Twitching Quotes

• I am to be broken. I am to be derided all my life. I am to be cast up and down among these men and women, with their twitching faces, with their lying tongues, like a cork on a rough sea. Like a ribbon of weed I am flung far every time the door opens.

  Virginia Woolf

  Weed, Women, Lying

  Virginia Woolf (2005). “Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.687, Wordsworth Editions

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• I love the tradition of Dickens, where even the most minor walk-on characters are twitching and particular and alive.

  Donna Tartt

  Character, Alive, Literature

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• I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

  David Byrne

  People, Faces, Stage

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• Fame comes with its own standard. A guy who twitches his lips is just another guy with a lip twitch - unless he's Humphrey Bogart.

  Sammy Davis, Jr.

  Guy, Lips, Fame

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• But it was hard to keep his hands still. He could almost feel them twitching emphatically with his strong desire to reach out and stroke the dog's head. He had such a terrible yearning to love something again, and the dog was such a beautiful ugly dog.

  Richard Matheson

  Beautiful, Dog, Strong

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• All laughter is a muscular rigidity spasmodically relieved by involuntary twitching.

  Robert Benchley

  Laughter, Rigidity, Relieved

  Robert Benchley (1947). “Benchley--or else!”

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• Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot My twitching muscles tease my flippant thoughts I never really dreamed of heaven much Until we put him in the ground. There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free

  Conor Oberst

  Worry, Heaven, Flippant

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• At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching - that way, you pick up new ideas.

  Ian Rankin

  Thinking, Ideas, Way

  "Paperback Q&A: Ian Rankin on The Impossible Dead". www.theguardian.com. May 22, 2012.

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• Her face was working and twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still quiet, neither angry nor afraid, but a little sad.

  C. S. Lewis

  Passion, Sky, Littles

  C. S. LEWIS (1950). “THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE”

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• I rarely use the internet for research, as I find the process cumbersome and detestable. The information gained is often untrustworthy and couched in execrable prose. It is unpleasant to sit in front of a twitching screen suffering assault by virus, power outage, sluggish searches, system crashes and the lack of direct human discourse.

  Annie Proulx

  Atmosphere, Suffering, Hustle

  "Close Range: Wyoming Stories". Book by Annie Proulx, www.theguardian.com. May 10, 1999.

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• Look at it this way: There are many here among us for whom the life force is best represented by the livid twitching of one tortured nerve, or even a full-scale anxiety attack. I do not subscribe to this point of view 100 percent, but I understand it, have lived it. Thus the shriek, the caterwaul, the chainsaw gnarlgnashing, the yowl and the whizz that decapitates may be reheard by the adventurous or emotionally damaged as mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation.

  Lester Bangs

  Views, Anxiety, Nerves

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• Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual:Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.

  Stefan Zweig

  Leadership, Powerful, Fall

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• There exists a kind of laughter which is worthy to be ranked with the higher lyric emotions and is infinitely different from the twitching of a mean merrymaker.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Laughter, Mean, Different

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• The result is a twitching convulsion of vicious drivel passing itself off as a movie, which can be best appreciated by the kind of people who dig Showgirls, the Saw franchise and Spike Jonze-Charlie Kaufman flicks.

  Rex Reed

  People, Saws, Kind

  "Going to the Dogs: With 'Seven Psychopaths,' The Once-Masterful McDonagh Stays Bent on an Ill-Advised Hiatus from Theater" by Rex Reed, observer.com. October 9, 2012.

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• What you will be looking for is a day that closes above the prior day's high and most likely 'breaks' out to the upside to close above a trading range. This is the twitching worm that causes the public to leap before they look.

  Larry R. Williams

  Break Out, Looks, Causes

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• I found myself face to face with a long line of people resembling extras off the set of Night of the Living Dead: shuffling along, pale and twitching, empty cups in hand -- murderous. Miserable. No matter that the air was rich with vapors of fresh-ground beans and warm muffins; no matter that the soft piped-in Vivaldi poured over us like steamed milk. These angry zombies were rushing to work, and their eyes flashed fair warning: Don't mess with us. We haven't had our coffee.

  Joan Frank

  Coffee, Eye, Night

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• Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.

  William James

  Science, Thinking, Hands

  1907 Pragmatism.

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• Will you look at us by the river! The whole restless mob of us on spread blankets in the dreamy briny sunshine skylarking and chiacking about for one day, one clear, clean, sweet day in a good world in the midst of our living. Yachts run before an unfelt gust with bagnecked pelicans riding above them, the city their twitching backdrop, all blocks and points of mirror light down to the water's edge.

  Tim Winton

  Running, Sweet, Block

  Tim Winton (2014). “Cloudstreet: Picador Classic”, p.9, Pan Macmillan

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• To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.

  Deanna Raybourn

  Husband, Body, Should

  Deanna Raybourn (2015). “Silent in the Grave”, p.10, MIRA

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• Dogs are not like cats, who amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw. Men made dogs, they took wolves and gave them human things - unnecessary intelligence, names, a desire to belong, and a twitching inferiority complex. All dogs dream wolf dreams, and know they're dreaming of biting their Maker. Every dog knows, deep in his heart, that he is a Bad Dog.

  Terry Pratchett

  Dream, Dog, Heart

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• Kate Daniels, deadly swordmaster. Fear my twitching pinkie.

  Ilona Andrews

  Kate, Magic Bleeds

  Ilona Andrews (2010). “Magic Bleeds”, p.242, Penguin

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• The monster licked his lips, long lines of whiskers twitching, and spoke in a deep growl. "Pretty, aren't I?" Curran. In midform. I broke from his gaze. "Adorable.

  Ilona Andrews

  Adorable, Long, Monsters

  Ilona Andrews (2012). “Magic Bites: A Special Edition of the First Kate Daniels Novel”, p.87, Penguin

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• I leaned back in my chair, stretching luxuriantly, delibrately letting my jacket fall open. Predictably, his eyes moved down my body-some things outlast even the change. I grinned and he looked away, a rueful smile twitching at his lips. I finished breakfast in peace.

  Karen Chance

  Fall, Eye, Breakfast

  Karen Chance (2008). “Midnight's Daughter”, p.71, Penguin

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• Oh, don’t lie, Harry,” she said impatiently. “Ron and Ginny say you’ve been hiding from everyone since you got back from St. Mungo’s.” “They do, do they?” said Harry, glaring at Ron and Ginny. Ron looked down at his feet but Ginny seemed quite unabashed. “Well, you have!” she said. “And you won’t look at any of us!” “It’s you lot who won’t look at me!” said Harry angrily. “Maybe you’re taking it in turns to look and keep missing each other,” suggested Hermione, the corners of her mouth twitching.

  J. K. Rowling

  Lying, Feet, Missing

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• His gaze narrowed and she could see his hands twitching again like he’d love nothing more than to throttle her. She was beginning to think it was an affliction of his. Did he go around wanting to choke the life out of everyone or was she special in that regard? “I’m afraid ’tis an urge that is entirely original to you,” the laird barked. She clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes. Mother Serenity had vowed one day Mairin would regret her propensity to blurt out her least little thought. Today just might be that day.

  Maya Banks

  Mother, Regret, Eye

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