Virgina Woolf versus Edward Lear." "Christ Alive," said Billy. "Are those my only choices?" "I went for Lear," said Leon. "Partly out of fidelity to the letter L. Partly because given the choice between nonsense and boojy wittering you blatantly have to choose nonsense.
China Miéville
Related What is your name?" asked Lear. Caius," said Kent. And whence do you hail?" From Bonk... CHRISTOPHER MOORE Someone came in all Starfleet badges today. Not on my shift, sadly.' 'Fascist,' Leon had... CHINA MIéVILLE You went shopping with Rebecca?' 'Yep,' I said, pulling the shoes out of the box. His br... KARINA HALLE MR. BROWNE'S SEPTEMBER PRECEPT: WHEN GIVEN THE CHOICE BETWEEN BEING RIGHT OR BEING K... R.J. PALACIO You're a very difficult person to manipulate, you know." "Nonsense," he said. "You just have to... BRANDON SANDERSON Two weevils crept from the crumbs. 'You see those weevils, Stephen?' said Jack solemnly. ... PATRICK O'BRIAN Choice, choices, choices! Choose rightly. Choose the things that brings you highest fulfillment. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA Daniel, he said. I would have you follow me. Master!....I will fight for you to the end!.... ELIZABETH GEORGE SPEARE You should be wearing green," she said. "To match your eyes." "In case you never noticed,... GENA SHOWALTER The others can’t see me,” said the little ghost. “I know,” I said. “My name’s... KERSTIN GIER I gave you all!" screeched Lear, waving a palsied claw at Regan. "And you took your bloody time... CHRISTOPHER MOORE Myrtle goggled at them. "You're alive," she said blankly to Harry. "There's no... J.K. ROWLING Let's look for dragons, I said to Pooh. Yes, let's, said Pooh to Me. We crossed the rive... A.A. MILNE Good morning," said the little prince. Good morning," said the merchant. This ... ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPéRY LEAR: ...yet you see how this world goes. GLOS.: I see it feelingly. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices." "And you’re with Adrian," said Dimitri.<... RICHELLE MEAD Well, I want novels,' said Tessa. 'Or poetry. Books are for reading, not for turning oneself into li... CASSANDRA CLARE Having a Coke with You is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biar... FRANK O'HARA I choose to love you in silence… For in silence I find no rejection, I choose to l... JALALUDDIN MEVLANA RUMI (Frances has gotten out of bed again and come to her parents' room...) 'How can the wind have a... RUSSELL HOBAN Call her out,” Arabella said. “Tell her Rogan is yours!” Grandma Frida pumped her fist. ILONA ANDREWS i even tried to bury myself alive but the dirt recoiled you have already rotted it said RUPI KAUR The poet dreams of the classroom I dreamed I stood up in class And I said aloud... MARY OLIVER There is beautiful you are." "No," said Marged, between a sigh and a sob. "Yes," said Owen... RICHARD LLEWELLYN What's up?" I asked. You tell me," he said. "You were the one about ready to start making... RICHELLE MEAD I know - I'll play you for it," Alice suggested. "Rock, paper, scissors." Jasper chuckled and E... STEPHENIE MEYER What are my options?" "You could read obscure poetry while I play the triangle, I suppose. Or w... MICHELLE HODKIN That time I thought I could not go any closer to grief without dying I wen... MARY OLIVER So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near-- Ah," s... ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPéRY He'd have given me rolling lands, Houses of marble, and billowing farms, Pearls, to trickle ... DOROTHY PARKER And he said, “The joy of scaring is a deep and lasting one, and I never tire of it.” KAHLIL GIBRAN Just those three words, said and meant. I love you. They were quite hopeless. He said it ... JOHN FOWLES Ghost?” St. Vincent shot him an incredulous glance. “Christ. You’re not serious, are you?” LISA KLEYPAS O, let me kiss that hand! KING LEAR: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE You speak baby gibberish?' asked Jack. 