FastSaying

I do have a life,' says Charis, blinking wet eyes.

'You have a rich inner life,' says Tony firmly. 'More than most.


Margaret Atwood

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It costs your life,” says Caesar.

“Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To mur...
SUZANNE COLLINS I ain't never seen a creature like that before, she says. He's so smart, he's-
More, like a per...
MOIRA YOUNG Asking for help with shame says:
You have the power over me.
Asking with condescen...
AMANDA PALMER And in August it will be fifty-two years together.”
“Wow,” Oliver says. “That’s amazi...
JENNIFER E. SMITH Who are you?”
“Abby,” she says. “And you are?”
“Ethan,” I answer. “He’s ...
KATIE MCGARRY I opened myself to your silences.
MARGARET ATWOOD Loved heart, what can I say?
When I was a lark, I sang;
When I was a worm, I devoured.
THEODORE ROETHKE I wouldn’t know what to do with daughters,' he says. 'Exchange them for sons?'

'But the...
KAUI HART HEMMINGS All my life
I have been restless-
I have felt there is something
more wonderful than ...
MARY OLIVER All right, so give me some idea of what you can do," says Haymitch.

I can’t do anything...
SUZANNE COLLINS I hate you."
I love you."
You're a freak, you know that? Everyone says so. They always hav...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY God says to me with kind of a smile,
"Hey how would you like to be God awhile
And steer the ...
SHEL SILVERSTEIN The Church says: the body is a sin.
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says:...
EDUARDO GALEANO Maybe that's what praying is all about. Maybe it's not just asking God to forgive us for bad things ...
SARAH DARER LITTMAN There's a reason why she left them, Lauren," he says. His voice is deep, and it rumbles. "What's you...
VERONICA ROTH Josh, you saw him," Tally says, "What did he look like? Did he look nice?"

"He looked lik...
SEVENTHSWAN ...Whenever someone says to me, 'Jerry Lewis says women aren't funny,' or 'Christopher Hitchens says...
TINA FEY This is the best night of my life," Raffy says, crying.
"Raffy, half our House has burnt down,"...
MELINA MARCHETTA Yeah, sometimes life really sucks," she says. "But you know what I'm holding on for?"

I r...
VERONICA ROTH Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.
"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"...
RAINBOW ROWELL Mom says death is as natural as birth, and it's all part of the life cycle.
She says we don't r...
BILL WATTERSON Oh, Myr," he chokes out. "I hate having to ask this of you..."
He glances towards the car again...
MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX I'm going to ask Bree if she'll help me."
"I'm a little scared if her," I admit.
"Me too,"...
WENDY MASS So that’s your sister?” asks Dee in a quiet voice.
“Yeah.”
“The one you risked y...
SUSAN EE I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evenin...
JESSIE B. RITTENHOUSE She’s a lunatic,” says Conrad.
“Absolutely insane,” says Guntram.
“Either comple...
EMILY LLOYD-JONES You’re smarter than you look,’ I say to Raffe.

‘But not as smart as he thinks,’ s...
SUSAN EE To express is to drive.
And when you want to give something presence,
you have to consult n...
LOUIS KAHN You aren't happy," Estela says.
"I can't be happy," I say.
"Look at me, Kenzie."
"I'm...
BETH KEPHART Caleb," I say, "I love you."
His eyes gleam with tear as he says, "I love you, too, Beatrice.
VERONICA ROTH What did you do, memorize a map of the city for fun?” says Christina.
“Yes,” says Will, l...
VERONICA ROTH We could do it, you know," Gale says quietly.

"What?" I ask.

"Leave the distri...
SUZANNE COLLINS You didn't break my nose," he says.
"Too bad."
"No, that's good," he says. "Because I woul...
DAN KROKOS I thought you told me you loved stories Have you ever heard a story of an adventurer with a sane pla...
SABAA TAHIR Here we go then," Dad says. "Motoring towards our dreams, Bridge."
"You shouldn't follow dreams...
JOANNA CAMPBELL Please," he says. "I'm begging you to stop."

I still.

"I can't stomach your p...
TAHEREH MAFI Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"
Then a voice says to me, "...
CHARLES M. SCHULZ Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong'.
Then a voice says to me, ...
CHARLES M. SCHULZ A son says to his Mother: "Mother, today I fought with my friend."
His Mother says: "Why did yo...
VERONICA ROTH If I never meet you
In this life
Let me feel the lack
A glance from your eyes
T...
JAMES JONES O woman,
father says natural is beautiful
so why do you redden your cheeks
and blac...
KAMAND KOJOURI Simone! Are you all right? Simone!"
And a voice, grunting with pain, says, "Todd?"
...
PATRICK NESS You think giving you a hug would give away too much?" he says.
"You know," I say. "I really don...
VERONICA ROTH This hand says you spend the rest of your life with me," he said, holding out his left hand, "and th...
MELINA MARCHETTA You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It's your life.
ETHAN EMBRY I have a son,' says JJ, marveling at the sound and truth of the words...

