Mac > Mac's Quotes

“I tried to write my own words. They were not like the words in the songs. My words were ugly. My words were wrong.”
― Eli Wilde, Cruel

“Janice suddenly flopped her body down on the dusty, musty train seat and pulled herself into a fetal position. Libby stroked her shoulder, trying to comfort her. Maggie and I looked at each other. We knew Janice had more to tell us.”
― Karen Hinton, Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power

“In her usual manner, Merkel spoke in German. It is worth pointing out, however, that before the translator had an opportunity to convert her statements to English, Obama gave the chancellor and the press a big smile, saying, ‘I think what she said was good. I’m teasing.’ The laughter in the room drowned out the sounds of the cameras clicking and flashing, with Merkel’s giggle and smile among the loudest.”
― Claudia Clark, Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel

“There was no private ownership of land. "You could own a knife, or you could own a horse, but you couldn't own ground any more than you could own the sun or the wind. The Earth was their mother and part of the Cosmos given to all creatures by the Great Spirit.”
― John-Paul Cernak, The Odyssey of a Hippie Marijuana Grower

“Steve shook his head in amazement. ‘If that GOD person hadn’t left that case, we wouldn’t have any of this.’
     Thomas agreed. ‘Personally, I can’t praise him enough.’     ”
― A.R. Merrydew, Our Blue Orange

“The Vietnamese soldier said, “Before I spoke to her, I had given her a cooked ration of rice. Instead of her being grateful for the meal, she abused me! What gives with these Kampuchean People?”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“Every night I dream a lot. Every day I live a little.”
― Max Nowaz, Get Rich or Get Lucky

“when your predictions are accurate enough—something happens. You cross a threshold where you should actually rethink your whole business model and product based on machine learning.…”
― Ajay Agrawal, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

“While not all elements in the Periodic Table are represented by letters of the alphabet, some in this book (Magical Elements of the Periodic Table Presented Alphabetically by the Metal Horn Unicorns), are introduced by alternate designations. For instance, Tungsten is also known as Wolfram so “W” is used as the entry for that alphabetical letter in this book. The letter “W” is also used as the atomic symbol for Tungsten in all periodic tables.”
― Sybrina Durant, Magical Elements of The Periodic Table: Presented Alphabetically by The Metal Horn Unicorns

“If folks can’t do anything else, they’ll cook.”
― Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

“Satan is an eternal being, like God. He may not know all things as God does or have God’s power, but he knows our weaknesses even better than we do. He knows us intimately. He knows the evil desires of our heart and mind. He knows where and when to attack to gain the best advantage. Satan schemes and plays upon those things in order to separate us from God and bring about our destruction. Never underestimate him. Without our armor, we’re vulnerable.” Atretes”
― Francine Rivers, Mark of the Lion Collection

“I write storys to entertain not to be the best”
― lemony snicket

“I am not a good enough writer to convey the intense emotion I felt over my newfound self-respect. It was a rehabilitation, if not a new life. This imaginary baptism, the immersion in purity, the elevation of my being above the filth in which I'd been mired and, overnight, this sense of responsibility, made me into a different man. The convict's complexes that make him hear his chains and suspect he's being watched even after he's freed, everything I'd seen, gone through, suffered, everything that was making me tarnished, rotten and dangerous, passively obedient on the surface but terribly dangerous in rebellion, all that had disappeared as if by a miracle.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“We can't all leave this country, Bijan had told me-this is our home. The world is a large place, my magician had said when I went to him with my woes. You can write and teach wherever you are. You will be read more and heard better, in fact, once you are over there. To go or not to go? In the long run, it's all very personal, my magician reasoned. I always admired your former colleague's honesty, he said. Which former colleague? Dr. A, the one who said his only reason for leaving was because he liked to drink beer freely. I am getting sick of people who cloak their personal flaws and desires in the guise of patriotic fervor. They stay because they have no means of living anywhere else, because if they leave, they won't be the big shots they are over here; but they talk about sacrifice for the homeland. And then those who do leave claim they've gone in order to criticize and expose the regime. Why all these justifications?”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Members of his crew knew dialects from further up the African coast, but they had never heard words like those spoken by these river people. Cao heard the name Kongo being repeated. Following the pattern of other African groups, they explained they were the BaKongo people and called their language KiKongo. Inland, they said, was the capital of their tribe, MbanzaKongo, where there lived a powerful leader or king, the ManiKongo.”
― Tim Butcher, Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart

“Whatever I thought right seemed bad to others;
whatever seemed wrong to me,
others approved of.
I ran into feuds wherever I found myself,
I met disfavor wherever I went;
if I longed for happiness, I only stirred up misery;
so I had to be called “Woeful”:
Woe is all I possess.”
― Caleb Carr, The Alienist

“Like a sculptor, if necessary,
carve a friend out of stone.
Realize that your inner sight is blind
and try to see a treasure in everyone.”
― Rumi Jalalu'l-Din

“Imagination is an old soul.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“سمّاني الناس مجنونا، غير أن العلم لم يكشف لنا بعد فيما إذا كان الجنون ذروة الذكاء أم لا، وفيما إذا كان كل ما يسمى مجدا وكل ما يسمى عمقا ليسا آتيين من مرض فكري، من حالة روحية تتمجد وتنمو على حساب الذهن العام. هؤلاء الذين يحلمون وهم أيقاظ يعرفون أشياء كثيرة تفلت من هؤلاء الذين لا يحلمون إلا وهم نيام. إنهم يلتقطون - في رؤاهم المغيّمة - لمحات من الأبدية، وإذ يستيقظون يرتعشون لتنبههم أنهم كانوا للحظةٍ على ضفة السر العظيم. إنهم يدركون - جزءا فجزءا - شيئا من معرفة الخير، وأكثر أيضا من علم الشر. وهم - بلا دفة ولا بوصلة - يخترقون المحيط الواسع للضياء الذي لا يوصف.”
― إدجار آلان بو, مغامرات وأسرار

“A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred,”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

“Everything is going as planned until I notice that Ashley has barely touched her wine glass or food after ordering the priciest bottle and several of the most expensive dishes on the menu.

From "My Worst Valentine's Day.Ever: a Short Story”
― Zack Love, Stories and Scripts: an Anthology