'Fluently. The adult-education center ran a course, and ... JASPER FFORDE We’ll never survive!” “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has. WILLIAM GOLDMAN But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?" "Easy," said the cat.... NEIL GAIMAN You said to lean on your arm And I am leaning You said to trust in your love And I a... MAYA ANGELOU How are the eyes?' 'Oh, excellent,' he said. 'I mean, they're not in my head is the only proble... JOHN GREEN My favorite six letter word is always because it promises so much. My favo... KATE DICAMILLO You don’t have any friends, your sister dumped you, you’re a freak eater..and you’ve got some ... RAINBOW ROWELL My choice is what I choose to do, And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you. BEN HARPER (You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel as... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER So, have we solved the secret of happiness? "I believe so," he said Are you go... MITCH ALBOM I was sitting in my lab, my hand spread open on the table, while the skull examined my palm. JIM BUTCHER The four stages of acceptance: 1. This is worthless nonsense. 2. This is an interesting, b... J.B.S. HALDANE I love swimming" "I know," I said. "I love swimming," he said again. He was quiet for a li... BENJAMIN ALIRE SáENZ Plastic ware," he said slowly, "like knives and forks and spoons?" I brushed a bit of dirt off ... SARAH DESSEN The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables. Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a... ANDREA GIBSON There was a few seconds' pause. Then Amit said: I meant, what were you thinking just now. VIKRAM SETH Valkyrie dialed Skulduggery's number and he picked up. 'Hey,' she said, 'It's me.' Skulduggery ... DEREK LANDY Why do you do up your hair in those tortured plaits, now, Melanie? Why? Because, she said. ANGELA CARTER It’s an alien.” “Sand crab,” Leon said. “It won’t hurt you.” “... MAGGIE STIEFVATER Before eating from the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve had no notion of Good and evil. Th... HAROUTIOUN BOCHNAKIAN I was at a dinner party many years ago,sitting along from Tom Stoppard, who in those days smoked not... STEPHEN FRY So when the moon's only partly full, you only feel a little wolfy?" "You could say that." CASSANDRA CLARE I mean, d'you know what eternity is? There's this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the ... NEIL GAIMAN Edward can do everything, right?" I explained. Jasper snickered and Esme gave Edward a reprovin... STEPHENIE MEYER I am concussed,' I announced, entirely sure of my self-diagnosis. ''You're fine,' Takumi said a... JOHN GREEN When I look up at Heaven, I see the souls of those who died Beaming down at me, Wanti... SUZY KASSEM May I see you again?" he asked. There was an endearing nervousness in his voice. I smile... JOHN GREEN And your will shall decide your destiny," he said: "I offer you my hand, my heart, and a share of al... CHARLOTTE BRONTë Bitter disappointment pushed tears from her eyes. "Now what's wrong? I said you could wear it."... DEEANNE GIST What say you, Luxa?" said Vikus. "What can I say, Vikus? Can I return to our people and tell th... SUZANNE COLLINS Hallo, Pooh,” said Rabbit. “Hallo, Rabbit,” said Pooh dreamily. “Did you make that... A.A. MILNE It's a secret code," said Calvin. "Girls are not not like boys. If a boy wants to kill you, he says ... LENORE LOOK I am Detective Inspector Me. This is my partner, Detective Her." The traffic warden frowned. "H... DEREK LANDY Is it odd, my love, that I envy others who have not met you for the intoxication t... KAMAND KOJOURI Witches are naturally nosy,” said Miss Tick, standing up. “Well, I must go. I hope we shall meet... TERRY PRATCHETT I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter." ... BLAISE PASCAL My mouth is a fire escape. The words coming out don't care that they are naked. Ther... ANDREA GIBSON A bad thing happened to you kids, Dad said. But it could have been worse. So much worse, Mom sa... GEORGE SAUNDERS i let myself know that my life doesn't have to be over just because AMANDA LOVELACE WORTHY If you ever decide to feel— feel