Toms Quotes - Page 13

• My dear Tom, Delighted to get your letter. Do write again. This life is terrible and I don't understand how it can be endured.

  Samuel Beckett

  Writing, Letters, Life Is

  "Love, styes and stools" by Nicholas Lezard, www.theguardian.com. March 20, 2009.

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• All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorms room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my Essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.

  Rick Riordan

  Teacher, Book, Reading

  Rick Riordan (2013). “Percy Jackson: The Complete Series”, p.19, Penguin UK

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• As a general proposition, campaigns do not linger on the vice presidential nominee. When they have, it's always meant very bad news for the ticket. Think of Spiro Agnew's foot-in-mouth disease; Tom Eagleton's medical history; the real estate holdings of Geraldine Ferraro's husband; the unbearable lightness of Dan Quayle; Sarah Palin's reading list.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Husband, Real, Reading

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• He was born in fury and he lived in lightning. Tom came headlong into life. He was a giant in joy and enthusiasms. He didn't discover the world and its people, he created them. When he read his father's books, he was the first. He lived in a world shining and fresh and as uninspected as Eden on the sixth day. His mind plunged like a colt in a happy pasture, and when later the world put up fences, he plunged against the wire, and when the final stockade surrounded him, he plunged right through it and out. And as he was capable of giant joy, so did he harbor huge sorrow.

  John Steinbeck

  Father, Book, Eden

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.38, Penguin

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• There are women named Faith, Hope, Joy, and Prudence. Why not Despair, Guilt, Rage, and Grief? It seems only right. 'Tom, I'd like you to meet the girl of my dreams, Tragedy.' These days, Trajedi.

  George Carlin

  Girl, Dream, Grief

  George Carlin (1998). “Brain Droppings”, Hyperion

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• Is it...dead?" asked Tom, his voice all quivery with fright. "A town just ran over him," said Hester. "I shouldn't think he's very well.

  Philip Reeve

  Thinking, Voice, Towns

  Philip Reeve (2012). “Predator Cities #1: Mortal Engines”, p.101, Scholastic Inc.

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• I used to have a cat, an old fighting tom, who would jump through the open window by my bed in the middle of the night and land on my chest. I'd half-awaken. He'd stick his skull under my nose and purr, stinking of urine and blood. Some nights he kneaded my bare chest with his front paws, powerfully, arching his back, as if sharpening his claws, or pummeling a mother for milk. And some mornings I'd wake in daylight to find my body covered with paw prints in blood; I looked as though I'd been painted with roses.

  Annie Dillard

  Mother, Morning, Cat

  Annie Dillard (2009). “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”, p.3, Harper Collins

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• They swoon over Tom, who preens for them, bowing, which sets them to blushing and giggling. God help us all.

  Libba Bray

  Helping, Blushing, God Help Us

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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• If your opponent has you by fifty pounds, winning a fight against him is a dubious proposition, at best. If your opponent has you by eight thousand and fifty pounds, you’ve left the realm of combat and enrolled yourself in Road-kill 101. Or possibly in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

  Jim Butcher

  Fighting, Winning, Eight

  Jim Butcher (2009). “Small Favor: A Novel of the Dresden Files”, p.200, Penguin

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• And that almost killed you?" "It wasn't deep but it got infected. Infection means that the bad germs got into it. Infection's the most dangerous thing there is, Tom. Infection was what made the superflu germ kill all the people. And infection is what made people want to make the germ in the first place. An infection of the mind.

  Stephen King

  Mean, People, Mind

  Stephen King (2008). “The Stand”, p.1578, Anchor

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• It's no wonder we're all such a mess, is it? We're like Tom Hanks in Big. Little boys and girls trapped in adult bodies and forced to get on with it.

  Nick Hornby

  Girl, Boys, Adults

  Nick Hornby (1996). “High Fidelity”, p.262, Penguin

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• Once, when Tom was over here, to tease Rose, I asked him, "Before she was born, can you remember? Were things just the same as they are these days? Did it still rain and get dark and all the stuff it does now? Did the sun go up and down in exactly the same way?" Yes," Tom said, and then he smiled at Rose and said, "No. Not really. Not exactly the same way.