'You know, I lov...
LISA GENOVA I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We...
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. I’m Hana,” Hana says. “And this is Lena.” She jabs me with an elbow. I
know I must look...
LAUREN OLIVER Tears wet my eyes. I’m a surgeon. I like solving things. But how do I solve
this?
ATUL GAWANDE never
trust anyone
who says
they do not see color.
this means
to them,...
NAYYIRAH WAHEED I suggest you keep your distance from her and concentrate on your own work.”
“I’m in lov...
ERIN MORGENSTERN Do you play football?' Brandon asks.
'No.'
'Baseball?'
'Nope.'
Brandon is on...
SIMONE ELKELES I'm coming back into focus when Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home. Peeta hesitates, t...
SUZANNE COLLINS Orange? Like Effie's hair?" I say.
"A bit more muted," he says. "More like sunset.
SUZANNE COLLINS ...You say to God, “I have never seen you provide for me.”
God says to you, “You have ne...
CORALLIE BUCHANAN I think you're beautiful," an old man at the counter - one of our Sunday night fixtures - says.
SARAH OCKLER A sematary," I say. "A what?" Viola says, looking round at all the square stones marking out their g...
PATRICK NESS Q: But what do you think that the Bible, itself, says? Don't you know how it was arrived at?
A:...
SCOPES TRIAL I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root:
It is what you fear.
I do n...
SYLVIA PLATH How do I know you're not crazy?" she asks. "How do I know you're not the craziest dude I've ever met...
BRET EASTON ELLIS The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.
DAVID WEINBAUM See?" she says. "tricked you. You're always staring at your opponents eyes-but that gives you a bad ...
MARIE LU See
it was like this when
we waltz into this place.
A couple of papish cats
i...
LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI To have more... Be more. Do more. Give more.
LORRIN L. LEE Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.'
Mature love says: 'I need you because I lo...
ERICH FROMM Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?" says Peeta. "It costs everyt...
SUZANNE COLLINS Whatever your station or position in life, there is always room for improvement, enhancement, and pe...
PEDRO OKORO I'm bored," he says.
"So go home."
"I don't want to. What do you do when you're bored? You...
COLLEEN HOOVER You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It's your life.
ETHAN EMBRY So that's it?" Kenji says. "You just like him for his personality, huh?"

"What?"
TAHEREH MAFI And then there's the other thing.

The thing I'm trying to ignore. The thing I shouldn't w...
STEPHANIE PERKINS I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss," says Peeta. "Even if my mother isn't a healer."
I'm j...
SUZANNE COLLINS Basch: So why don't you ask her out?

The Runt: I'm scared she wouldn't like me and say no...
SAMUEL SHEM But...you could have whatever you wished."
"Exactly," he says, nuzzling my neck.
"But," I ...
LIBBA BRAY to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held d...
ELLEN BASS St. Clair waggles his eyebrows at Josh, but the moment he sees that I've caught him, his expression ...
STEPHANIE PERKINS Jack lifts his mug. Me an Ike do the same.
To Molly Pratt, says Jack.
Ike scowls at him. W...
MOIRA YOUNG I won't quit, says lame duck Tony
DAILY EXPRESS Who says I'm not Superman?" You were looking at me with one eye closed against the sun. I shrugged LUCY CHRISTOPHER I immediately lose interest in any person that says their goal in life is to be rich.
CARL WHITE Says O'Sullivan to me, "Mr. Fay, I'll have a word wid yeh?" "Certainly," says I; "what can I do for ...
JACK LONDON Mother says,
People share
when they know they have escaped hunger.

Shouldn't pe...
THANHHA LAI That's not a real answer.'
Says who?'
Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death...
SARAH DESSEN My mom says, "Do you know what the AIDS memorial quilt is all about?"
Jump to how much I hate m...
CHUCK PALAHNIUK You hate cake doughnuts."
"Of course," says Mirren. "But we didn't get the cake, we got glazed ...
E.LOCKHART I'm gonna be sick," I said
"I'm ordering you not to," says Obi.
"Ah, don't say that," says...
SUSAN EE Her eyes scanned the dark skies. "Did it rain? Why are you all wet?"
"A nighttime bath."
"...
JENNIFER A. NIELSEN It has to do with me because it has to do with you," Young says, his voice dropping. "Jaewon-ah, we'...
AXIE OH Beau, what is it you want?"
"A porch," he says softly. He says it like it's my name, and right ...
EMILY HENRY ...studies show that in general, optimists die ten years earlier than pessimists."
"I find that...
SUSIN NIELSEN The Girl With Many Eyes
One day in the park
I had quite a surprise.
I met a girl
TIM BURTON Losing someone close to you is more haunting than a life of cursed solitude.

~The Moon Ma...
CLARA DIANE THOMPSON Do you ever miss him?
Every day. Every minute.
Every minute, she says.
Yes, it's tha...
AUDREY NIFFENEGGER Let me ask you something first. Do you want a regular vanilla relationship with no kinky fuckery at ...
E.L. JAMES it's not his body
that changes
right away.
it's something
inside. he says
h...
DAVID LEVITHAN I’m Angelina,” she says. “Are you here to save us?” I can see a tiny spark of hope awaken in...
MARKUS ZUSAK I'm not sure I even believe in marriage," Hadley says and he looks surprised.