this: I love you. I always have. I a... COCO J. GINGER When I started writing I was a sick teenaged fuck inside who partly thought I was the... DENNIS COOPER That's what you people never understand," said Rincewind, wearily. "You think magic is just somethin... TERRY PRATCHETT He said you were on the scene when that Laurel Canyon homicide went down.” “I’m luc... JOSH LANYON A dragon for a familiar!" Trom exclaimed. "That's what I said to her or close to it anywa... JENNIFER PRIESTER No," Lana said, "I'm not going to heal your scratch." "Good," Sanjit said. "Good? Why good... MICHAEL GRANT Jem shook his head. "You bit de Quincey" he said. "You fool. He's a VAMPIRE" "I had no ch... CASSANDRA CLARE Nina Zenik, as soon as I figure out where you've put my knives, we're going to have words." LEIGH BARDUGO My faithful companion, Zoe Nightshade, has passed into the stars. I must have a new lieutenant. And ... RICK RIORDAN Bianca, camp is cool! It's got a pegasus stable and a sword-fighting arena and… I mean, what do yo... RICK RIORDAN When I said yes, i will When I said no, I don't When I said I have, I give When I s... SAMINU KANTI You just said you were sorry." ... "I was only apologizing," he said stiffly, ... MEG CABOT So you love me," said Petra softly when the kiss ended. I'm a raging mass of hormones the... ORSON SCOTT CARD "Conversation" God and I in space alone . . . and nobody else in view . . . "And wh... ELLA WHEELER WILCOX Fred, you next," the plump woman said. "I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, wo... J.K. ROWLING Yeah, but our choices are limited. We choose from a list that they chose for us." She said. "We... LAUREN OLIVER Eventually, my grandfather said: - You must understand, this is one of those moments. - W... TéA OBREHT Dad?" Jesus asked. "Yes son?" God replied. "Why does man have so many religions?" Jesus as... ANTHONY T. HINCKS Maybe you aren't as smart as you think you are, Mr. Stark." "Nonsense. I'm fucking brilli... J. KENNER I went to my grandmother, your great-great-grandmother, and asked her to write a letter. She was my ... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER You are the mark on my liquid heart where love begins with the beginning’s start You are... MUNIA KHAN Honestly," I said. What?" Come on. You have to admit it's sort of ridiculous." What i... SARAH DESSEN Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian." You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum can... RICK RIORDAN Yeah,” Nicole said, her straw noisily hitting the bottom of her Gut Buster. “Well, I would ... MEG CABOT My letters! all dead paper, mute and white! And yet they seem alive and quivering Against ... ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING Build a house?" exclaimed John. "For the Wendy," said Curly. "For Wendy?" John... J.M. BARRIE You are real," she said to herself. "Aye." His voice was deep and resonant, a caress in h... J.R. WARD
More China Miéville
If I program ’ware with an Anglo-Ubiq word and play it, you understand it,” Scile said. “If I ... CHINA MIéVILLE Any moment called now is always full of possibles. CHINA MIéVILLE Word spread because word will spread. Stories and secrets fight, stories win, shed new secrets, whic... CHINA MIéVILLE Books are always obviously having conversations with other books, and some times they're amiable and... CHINA MIéVILLE A trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge. CHINA MIéVILLE When people dis fantasy—mainstream readers and SF readers alike—they are almost always talking a... CHINA MIéVILLE The dead are way more organized than the living. CHINA MIéVILLE Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you who... CHINA MIéVILLE Loads of children read books about dinosaurs, underwater monsters, dragons, witches, aliens, and rob... CHINA MIéVILLE We would never call inexplicable little insights 'hunches,' for fear of drawing the universe's atten... CHINA MIéVILLE Heaven might not be what everyone thinks it is, but that don’t mean it’s a myth. CHINA MIéVILLE I hoped the hunter would come. I imagined