Annabelle > Annabelle's Quotes

“It’s hard not to be impatient with the absurdity of the young; they tell us that two and two make four as though it had never occurred to us, and they’re disappointed if we can’t share their surprise when they have discovered that a hen lays an egg. There’s a lot of nonsense in their ranting and raving, but it’s not all nonsense. One ought to sympathize with them; one ought to do one’s best to understand. One has to remember how much has to be forgotten and how much has to be learnt when for the first time one faces life. It’s not very easy to give up one’s ideals, and the brute facts of every day are bitter pills to swallow. The spiritual conflicts of adolescence can be very severe and one can do little to resolve them.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Theatre

“(On differences between men and boys) Men know what they want. Men make concrete plans. Men own alarm clocks. Men sleep on a mattress that isn't on the floor. Men tip generously. Men buy new shampoo instead of adding water to a nearly empty bottle of shampoo. Men go to the dentist. Men make reservations. Men go in for a kiss without giving you some long preamble about how they're thinking of kissing you. Men wear clothes that have never been worn by anyone else before.”
― Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

“If you are not going to be a comfort, have the decency to be an empty space.”
― Jennifer Crusie, Bet Me

“You don't know the difference between truth and make-believe. You never stop acting. It's second nature to you. You act when there's a party here. You act to the servants, you act to father, you act to me. To me you act the part of the fond, indulgent, celebrated mother. You don't exist, you're only the innumerable parts you've played. I've often wondered if there was ever a you or if you were never anything more than a vehicle for all these other people that you've pretended to be. When I've seen you go into an empty room I've sometimes wanted to open the door suddenly, but I've been afraid to in case I found nobody there.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Theatre

“That's how you know you love someone, I guess, when you can't experience anything without wishing the other person were there to see it, too.”
― Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants

“Sorry. I forgot your lust for small talk. And how have you been in the fourteen hours since we last spoke, eight of which you were sleeping?”
― Jennifer Crusie, Bet Me

“You're not by any chance my stepmother are you?" Min said to her mother's reflection. "Because that would explain so much.”
― Jennifer Crusie, Bet Me

“Contrary to what you believe, the earth does not revolve around the desires of your crotch.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

“Then she told me about a philosopher who said that observation is at its core an expression of love which doesn’t get caught up in sentiment.”
― Takashi Hiraide, The Guest Cat

“She told me once she envied the women who lived back in the good old days who only had to worry about Indians and mountain lions killing their husbands. Something about those things being beyond a wife's control.”
― Tawni O'Dell, Back Roads

“Conventional lives are the perfect refuge if you are a terrible artist.”
― Kevin Wilson, The Family Fang

“Children are not guaranteed the luxuries of family, Ms. Wells," he said. "If people are unable to exist within the parameters that have been created for them, they lose any claim to titles like son and daughter.”
― Kevin Wilson, The Family Fang

“Buster was not used to this experience, physical desire that was actually fulfilled. In his entire life, he had kissed five women. One of them had been his sister. This was, Buster understood, a terrible percentage. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd had sex and still have enough fingers left over to make complicated shadow puppets.”
― Kevin Wilson, The Family Fang

“Criticism is like dissecting a dead frog," Caleb said when the book was published. "They're examining all the guts and shit and organs, when the thing that really matters, whatever it was that animated the body, has long since left. It does nothing for the art.”
― Kevin Wilson

“But there was something different about this bout of crying. It was calm, facyual crying. Good crying. Water cleansing the tubes, rather like clearing a gutter of leaves and pine needles. A way to get rid of negative energy and make room for something better. It was as if I could feel all the improper thoughts flying away, and new ones taking their place. Better ones. A fresh start.”
― Jonas Karlsson, The Room

“Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.”
― Mario Vargas Llosa

“Here’s to the person you might have been, and to the person you have become. May they never meet in a dark alley.”
― Adam Sternbergh, The Blinds