Jonathan Stroud quote: "Death is fugitive; even when you're watching for it, the actual instant somehow slips between your fingers. You don't get that sudden drop of the head you see in movies. Instead you simply sit there, waiting for something to happen, and all at once you realize you've missed it."

Can you define "plan" as "a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, he...
JONATHAN STROUD

Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price. Thinking
JONATHAN STROUD

The stories that bind us, Halli. The stories we live by, that dictate what we do and where we go. Th...
JONATHAN STROUD

Looks?” the skull said. “Who cares about that? It’s superficial. Outward appearance doesn’t ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Oh, we'll suffer in silence. You've given us plenty of practice at that.
JONATHAN STROUD

Because you're unique . You shine like a beacon, attracting the attention of all dark things." It ch...
JONATHAN STROUD

Nothing could keep me from you. Nothing in life or Death...
JONATHAN STROUD

I'ts how I want to remember him, the way he was that night: with horrors up ahead and horrors at our...
JONATHAN STROUD

Well, I make that one murder victim, one police interrogation and one conversation with a ghost,” ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Well, when you're being held at gunpoint by a geriatric madman in a metal skirt, you've kind of hit ...
JONATHAN STROUD

God rest her soul and may she never walk at night
JONATHAN STROUD

A dozen more questions occurred to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, six...
JONATHAN STROUD

One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror.
JONATHAN STROUD

According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. I've never been convinced by this argument, m...
JONATHAN STROUD

Zealots: Wild eyed persons afflicted with incurable certainty about the workings of the world, a cer...
JONATHAN STROUD

Then again, Solomon was human. And that meant he was flawed (Go on, take a look at yourself in the m...
JONATHAN STROUD

Besides, if you're going to die horribly, you might as well do it with style.
JONATHAN STROUD

More ghosts have been created in bedrooms than anywhere else.
JONATHAN STROUD

Strange how close the darkness is, even when things seem brightest. Even in the glare of a summer no...
JONATHAN STROUD

I wanted to wake you straightaway, but I knew I had to wait several hours to ensure you were safely ...
JONATHAN STROUD

And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.
JONATHAN STROUD

I used to have quite long hair, and I decided that I wanted to get it cut. I'd never met the per...
JONATHAN STROUD

Minor magicians take pains to fit this traditional wizardly bill. By contrast, the really powerful m...
JONATHAN STROUD

He was transfixed at the sight of the lords and ladies of his realm running about like demented chic...
JONATHAN STROUD

Literature offers the thrill of minds of great clarity wrestling with the endless problems and delig...
JONATHAN STROUD

As a child I was really into fantasy books with elves and goblins and swords, and I went through a p...
JONATHAN STROUD

In recent weeks it has come to my attention that many caravans have met with disaster; they have not...
JONATHAN STROUD

Check out that one at the end. He's taken the form of a footstool. Weird...but somehow I like his st...
JONATHAN STROUD

Hey, we've all got problems, chum. I'm overly talkative. You look like a field of buttercups in a su...
JONATHAN STROUD

Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price.
JONATHAN STROUD

That did it. I'd gone through a lot in the past few days. Everyone I met seemed to want a piece of m...
JONATHAN STROUD

Watch where you leave your victims! I stubbed my toe on that.
JONATHAN STROUD

The mercenary finished his coffee in a single gulp, It must have been piping hot, too. Boy, he was t...
JONATHAN STROUD

Jabor finally appeared at the top of the stairs, sparks of flame radiating from his body and ignitin...
JONATHAN STROUD

Did Lovelace's forces find you? Did Jabor break in?"
He spoke slowly through clenched teeth. "I...
JONATHAN STROUD

Pardon me, Highness, a women waits whithout."
"Whithout what?
JONATHAN STROUD

It's the same with spirit guises; show me a sweet little choirboy or a smiling mother and I'll show ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Long ago I dreamed of being a hero in your company" Halli said Huskily "I'm sorry to say your realit...
JONATHAN STROUD

Oh, the boots were on the other eight feet now.
JONATHAN STROUD

We communicated with pithy, rather monosyllabic thoughts: viz. Run, Jump, Where? Left, Up, Duck, ect...
JONATHAN STROUD

The Amulet of Samarkand. It was Simon Lovelace's. Now it is yours. Soon it will be Simon Lovelace's ...
JONATHAN STROUD

listen, a goad's anything that provokes or incites an enemy
---
let me have a go: cursed d...
JONATHAN STROUD