him pushing through the thickets in the foothills. I've th... CHINA MIéVILLE While yes we can both agree the sudden recovery of this footage smells not a little, and that we app... CHINA MIéVILLE It felt like being a child again, though it was not. Being a child is like nothing. It's only being.... CHINA MIéVILLE Once I said to my father, 'Why do you want me?' I still think that's the bravest thing I'... CHINA MIéVILLE Dismissing fantasy writing because some of it is bad is exactly like saying I'm not reading Jane Eyr... CHINA MIéVILLE The light was going: some cloud cover arriving, as if summoned by drama. CHINA MIéVILLE A haggard man used one of the huts as a home. He lay on a sagging mattress, his head on his pack, su... CHINA MIéVILLE My Google-fu is strong. CHINA MIéVILLE Someone came in all Starfleet badges today. Not on my shift, sadly.' 'Fascist,' Leon had... CHINA MIéVILLE Devils and Nazis don’t work well together. CHINA MIéVILLE We speak now or I do, and others do. You've never spoken before. You will. You'll be able to say how... CHINA MIéVILLE There's something intrinsically radical about the fantastic aesthetic - starting from the premise th... CHINA MIéVILLE How could one not think of the stories we all grew up on, that surely the Ul Qomans grew up on too? ... CHINA MIéVILLE Same weather over here as back home," I said. CHINA MIéVILLE And even if you’re right, the CIA paid millions of dollars to men trying to kill goats by staring ... CHINA MIéVILLE Tutte le note erano come a strati, un palinsesto di interpretazione in progresso. Feci archeologia. CHINA MIéVILLE «Si riferisce ai loro poteri magici? Vorrei, lo vorrei tanto. Ma anche così questi scavi sono inco... CHINA MIéVILLE They looked like people-shaped clay in the moments before God breathed out. CHINA MIéVILLE The early years of a Bes (and presumably an Ul Qoman) child are intense learnings of cues. We pick u... CHINA MIéVILLE ...If she were studying Orciny, and there might be excellent reasons to do so, she'd be doing her do... CHINA MIéVILLE Volunteering’s an early and strong indication that you’re not suited,” he said. CHINA MIéVILLE But here’s the problem you’re not addressing. While yes we can both agree the sudden recovery of... CHINA MIéVILLE If the techs are on it we're fine, but Briamiv and his buddy could fuck up a full stop at the end of... CHINA MIéVILLE …where the two cities are close up they make for interference patterns, harder to read or predict.... CHINA MIéVILLE At the social/political/ juridical, etc., level, the organizing principle was less to do with games ... CHINA MIéVILLE Like any dissidents they were neurotic archivists. Agree, disagree, show no interest in or obsess ov... CHINA MIéVILLE His fidelity to the cliche transcended the necessity to communicate. CHINA MIéVILLE Interstiality is a theme that is simultaneously genuinely interesting and potentially quite useful, ... CHINA MIéVILLE There is no case,” he told her. “There’s a series of random and implausible crises that make n... CHINA MIéVILLE You cannot train yourself to successfully and sustainedly unsee and unhear you do them all... CHINA MIéVILLE From that historically brief quite opaque moment, came the chaos of our material history, an anarchy... CHINA MIéVILLE He walked with equipoise, possibly in either city. Schrödinger’s pedestrian. CHINA MIéVILLE Is it more childish and foolish to insist that there is a conspiracy or that there is not? CHINA MIéVILLE Tell me ," Bren said. "I thought you'd despaired." "I did, too." "What then? Tell me... CHINA MIéVILLE Oratees are addicts. Strung out on an Ambassador’s Language. CHINA MIéVILLE Oh, bullshit,” Wyatt said. I blinked. “This isn’t one of those stories, Avice. One moment of c... CHINA MIéVILLE You’d have known that without being told if you let yourself think about it. CHINA MIéVILLE The return to anywhere you last visited as a child is difficult, especially when it’s a door. Your... CHINA MIéVILLE You'd love a bit of pomp: that way in later years you might invoke end-of-empire ghosts. CHINA MIéVILLE They hammered it with