Amanda Cotroneo > Amanda's Quotes

“My mother used to say that . . . and that the only real beauty is order and love and light.”
― Stephen King, The Gunslinger

“At nineteen they can card you in the bars and tell you to get the fuck out, put your sorry act (and sorrier ass) back on the street, but they can’t card you when you sit down to paint a picture, write a poem, or tell a story, by God, and if you reading this happen to be very young, don’t let your elders and supposed betters tell you any different. Sure, you’ve never been to Paris. No, you never ran with the bulls at Pamplona. Yes, you’re a pissant who had no hair in your armpits until three years ago—but so what? If you don’t start out too big for your britches, how are you gonna fill ’em when you grow up? Let it rip regardless of what anybody tells you, that’s my idea; sit down and smoke that baby.”
― Stephen King, The Gunslinger

“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“that the hardest truths never rest on the surface. They must be dredged up, held to the light and rinsed clean.”
― Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
― Emily Jane Brontë , Wuthering Heights

“A fondness for reading, properly directed, must be an education in itself.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“And that was the moment I realized: when the world felt dark and scary, love could whisk you off to go dancing; laughter could take some of the pain away; beauty could punch holes in your fear. I decided then that my life would be full of all three.”
― Emily Henry, Beach Read

“That was what I'd always loved about reading, what had driven me to write in the first place. That feeling that a new world was being spun like a spiderweb around you and you couldn't move until the whole thing had revealed itself to you.”
― Emily Henry, Beach Read

“If the writer thinks about his material long enough, until it becomes a part of his mind and wakes up thinking about it- then at least when he starts to work, it will flow out as if by itself.”
― Patricia Highsmith, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

“Every failure teaches something. 12”
― Patricia Highsmith, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

“A book is a really long continuous process, which ideally, should be interrupted only by sleep.”
― Patricia Highsmith, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

“O, the perfidy of men.” “What have I done?” he protested. “Nothing at present, but you are the only representative of your sex I have at hand to abuse. Take your lumps for your brothers.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“I am quite determined to be mistress of my own fate, Mrs. Clutterthorpe, but I do sympathize with how strange it must sound to you. It is not your fault that you are entirely devoid of imagination. I blame your education”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“That is the hallmark of a good partnership, you know - when one partner sees the forest and the other studies the trees.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“In my experience it is far better to tell a man what he wants to hear then do as you please, than attempt to reason with him.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“I felt in this new adventure I was rousing to life again. I was a butterfly, newly emerged from the chrysalis, damp winged and trembling with expectation.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“Should I be in distress? In a meadow? You mean if the cows organize some sort of attack? I have extensive experience with cows. They almost never do that.” “Forget”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“You put us on pedestals and wrap us in cotton wool, cluck over us as being too precious and too fragile for any real labor of the mind, yet where is the concern for the Yorkshire woman working herself into an early grave in a coal mine? The factory girl who chokes herself to an untimely death on bad air? The wife so worn by repeated childbearing that she is dead at thirty? No, my dear Stoker, your sex has held the reins of power for too long. And I daresay you will not turn them loose without a fight.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“We are, as a gender, undereducated and infantilized to the point of idiocy. But those of us who have been given the benefit of learning and useful occupation, well, we are proof that the traditional notions of feminine delicacy and helplessness are the purest poppycock.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“I was merely thinking that it may have been a very grave mistake to introduce you to Lady C. If the pair of you ever put your minds to it, you could probably topple governments together.” I smiled as I pocketed the weapon. “One thing at a time, dear Stoker. One thing at a time.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“Why must you argue before I even have my tea? So many words.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“Australia is full of unsuitable people—you will fit in beautifully.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“One seldom finds something if one never actually looks for it.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

“Men, I had often observed, were never happier than when they believed they were imparting wisdom.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Perilous Undertaking

“The hardest lesson I had learnt upon my travels was patience. There are times when every muscle, every nerve, screams for movement, when every instinct urges escape. But the instinct to fly is not always a sound one. There are occasions when only stillness can save you.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Perilous Undertaking

“ALIS VOLAT PROPRIIS. “‘She flies with her own wings,’” I translated.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Perilous Undertaking

“Because there is no power on earth that could make me abandon our friendship. There is no deed you could confess so dark that it would make me forsake you. You said of us once that we were quicksilver and the rest of the world mud. We are alike, shaped by Nature in the same mold, and whatever that signifies, it means that to spurn each other would be to spit in the face of whatever deity has seen fit to bring us together. We are the same, and to leave you would be to leave myself.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Treacherous Curse

“Boys!” I said sharply. “There will be no brawling with your shirts on. Kindly remove your upper garments and give them into my keeping.” Both men turned to look at me, wearing identical expressions of astonishment. Mornaday spoke first. “I beg your pardon?” I adopted my best nanny tone—one that I had used with excellent results to bring unruly suitors to heel. “You cannot strike an opponent properly while hampered by a tight coat,” I pointed out. “Or a fitted waistcoat. And white does show the blood so badly. The shirt must come off as well.” I put out my hands. “Come on, then. Shirts off, both of you. Shall you fight to first blood or unconsciousness? I always think first blood is a little lacking. Let’s go until one of you is entirely senseless, shall we?”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Treacherous Curse