Wenn man schon eines grässlichen Todes sterben muss, sollte man wenigstens einen stilvollen Abgang ...
JONATHAN STROUD

En pleine bagarre, vous vous en tenez au strict nécessaire, à savoir étriper l’adversaire en fa...
JONATHAN STROUD

Ich für meinen Teil denke während einer Verfolgungsjagd gern nach. Keiner stört einen, man ist al...
JONATHAN STROUD

The Evasive Cartwheel ™ © etc., Bartimaeus of Uruk, circa. 2800 B.C.E. Often imitated, never surp...
JONATHAN STROUD

Me, I was still in the pygmy hippo in a skirt, singing lusty songs about Solomon's private life and ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Her clarity gave her purpose and her purpose gave her clarity.
JONATHAN STROUD

Not bad in short, though the last one [understanding the language of animals], isn't half as useful ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Hippo in a skirt: this was a comic reference to one of Solomon's principal wives, the one from Moab....
JONATHAN STROUD

I got fairly good grades, but I was bad at woodwork. They said I tried hard, but the result was hope...
JONATHAN STROUD

I rather think he knew anyway.
JONATHAN STROUD

Bartimaeus: "A small piece of advice," I said "it isn't wise to be rude to someone bigger than you, ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Making tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you.
JONATHAN STROUD

I wasn't pretty, but as my mother once said, prettiness wasn't my profession.
JONATHAN STROUD

When you go out hunting wicked spirits, it's the simple things that matter most. The silvered point ...
JONATHAN STROUD

That's usually how they start, the young ones. Meaningless waffle.
JONATHAN STROUD

Then I realized he was still holding my hand.
JONATHAN STROUD

That's just it. I'm the first. And if my venture goes well, and I return to record it, many others w...
JONATHAN STROUD

The bristling eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. Mesmerized, the boy watched them disappear under th...
JONATHAN STROUD

A word of friendly advice could have saved him, but dear me, I was too busy watching him unravel to ...
JONATHAN STROUD

It's a curious thing with George. With his glasses off, his eyes looked small and weak - blinky and ...
JONATHAN STROUD

Water, running - It was observed in ancient times that ghosts dislike crossing running water. In mod...
JONATHAN STROUD

Yes, all the inhabitants of the store had left. But that didn't mean we were alone.
JONATHAN STROUD

Mr Lockwood, you've impressed a lot of people over the years. Personally, I expected you to be ghost...
JONATHAN STROUD

I think North Idaho and Salt Lake will be the teams to beat, along with ourselves. So we'll get a lo...
BEN STROUD

Well, really what I hope to see is us compete really hard. This is a team of people that are used to...
BEN STROUD

I don't think they're very happy about that.
BEN STROUD

I tell you, her family, they are something though. There are so many of them and they get so fired u...
BEN STROUD

I'd feel pretty good. I really would. I think, as you can see, we're crushing the ball out there. I'...
BEN STROUD

Still, the key is in the passing and setting ourselves up. If we can do that consistently, and with ...
BEN STROUD

I think the Snow match has potential to be tough. If their football team is there in the stands like...
BEN STROUD

She is going to be probably the best setter we have ever had here. She's going to be real, real good...
BEN STROUD

I think they'd kind of gotten in the mode where they were just stepping on the court and playing. Th...
BEN STROUD

Oh yeah. I mean, it's everything, especially when you run a 5-1. That's your quarterback and they ha...
BEN STROUD

(Beck) had a couple good games. I thought she got a little tired at the end, but there were moments ...
BEN STROUD

I think we're a little overconfident, to tell you the truth. They think they're pretty good -- which...
BEN STROUD

I liked the way we finished strong. The first time we played (Missouri State), I thought we had both...
BEN STROUD

We're seeing alumni putting money back into the houses because vandalism is down. We are seeing a re...
CLARKE STROUD

We have without a doubt the most comprehensive alcohol program in the country. The president has rea...
CLARKE STROUD

There aren't that many places that welcome people and their dogs. We thought this would give them a ...
DEBORAH STROUD

They wanted to do something that would benefit an organization in the community. To help us learn wh...
DEBORAH STROUD

The look-alike should be a lot of fun.
DEBORAH STROUD

We hope everyone comes out and has a good time. We need more things like this in town.
DEBORAH STROUD