sometimes-guns, that violently assert the manchmal, this stuff, our everyday, ... CHINA MIéVILLE The sounds aren’t where the meaning lives. […] Their language is organised noise, lik... CHINA MIéVILLE Language is the continuation of coercion by other means." "Bullshit. It's cooperation." Both th... CHINA MIéVILLE A classic unspoken agreement among escapees from a small town: don't look back, don't be each other'... CHINA MIéVILLE As an immerser I progressed to the ranks I aspired to—those that granted me a certain cachet and i... CHINA MIéVILLE Its surface sheened with saft that evaporated out from its crystal shielding in threads that degrade... CHINA MIéVILLE There are no telepaths in this universe, I think, but there are empathics, with languages so silent ... CHINA MIéVILLE Oh, bullshit. This isn't one of those stories, Avice. One moment of cack-handedness, Captain Cook of... CHINA MIéVILLE A promise fulfilled may be a classic moment, but prophecies mean anticlimax. How much more awesome w... CHINA MIéVILLE Now the Ariekei were learning to speak, and to think, and it hurt. CHINA MIéVILLE BEFORE THE HUMANS came we didn’t speak so much of certain things. Before the humans came we didn�... CHINA MIéVILLE We have to establish our credentials as an explorocracy; so to survive and rule ourselves, we have t... CHINA MIéVILLE I needed to be alone for whatever would happen. I knew that something would as certainly as if this ... CHINA MIéVILLE Sometimes translation stops you understanding. CHINA MIéVILLE Being a child is like nothing. It's only being. Later, when we think about it, we make it into youth... CHINA MIéVILLE I couldn't tell if I was perspicacious or paranoid. CHINA MIéVILLE I'd never understood the injunction not to regret anything, couldn't see how that wasn't cowardice..... CHINA MIéVILLE I differ with myself then agree, like the rock that was broken and cemented together. I change my op... CHINA MIéVILLE I don't want to be a simile anymore,' I said. "I want to be a metaphor. CHINA MIéVILLE A scholar can never let mere wrongness get in the way of the theory. CHINA MIéVILLE For every action, there's an infinity of outcomes. Countless trillions are possible, many milliards ... CHINA MIéVILLE Открой-ка рот. И как у тебя язык повернулся разболтать �... CHINA MIéVILLE It ain't that he's not interested in, like, persuasiveness, get me? He's interested in it. Like some... CHINA MIéVILLE Your job is to get villains. Right? You'll have to know what to do. If you don't know, you have to f... CHINA MIéVILLE Everything's fit to be worshipped. CHINA MIéVILLE And the continual non-up-turnance of so valuable a commodity as a giant squid—the thought of getti... CHINA MIéVILLE Some midnight-of-all or other [apocalypse] was predicted every few days or nights. Most came to noth... CHINA MIéVILLE A few mad exaggerations, alright, within a couple of days: swear to fucking god, they were like thro... CHINA MIéVILLE How do you...? What is it you're doing?" he said to Vardy as the man took a breath, mid-insight. Wha... CHINA MIéVILLE When he had first started at the center, he had liked to think that he was unexpectedly cool-looking... CHINA MIéVILLE Just her, three men, a fidgety pig and lawful intent. CHINA MIéVILLE Death isn't what it used to be CHINA MIéVILLE But this was not quite the right kraken apocalypse. CHINA MIéVILLE Dark came early and stayed full of lights and the shouts of children. CHINA MIéVILLE Fortune-telling was quantum betting, a competitive scrying of variably likely outcomes. CHINA MIéVILLE You got to be worried when they're agreeing about anything," she said. "Prophets. That's the last bl... CHINA MIéVILLE Dane discarded his speargun with visible relief. As a paladin of the Church of God Kraken, he had fe... CHINA MIéVILLE As he got older, Billy suspected, he would, Dicaprio-like, simply become like an increasingly wizene... CHINA MIéVILLE I know, I know," Moore said. "Mad beliefs like that, eh? Must be some metaphor, right? Must mean som... CHINA MIéVILLE Just thugs only ever got so far. The best thugs were all