Descriptive Imagery Quotes

“The oak trees had shed their leaves, revealing the inky thumbprints of crows' nests in the crackle glaze of dark branches.”
― Kevin Ansbro, The Fish That Climbed a Tree

“It was the small time between sunset and evening when the sky turned the color of crushed plums, bruised from the wounds of another day.”
― Laura Taylor Namey, The Library of Lost Things

“The walls on either side were lined with curtains. Folds of damson velvet spilled onto the white marble floor. Gold fringes looped along the curtain rods above them. High overhead, rich reddish-brown slats formed the ceiling. Elaborate carvings in the wood depicted strange scenes of badgers and borlan and men.”
― S.C. Monson, Badgerblood: Awakening

“She was built along the lines of a General Electric refrigerator and looked like a cross between Caligula and a cockatoo. Mother Burnside had beady little eyes, an imperious beak of a nose, sallow skin, and bad breath. She wore a stiff black wig and a stiff black dress and she sat all day long in a darkened drawing room, her pudgy hands - encrusted with dirty diamond rings - folded over her pudgy belly.”
― Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade

“All of Berleburg's streets slanted away from the palace like rays of the sun, fell downhill to the Odeborn Creek, and turned into the market square. Even now, in February, the center of the stream ran free, water rushing by, smelling of greenness, past banks thick with cattails, rimed with ice. A rooster crowed as the town awakened, stoked its fires, fried its sausage.”
― Rose Osterman Kleidon, 1836: Year of Escape

“No hesitation, his brain matter splattered like a blooming flower from the soil of his skull.”
― Daniel Varona, The Cycle of Eden: Two Sides of Corruption

“Ooh! Oo-wooh!' groaned Henry, looking up to see that even Albert Einstein was willing him on. Amber grasped at lumps of his flesh and felt as if she were steering a rickety bus on a bumpy goat track.”
― Kevin Ansbro, The Fish That Climbed a Tree

“A garment made of cobwebs and mist.”
― Anthea Sharp, The Faerie Girl and Other Tales: Six Magical Stories

“When he took a bite of his sandwich, the bread seemed to swell up in his mouth. He could hardly swallow it and pushed his plate aside.”
― Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Books 1-3

“Her hair was so black it was almost blue and ran down her back like oil.”
― Louise Wolhuter, An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb

“I’d learned long ago that people had angles. Some were long and complicated, a maze you’d never unravel until they had you thoroughly trapped. Others were painfully obvious. Two turns to the truth. And still others carefully masked the turn, hid it so you didn’t see it until it was too late, and you were too broken to turn around and retreat.”
― Anna Augustine, By Blood & Blade

“He was gorgeous but in a devilish way."
"Gorgeous but devilish?" He heaved a sigh. "Can you be more descriptive? Hair and eye color. Weight. Height. Clothes."
"Leather jacket. Very worn. Boots. Also worn. His hair was tousled like he'd just got out of bed. It looked good on him. Sexy." I licked my lips, imagining Oliver in place of Garcia in my tropical island fantasy. "He was about the same height and build as you, but leaner. I don't think he spends as much time in the gym as you probably do..." I trailed off when Riswan shook his head. "Or not. It's nothing to do with me how much time you spend in the gym. Or don't. Or whether you even like gyms. Maybe you were born with biceps the size of watermelons---”
― Sara Desai, To Have and to Heist

“Its voice was as clear as water, as pure as the light from the sun that was rising over the buildings around her.”
― Odo Hirsch, Hazel Green

“This hidden paradise felt suspended between earth and sky, as if it belonged to both and neither at once.”
― Elle Christopher, Where Loyalty Lies

“The bag contained a pair of white cotton gloves stained the color of age.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“Sergeant Cortez was another story, a horror story. His head was shaved and the wrong shape, flattened out on one side, where a large piece of skull had obviously been taken out. His face was very dark and seamed with wrinkles and scars. Half his left ear was missing, and his eyes were as expressive as buttons on a machine. He had a moustache-and-beard combination that looked like a skinny white caterpillar taking a lap around his mouth. On anybody else, his schoolboy smile might look pleasant, but he was about the ugliest, meanest-looking creature I'd ever seen. Still, if you didn't look at his head and considered the lower six feet or so, he could have posed as the "after" advertisement for a body-building spa. Neither Stott nor Cortez wore any ribbons. Cortez had a small pocket-laser suspended in a magnetic rig, sideways, under his left armpit. It had wooden grips that were worn smooth.”
― Joe Haldeman, Forever War