I think it is going great. I think the community is really being accepting of the new policy. There ...
CLARKE STROUD

We don't care if they are trying to go undefeated. That is what the Colts want to focus on. We're go...
MARCUS STROUD

In the second half, the whole idea was to put pressure on the rookie. We showed him stuff he's proba...
MARCUS STROUD

I think so. We're going to try to get to him and see what happens.
MARCUS STROUD

We're going to get after him and see what happens.
MARCUS STROUD

The only difference I see with him now is that he has just got a younger cast that has to come along...
MARCUS STROUD

If (opponents) are taking the time to focus on us dancing and trash talking, that means they are not...
MARCUS STROUD

We have Gideon because we don't want always to be speaking of our faith in abstract, otherworldly, i...
DEAN G. STROUD

The first comic book I ever read was an issue of 'Legion of Super-Heroes' where the earth wa...
JONATHAN HICKMAN

I know, especially in my family, people's feelings get hurt over the tiniest things. I'm sur...
JONATHAN KRISEL

The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countrie...
JONATHAN COE

If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.
JONATHAN WINTERS

I love improvisation. You can't blame it on the writers. You can't blame it on direction. Yo...
JONATHAN WINTERS

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how many people remember you when you die.
JONATHAN ROSS

These people are real to me, and situations keep coming up where their emergence feels natural. It&#...
JONATHAN KELLERMAN

I collect primarily ceramics but also black-and-white photography and some bits of contemporary.
JONATHAN ANDERSON

I grew up, as I joke around, in the 'People's Republic of Charlestown' in the city of Bo...
JONATHAN TUCKER

I reassure all Nigerians and the international community of our firm commitment to free, fair and cr...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

All Nigerians of voting age are free to vote based on their convictions. It is our duty to defend an...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

One thing that I know and I feel Nigerians will celebrate is continuity and peace.
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

We want to refocus Nigeria to make sure that basic infrastructure is provided. The environment is cr...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

I've always affirmed, nobody's ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

When you talk about the oil wealth you compare nations. There are some nations with less than five m...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags. There were days I had only one meal... I...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

Well-trained medical doctors and engineers leave Nigeria to the developed countries. We want to reve...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

We will bring justice to the savage terrorists known as Boko Haram. They will be defeated.
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

We want to lead a country where people will be less greedy. Where people will know that the commonwe...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

The argument about zoning and the presidency of Nigeria is like the philosophical argument of the eg...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

My brothers and sisters, we are all winners. In this context there is no victor and no vanquished. W...
GOODLUCK JONATHAN

When I started caregiving, I was not on very firm ground. My first marriage had dissolved. I was wor...
JONATHAN EVISON

One person's car is another person's scenery.
JONATHAN IVE

I toured Ontario in the winter of '48, in a touring company of The Drunkard, in which I played t...
JONATHAN FRID

Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be ...
JONATHAN SACKS

When we look at the flowers, we suddenly forget so many important things. We forget that all flowers...
JONATHAN MABERRY

My dad started taking me to Winnipeg games when I was 3 or 4. As a kid, I loved Wayne Gretzky, and I...
JONATHAN TOEWS

I think whenever anyone asked me why I wanted to be a hockey player, that's where it all started...
JONATHAN TOEWS

I'd love to have a proper sailing boat and go around the world.
JONATHAN POWELL

In my third novel there is an actual black hole that swallows everything you love.
JONATHAN LETHEM

Which European leader today would not relish the wonder-working powers of a Moses? Budget deficit? U...
JONATHAN SACKS

The build-up of personal and collective debt in America and Europe should have sent warning signals ...
JONATHAN SACKS

If you grow up in the South Bronx today or in south-central Los Angeles or Pittsburgh or Philadelphi...
JONATHAN KOZOL

I never set out to intentionally hurt any player and never enticed any teammate to intentionally hur...
JONATHAN VILMA

The Futurists believed in the machine, in making a great big fuss, in being young. For a brief momen...
JONATHAN GALASSI

That test should not be about ratings. What should weigh is the knowledge that a public broadcaster ...
JONATHAN DIMBLEBY

Anyone who thinks that you become a journalist or broadcaster in order to be a wallflower needs to t...
JONATHAN DIMBLEBY

Promises and Pye-Crusts, are made to be broken.
JONATHAN SWIFT

O Grub Street! how do I bemoan thee, whose graceless children scorn to own thee! . Yet thou hast gre...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Style may defined as the proper words in the proper places.
JONATHAN SWIFT

