Describing Quotes - Page 6

• So you actually need spectacles,” Leo finally said. “Of course I do,” Marks said crossly. “Why would I wear spectacles if I didn’t need them?” “I thought they might be part of your disguise.” “My disguise?” “Yes, Marks, disguise. A noun describing a means of concealing someone’s identity. Often used by clowns and spies. And now apparently governesses. Good God, can anything be ordinary for my family?

  Lisa Kleypas

  Mean, Spy, Identity

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• Pleasant is a rainy winter's day, within doors! The best study for such a day, or the best amusement,—call it which you will,—is a book of travels, describing scenes the most unlike that sombre one

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Book, Winter, Doors

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (1982). “Tales and Sketches”, p.549, Library of America

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• I hope I do not offend God by making my Communions in the frame of mind I have been describing. The command, after all, was Take, eat: not Take, understand.

  C. S. Lewis

  Mind, Communion, Command

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.82, Simon and Schuster

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• I'm incapable of describing the feeling with which I left. I wouldn't want it ever to be repeated, but I would have considered myself unfortunate if I'd never experienced it.

  Ivan Turgenev

  Feelings, Want, Unfortunate

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• Don’t underestimate this gift of finding a place in the writing world: if you really work at describing creatively on paper the truth as you understand it, as you have experienced it, with the people or material who are in you, who are asking that you help them get written, you will come to a secret feeling of honor.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, People, Feelings

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• I remember saying things, but I have no idea what was said. It was generally a friendly conversation.” —Associated Press reporter Jack Sullivan, attempting to recount a 3 A.M. exchange we had at a dinner party and inadvertently describing the past ten years of my life.

  Chuck Klosterman

  Party, Past, Years

  Chuck Klosterman (2013). “Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs”, p.4, Faber & Faber

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• When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.

  Lewis Carroll

  Creativity, Men, Discovery

  Lewis Carroll (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (Illustrated)”, p.880, Delphi Classics

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• Tell me about this Wizard Howl of yours." "He's the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he'd only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he's sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can't pin him down to anything." "Indeed? Strange that you should speak so proudly such a list of vices, most loving of ladies." "What do you mean, vices? I was just describing Howl. He comes from another world entirely, you know, called Wales, and I refuse to believe he's dead!

  Diana Wynne Jones

  Selfish, Believe, Mean

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• "Well, we were always going to fail that one," said Ron gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase. He had just made Harry feel rather better by telling him how he told the examiner in detail about the ugly man with a wart on his nose in the crystal ball, only to look up and realize he had been describing the examiner's reflection.

  J. K. Rowling

  Reflection, Men, Details

  "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Book by J. K. Rowling, June 21, 2003.

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• Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy.

  Iris Murdoch

  Lying, People, Feelings

  "Fictional character: Iris Murdoch". "Iris", www.imdb.com. 2001.

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• And now I know why they invented words for love, why they had to: It's the only thing that can come close to describing what I feel in that moment, the baffling mixture of pain and pleasure and fear and joy, all running sharply through me at once.

  Lauren Oliver

  Running, Pain, Joy

  Lauren Oliver (2011). “Delirium (Delirium Trilogy 1)”, p.296, Hachette UK

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• It would be like describing colors to someone blind from birth: The words might be understood, but the concept would remain mysterious and private.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Color, Would Be, Might

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• I receive a lot of letters like yours. Most go on in length, describing all sorts of maddening situations and communications in bewildered detail, but in each there is the same question at its core: Can I convince the person about whom I am crazy to be crazy about me? The short answer is no. The long answer is no.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Crazy, Communication, Long

  Cheryl Strayed (2013). “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Someone Who’s Been There”, p.135, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• For the most profound experiences in our lives and in the world words are worth nothing. Can you describe love Or death Can you describe what it really feels like the first time you see your child Or the first time your heart gets broken You can try...but it won't come close to describing what it really was or what it really felt like.

  James Frey

  Children, Heart, Broken

  James Frey (2011). “The Final Testament”, p.109, Hachette UK

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• Did you see him? I know the photo was grainy, but he looks like one of those death metal goth heads, or whatever they’re called. All dressed in black with long hair I took umbrage at my mother describing my boyfriend this way. John was the Lord of the Underworld. How else was he supposed to dress?

  Meg Cabot

  Mother, Hair, Long

  Meg Cabot (2013). “The Abandon Trilogy: Abandon, Underworld and Awaken”, p.288, Pan Macmillan

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• What was it, he wondered for the hundredth time, that enabled Pastor Harris to hear the answers in his heart? What did he mean when he said he felt God’s presence? Steve supposed he could ask Pastor Harris directly, but he doubted that would do any good. How could anyone explain such a thing? It would be like describing colors to someone blind from birth: The words might be understood, but the concept would remain mysterious and private.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Heart, Mean, Color

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• Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

  Elmore Leonard

  Details, Stories, Want

  Elmore Leonard (2009). “Get Shorty: A Novel”, p.207, Zondervan

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• You are not Kaia the Disappointment. Do you hear me? That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier. You are Kaia the Mighty. How many Harpies out there do you think could have brought down the most badass Lord of the Underworld? The same Lord who also happens to be the strongest, sexiest and smartest. And by the way, in case there’s any doubt, I’m describing me.

  Gena Showalter

  Disappointment, Badass, Thinking

  Gena Showalter (2016). “The Darkest Surrender”, p.193, HQN Books

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• There’s so much I can’t read because I get so exasperated. Someone starts describing the character boarding the plane and pulling the seat back. And I just want to say, Babe, I have been downtown. I have been up in a plane. Give me some credit.

  Amy Hempel

  Character, Giving, Downtown

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• Anya made you kiss her? Yeah. And at our next stop, I'll expect you to deliver. I'll pay, William piped up. After you describe everything about that kiss you two shared. Did you cop a feel? You did, didn't you, you little hussy. I bet you moaned a lot, too. Too late for you to pay, she said in a sing song voice. Strider already offered, and I already accepted. And no, I won't do any describing. You can just imagine how sexy it was. Oh, and Willie. Just so you know, your imagination won't do it justice.

  Gena Showalter

  Sexy, Song, Kissing

  Gena Showalter (2016). “The Darkest Secret”, p.152, HQN Books

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• She was like a heroine in a novel that she herself was writing the character kept protesting that she was too strong for love and yet the narrator went on describing her desire.

  Anna Godbersen

  Strong, Writing, Character

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• Kathy was a Republican, one of those people who used the unforgivable phrase "meant to be"--usually when describing her own good fortune or the disasters that had befallen other people.

  Jennifer Egan

  People, Phrases, Republican

  Jennifer Egan (2010). “A Visit from the Goon Squad”, p.88, Anchor

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• Her hair gives dawn it's fire, her eyes give dusk her soul" He knew how to use his voice to melt a girl's heart, to make a girl want to believe. I steeled myself against the seductive words. "Excuse me?" "It's a line of poetry describing a beautiful girl, one who doesn't seem to know it.

  Elizabeth Chandler

  Beautiful, Girl, Believe

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• Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Reading, Eye, Appreciate

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• Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more... I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.

  Tom Stoppard

  Children, Thinking, Order

  Tom Stoppard (1999). “Arcadia”

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