as though they change in changing-rooms and never drop their eyes. The economist did not like doctors. He preferred mini-cab drivers really, they being the other idiots to whom we so frequently trust our lives.

― James Kennaway, The Cost of Living Like This (1969)

[covingtoncat73]

"Shut up! Shut up you American. You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you talk and say, 'Let me tell you something' and 'I just wanna say this'. Well, you're dead now, so shut up." ~From Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

[BenG]

“Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”
― Groucho Marx, The Essential Groucho: Writings For By And About Groucho Marx

[covingtoncat73]

"He pulled out his personal journal and pen. Jess understood the impulse, all too well, to spill out the bile and hurt into ink, where no one could see it."
~Ink and Bone, Rachel Caine

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"He pulled out his personal journal and pen. Jess understood the impulse, all too well, to spill out the bile and hurt into ink, where no one could see it."
~Ink and Bone, Rachel Caine

[BenG]

She knew the worst wolves are hairy on the inside.
― Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber

and

Jesus, what big teeth you have!
― from the movie version, The Company of Wolves

[Larla]

“Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector

...and miss.”

Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love --

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Larla

“Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector

...and miss.”

Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love --

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Larla

“Be wary of strong drink, it can make you shoot at the tax collector

...and miss.”

Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love --

My favorite quote by RAH.
Apache

just as when a youthful nobleman steals jewellery we call the act kleptomania, speak of it with a philosophical smile, and never think of his being sent to the house of correction as if he were a ragged boy who had stolen turnips.

George Elliot (Middlemarch)

[kennyc]

Separated at Birth

"As I gazed through my binoculars this morning at The Pleiades, The Seven Sisters, I wonder if perhaps there is not someone, something, some intelligent being staring back through its own lenses at me.

Of course there is no chance I will ever know. The laws of physics separate us forever."

- Kenny A. Chaffin

[BenG]

"Hugo?"
"Millicent?"
"Is that you?"
"Yes. Is that you?"
"Yes."
Anything in the nature of misunderstanding was cleared away. It was both of them.
― P.G. Wodehouse, Summer Lightning