During an open water swim, it's easy to lose your direction. With all the splash, it can be quit...
JONATHAN BROWNLEE

I have a cameo in every movie. In '50/50,' I'm in the back of the bus.
JONATHAN LEVINE

Buttons, for me, are very sculptural things, and they are so fascinating.
JONATHAN ANDERSON

I wrote '33 Men' in eight weeks. Not only was it a combination of simultaneously writing and...
JONATHAN FRANKLIN

Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into teams... but thereby makes us go blind to objective real...
JONATHAN HAIDT

If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.
JONATHAN WINTERS

The pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for the accountant.
JONATHAN GLANCEY

We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Necessity is the mother of invention, it is true, but its father is creativity, and knowledge is the...
JONATHAN SCHATTKE

There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Vision: the art of seeing things invisible.
JONATHAN SWIFT

We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.
JONATHAN SWIFT

The Viennese wash everything. Where else in the world does the government hire public servants to wa...
JONATHAN CARROLL

In thinking about religion and society in the 21st century, we should broaden the conversation about...
JONATHAN SACKS

When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston, there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther...
JONATHAN KOZOL

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a sco...
JONATHAN SWIFT

He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be pu...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right, nor do Two Rights Make a Left.

Which ever side you think i...
JONATHAN BAILEY

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scou...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for ...
JONATHAN FRANZEN

Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.
JONATHAN SWIFT

The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false op...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Your notions of friendship are new to me; I believe every man is born with his quantum, and he canno...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.
JONATHAN SWIFT

I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the ...
JONATHAN SWIFT

In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained, the professors appearing, in my ju...
JONATHAN SWIFT

The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance and never to keep his w...
JONATHAN SWIFT

A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.
JONATHAN SWIFT

I beg people not to accept the seasonal ritual of well-timed charity on Christmas Eve. It's blas...
JONATHAN KOZOL

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy ch...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want.
JONATHAN SWIFT

If the scandal of Jesus was that He was always touching the wrong people and inviting the wrong peop...
JONATHAN MARTIN

The true art of government consists in not governing too much.
JONATHAN SHIPLEY

The lack of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.
JONATHAN SWIFT

The most positive men are the most credulous.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Real love is always chaotic. You lose control; you lose perspective. You lose the ability to protect...
JONATHAN CARROLL

Belief is best when uncomplicated by reason.
JONATHAN TOM

More mony is put into prisons than into schools. That, in itself, is the description of a nation ben...
JONATHAN KOZOL

May you live every day of your life.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Every good writer I know needs to go into some deep, quiet place to do work that is fully imagined. ...
JONATHAN FRANZEN

Everyone always wants to know how you can tell when it's true love, and the answer is this: when the...
JONATHAN TROPPER

A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with e...
JONATHAN SWIFT

A short story is a sprint, a novel is a marathon. Sprinters have seconds to get from here to there a...
JONATHAN CARROLL

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Your language indicates──and limits──what you think.
JONATHAN PRICE

Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Don't set your wit against a child.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with ...
JONATHAN SWIFT

It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdo...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Necessity is the mother of invention, it is true -- but it's father is creativity, and knowledge is ...
JONATHAN SCHATTKE

Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
JONATHAN SWIFT

If there are amazing graces on this earth, I believe that they are these good children sent to us by...
JONATHAN KOZOL

The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet w...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Rebukes are easy from our betters,
From men of quality and letters;
But when low dunces will ...
JONATHAN SWIFT

What some people invent the rest enlarge.
JONATHAN SWIFT

All human race would be wits. And millions miss, for one that hits.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you pleas...
JONATHAN SWIFT

In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my he...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.
JONATHAN SWIFT

We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the wor...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
JONATHAN SWIFT

What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a n...
JONATHAN MILLER

Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.
JONATHAN SWIFT

Living in cities is an art, and we need the vocabulary of art, of style, to describe the peculiar re...
JONATHAN RABAN

One of the very best rules of conversation is to never, say anything which any of the company wish h...
JONATHAN SWIFT

Death is fugitive; even when you're watching for it, the actual instant somehow slips between your fingers. You don't get that sudden drop of the head you see in movies. Instead you simply sit there, waiting for something to happen, and all at once you realize you've missed it.

Jonathan Stroud

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