"Aren't you...
JENNIFER E. SMITH He slouches,' DeeDee contributes.
'True--he needs to work on his posture,' Thelma says.
'Y...
LAUREN MYRACLE I'd sell my soul to have you. In my whole life, you'll always be what I wanted most."

~ H...
LISA KLEYPAS I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out, “Hey.”
“So damn much,” he says back, on...
JANDY NELSON

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on your way to work
that do not lo...
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MARGARET ATWOOD The truly fearless think of themselves as normal.
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MARGARET ATWOOD Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on you...
MARGARET ATWOOD Sauve qui peut. To survive
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and rascal, or so says the fox,
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MARGARET ATWOOD Glenn used to say the reason you can't really imagine yourself being dead was that as soon as you sa...
MARGARET ATWOOD You want the truth, of course. You want me to put two and two together. But two and two doesn’t ne...
MARGARET ATWOOD But in the end, back she comes. There's no use resisting. She goes to him for amnesia, for oblivion....
MARGARET ATWOOD When you're unhinged, things make their way out of you that should be kept inside, and other things ...
MARGARET ATWOOD Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert...
MARGARET ATWOOD It wasn't so easy though, ending the war. A war is a huge fire; the ashes from it drift far, and set...
MARGARET ATWOOD The young habitually mistake lust for love, they're infested with idealism of all kinds.
MARGARET ATWOOD I'm not senile," I snapped. "If I burn the house down it will be on purpose.
MARGARET ATWOOD She knows herself to be at the mercy of events, and she knows by now that events have no mercy.
MARGARET ATWOOD Why does the mind do such things? Turn on us, rend us, dig the claws in. If you get hungry enough, t...
MARGARET ATWOOD Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert...
MARGARET ATWOOD Home is where the heart is, I thought now, gathering myself together in Betty's Luncheonette. I had ...
MARGARET ATWOOD Should is a futile word. It's about what didn't happen. It belongs in a parallel universe. It...
MARGARET ATWOOD What is it the I'll want from you? Not love: that would be too much to ask. Not forgiveness, which i...
MARGARET ATWOOD There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.
MARGARET ATWOOD Women have curious ways of hurting someone else. They hurt themselves instead; or else they do it so...
MARGARET ATWOOD Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the brig...
MARGARET ATWOOD The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by ...
MARGARET ATWOOD There would be no Sherlock Holmes if it were not for serial publication.
MARGARET ATWOOD The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one.
MARGARET ATWOOD Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Secon...
MARGARET ATWOOD Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.
MARGARET ATWOOD We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?
MARGARET ATWOOD The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betr...
MARGARET ATWOOD Put yourself in a different room, that's what the mind is for.
MARGARET ATWOOD The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose
MARGARET ATWOOD I think of this as a democratizing device.
MARGARET ATWOOD I'm curious. If someone says 'Don't open that door', I'm right there!
MARGARET ATWOOD The main thing is to keep yourself awake [on writing]
MARGARET ATWOOD For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.
MARGARET ATWOOD He's very in depth, on the dark side. He's interested in structure and how things work. After readin...
MARGARET ATWOOD The Orange prize has been pivotal in the careers of many women writers - it's given them that extra ...
MARGARET ATWOOD Just think of it as a very, very long pen.
MARGARET ATWOOD Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked; as I never was when I was not one
MARGARET ATWOOD This above all, to refuse to be a victim.
MARGARET ATWOOD We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups.
MARGARET ATWOOD A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.
MARGARET ATWOOD Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are hum...
MARGARET ATWOOD They all disowned their parents long ago, the way you are supposed to
MARGARET ATWOOD You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.
MARGARET ATWOOD Foreignness is all around. Only in the heart of the heart of the country, namely the heart of the Un...
MARGARET ATWOOD Any death is stupid from the viewpoint of whoever is undergoing it, Adam One used to say, because no...
MARGARET ATWOOD Also I could hear Amanda’s voice: Why are you being so weak? Love’s never a fair trade. So Jimmy...
MARGARET ATWOOD I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I am afraid of hearing voices,...
MARGARET ATWOOD Life is warped. I'm just in sync.
MARGARET ATWOOD I thought everyone would be familiar with this figure: if I'd studied a thing in school I assumed it...
MARGARET ATWOOD We were revisionists; what we revised was ourselves.
MARGARET ATWOOD My parents are like younger, urchinlike brothers and sisters whose faces are dirty and who blurt out...
MARGARET ATWOOD Now we come to forgiveness. Don't worry about forgiving me right now. There are more important thing...
MARGARET ATWOOD Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe.
MARGARET ATWOOD Human tool-makers always make tools that will help us get what we want, and what we want hasn't chan...
MARGARET ATWOOD She doesn't think it's a good idea to know the future, because you can hardly ever change it, so why...
MARGARET ATWOOD The possibility of injury or death was a strong attraction: as the online world became more and more...
MARGARET ATWOOD My self is a thing that I must now compose...as one composes a speech. What I must present is a 'mad...
MARGARET ATWOOD