Looking Back Quotes - Page 15

• It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?

  Jonathan Franzen

  Nice, Book, Writing

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• The past is a stronger influence in the South. But I think everywhere you have this sense that the world changes faster than you can accommodate yourself to. Looking back and seeing how you got where you are is a useful way to combat disorientation.

  Charles Frazier

  Past, Thinking, Stronger

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• No excuses and no sob stories. Life is full of excuses if you're looking. I have no time to gripe over misfortune. I don't waste time looking back.

  Junior Seau

  Stories, Waste, Wasting Time

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• Looking back, I think I was always musical. My dad was very musical, and I think my mom was musical.

  Paul McCartney

  Mom, Dad, Thinking

  "Paul McCartney Blows 'Kisses' To His Father's Era". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. March 29, 2012.

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• History tells us that America does best when the private sector is energetic and entrepreneurial and the government is attentive and engaged. Who among us, really, would, looking back, wish to edit out either sphere at the entire expense of the other?

  Jon Meacham

  Government, America, Wish

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• In the long run, most of us spend about fifteen minutes total in the entanglements of passion, and the rest of our days looking back on it, humming the tune.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Running, Passion, Long

  Barbara Kingsolver (2009). “The Lacuna”, p.556, Faber & Faber

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• There was a time when I thought I was doing a good thing with good guys for a good cause. Looking back, I think I really wanted to be a warrior.

  Steven Seagal

  Warrior, Thinking, Guy

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• Live your life like you're 80 looking back on your teenager years. You know if your dad calls you at eight in the morning and asks if you want to go out for breakfast. As a teenager you're like no, I want to sleep. But as an eighty year old looking back you have that breakfast with your dad. It just little things like that, that helped me when I was a teenager in terms of making choices you won't regret.

  Taylor Swift

  Morning, Dad, Regret

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• Where does a story truly begin? In life, there are seldom clear-cut beginnings, those moments when we can, in looking back, say that everything started. Yet there are moments when fate intersects with our daily lives, setting in motion a sequence of events whose outcome we could never have foreseen.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Fate, Cutting, Events

  Nicholas Sparks (2011). “A Bend In The Road”, p.11, Hachette UK

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• She knew that when she got old it would be more fun to look back on a life of romance and adventure than a life of quiet habits. But looking back was easy. It was the doing that was painful. There were plenty of things she would like to look back on but wasn't willing to risk.

  Ann Brashares

  Fun, Adventure, Romance

  Ann Brashares (2011). “Sisterhood Everlasting (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants): A Novel”, p.22, Random House

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• Even if a minefield or the abyss should lie before me, I will march straight ahead without looking back.

  Zhu Rongji

  Lying, March, Should

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• And you're not the kind of girl I want." Surely he couldn't mean the fact that I was Mexican. From what I knew of Hardy, there wasn't a bit of prejudice in him. He never used racist words, never looked down on someone for things they couldn't help. "What kind do you want?" I asked with difficulty. "Someone I can leave without looking back.

  Lisa Kleypas

  Girl, Mean, Mexican

  Lisa Kleypas (2015). “The Travis Family Series, Books 1-3: Blue-Eyed Devil, Smooth Taking Stranger and Sugar Daddy”, p.402, St. Martin's Press

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• My happiest moment is the day they call wrap and I'm free. I'm not looking back.

  Brad Pitt

  Moments, Wraps

  "Brad Pitt talks about Terrence Malick and The Tree of Life". Interview with Steve Rose, www.theguardian.com. June 30, 2011.

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• During 65 years, I have walked the path of duty and discipline... And today, looking back at that long path of service, my soldier's heart stirs and murmurs from deep within: Thank you. Thank you, my homeland.

  Augusto Pinochet

  Thank You, Heart, Years

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• Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.

  Satchel Paige

  Funny, Sports, Baseball

  "How to Keep Young," Collier's, 13 June 1953

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• So I've always been kind of an apocalyptic kind of kid, and looking back at the movies I've done, there's some kind of apocalypse in them. So that must be what scares me... besides Republicans.

  Joe Dante

  Kids, Scare, Done

  "Interview: Joe Dante on the horrors of 'The Hole'". www.mtv.com. September 27, 2012.

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• While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.

  Alan Lightman

  People, Geneva, Skip

  Alan Lightman (2011). “Einstein's Dreams”, p.27, Vintage

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• That made me think I could contribute more to society by looking at people on the autopsy table and feeding back the findings so that lots of people could benefit, rather than just treating patients one at a time.

  Michael Baden

  Thinking, People, Benefits

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• But there's no point in looking back and saying I was unlucky.

  Jamie Redknapp

  Unlucky, No Point

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• The past was gone. Nothing could change what had already been. Looking back at it, letting its wounds fester, indulging in regret was just a different, slower way to die. The living moved forward.

  Jim Butcher

  Regret, Past, Different

  Jim Butcher (2008). “Captain's Fury”, p.314, Penguin

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• I knew I would replay the scene countless times in the years before me, each time thinking of different things I should have said and done. But all I did was walk away without looking back.

  Lisa Kleypas

  Thinking, Should Have, Years

  Lisa Kleypas (2010). “Sugar Daddy: A Novel”, p.140, Macmillan

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• Looking back, I've learned that everyone is searching for three things: Identity, community, and a sense of individual purpose. These are fundamental, and if a person feels marginalized or disenfranchised, they're likely to turn to something negative, maybe drugs, maybe promiscuity, or maybe a white supremacist group.

  Christian Picciolini

  Community, Drug, Identity

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• Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name. Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975 —and all that followed— was already laid in those first words.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Winter, Thinking, Names

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.10, A&C Black

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• They seemed no closer to the tops of the peaks that rose before them. It was only by looking back, to the forest far below, that she knew they'd climbed.

  Kristin Cashore

  Rose, Forests, Graceling

  Kristin Cashore (2009). “Graceling”, p.259, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?

  Kazuo Ishiguro

  Forever, Might, Gains

  Kazuo Ishiguro (2010). “The Remains of the Day”, p.244, Vintage

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