  Hilary McKay

  Rain, Dark, Rose

  Hilary McKay (2007). “Caddy Ever After”, p.68, Simon and Schuster

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• Why, Tom - us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people - we go on.' 'We take a beatin' all the time.' 'I know.' Ma chuckled. 'Maybe that makes us tough. Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good, an' they die out. But, Tom, we keep a-comin'. Don' you fret none, Tom. A different time's comin'.

  John Steinbeck

  Kids, People, Different

  The Grapes of Wrath ch. 20 (1939)

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• People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.

  Charles Portis

  Girl, Horse, Father

  "True Grit". Book by Charles Portis, Chapter 1 (p. 9), 1968.

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• You know,' I whispered, 'some girls might think it's creepy having a boy watch them sleep.' He smirked and pointed to himself. 'Spy.' 'Oh.' I nodded. 'Right. So you're a trained Peeping Tom.' 'Product of the best peeping academies in the country.' 'Well, now I feel much better.' 'You should.

  Ally Carter

  Girl, Country, Sleep

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• I said, "Do you think she thinks it's me?" Jas said, "Well, it's pretty conclusive, isn't it? She said 'the most sniveling idiot I have ever come across.'" I said, "I didn't know that YOU have been seeing Masimo. Tom the Slug King is going to be very upset.

  Louise Rennison

  Kings, Thinking, Upset

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• The string slices into the skin of his fingers and no matter how tough the calluses, it tears. But this beat is fast and even though his joints are aching, his arm's out of control like it has a mind of its own and the sweat tat drenches his hair and face seems to smother him, but nothing's going to stop Tom. He;s aiming for oblivion.

  Melina Marchetta

  Hair, Sweat, Mind

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• Tom: If you love with kindness, even when you can't love with permanence, you'll deserve the one who's worthy along that path for you.

  Nora Roberts

  Kindness, Path, Worthy

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• Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.

  Mark Twain

  Boys, Men, Order

  Mark Twain (1992). “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn”, p.14, Wordsworth Editions

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• If I did something to hurt Frankie and she said that I was never getting near her heart again, I’d spent the rest of my life trying anyway. That’s the difference between you and me, Tom. I’d go back to the moment it all fell apart and I’d start there.

  Melina Marchetta

  Hurt, Heart, Differences

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• Come here,” she says. “No, you come here.” “I said it first.” “Rock paper scissors.” “No. Because you’ll do nerdy calculations and work out what I chose the last six times and then you’ll win.” Will pushes away from the table and his hand snakes out and he pulls her toward him and Tom figures that Will was always going to go to her first.

  Melina Marchetta

  Winning, Rocks, Hands

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• Tom always did anger well. Hid it well, but showed it even better

  Melina Marchetta

  Wells

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• I know the M-word makes you nervous, but yeah. I'm talking about the big, permanent friendship. A little different from what Joe and Charles had, though. See, I want to be the kind of best friends who make love every night, who share all their darkest secrets and favorite jokes, and maybe even someday make babies together. I know that kind of friendship requires hard work, but you know, I'm pretty good at hard work. ~ Tom Paoletti, "The Unsung Hero

  Suzanne Brockmann

  Baby, Hero, Hard Work

  Suzanne Brockmann (2003). “The Unsung Hero”, p.393, Ballantine Books

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• The first grave. Now we're getting someplace. Houses and children and graves, that's home, Tom. Those are the things that hold a man down.

  John Steinbeck

  Children, Home, Men

  John Steinbeck (1995). “To a God Unknown”, p.70, Penguin

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• He touched the screen as if trying to reach through with his hand. "You're a wonderful young lady. I don't tell you that often enough. You remind me so much of your mother. She'd be proud. And Grandpa Tom" --he chuckled-- "he always said you'd be the most powerful voice in our family. You're going to outshine me some day, you know. They're going to remember me as Piper McLean's father, and that's the best legacy I can imagine.

  Rick Riordan

  Mother, Powerful, Father

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