psychologists. CHINA MIéVILLE Art Nouveau was coil-envy. CHINA MIéVILLE He knows religion is bollocks," Collingswood said. "He just wishes he didn't. CHINA MIéVILLE The sea is full of saints. You know that? You know that: you're a big boy. The sea's ful... CHINA MIéVILLE We cannot see the universe. We are in the darkness of a trench, a deep cut, dark water heavier than ... CHINA MIéVILLE Subby Subby Subby," whispered Goss. "Keep those little bells on your slippers as quiet as you can. S... CHINA MIéVILLE We should have just killed him, that's a lesson, don't get creative with revenge CHINA MIéVILLE The manager of my line told me, You never put anything down except to be read. Every word ever writt... CHINA MIéVILLE A mile below the lowest cloud, rock breaches water and the sea begins. It has been given many n... CHINA MIéVILLE My dad hates umbrellas, said Deeba, swinging her own. When it rains he always says the same thing. '... CHINA MIéVILLE When people dis fantasy—mainstream readers and SF readers alike—they are almost always talking a... CHINA MIéVILLE This is a Possible Letter. Until the last second, when I write your name beside that word “Dear,�... CHINA MIéVILLE Scars are memory. Like sutures. They stitch the past to me. CHINA MIéVILLE If the fucking Scar exists,” whispered the Brucolac, still without turning, “and if they get us ... CHINA MIéVILLE I don't like allegory. CHINA MIEVILLE The only times I'm consistent about praying are when I'm on an airplane or when an ambulance... CHINA CHOW Hatred is exhausting. You must constantly remind yourself why you hate someone and waste needless en... SAVANIA CHINA Live a life that fits your specific circumstances, not one that fits someone else’s expectations SAVANIA CHINA Don't waste time defending your intentions. History will judge you by the outcomes of your actions SAVANIA CHINA The difference between your friend and your best friend is that your friend asks, ‘Are you are ok?... SAVANIA CHINA I always felt sorry for the sidekick as a kid. They never got their due and it left a very bad taste... CHINA MIEVILLE In the field of fantastic fiction, the question of world-building is not uncontroversial. But I grew... CHINA MIEVILLE A lot of geeks are pale, bespectacled, wear dark clothing and don't get out much - the stereotyp... CHINA MIEVILLE Ever since I was two, I've loved octopuses, monsters, abandoned buildings. CHINA MIEVILLE The investment is aiming at the air cargo market expansion in China. CHINA AIRLINES Scent of old books a mystery; a secret port of the dreamers. CHINA CANCIO I'd never been to a science-fiction convention until I became a professional writer. CHINA MIEVILLE I think the role of science fiction is not at all to prophesy. I think it is to tell interesting, vi... CHINA MIEVILLE My parents went through the dictionary looking for a beautiful name, nearly called me Banyan, flicke... CHINA MIEVILLE The road to success begins with knowing what you need to know and why SAVANIA CHINA Always assume your assumptions about others are wrong. Because often, they are SAVANIA CHINA I have always done things that made me happy. I work with people I like, and I do the job I like. I ... CHINA MACHADO I do, however, feel reasonably strongly the sense that the job of a piece of argumentative scholarly... CHINA MIEVILLE Geeks run the world. Condoleezza Rice is a geek, Bill Gates is clearly a geek, many of the big filmm... CHINA MIEVILLE Success is not a finite resource; share it, wish it on others, and celebrate others SAVANIA CHINA Be smart. You Only Die Once -YODO SAVANIA CHINA Break the rules not because you don’t know better, but because you know them too well SAVANIA CHINA Although sometimes the road to success follows a path less-travelled, a path less-travelled often le... SAVANIA CHINA My sisters and I like a lot of different styles of music, but we're inspired by real artists lik... CHINA ANNE MCCLAIN When I perform, I like to wear funky flats, leather boots or knee-high Converse with bright laces. T... CHINA ANNE MCCLAIN It's all in the reflexes. "JACK BURTON" (KURT RUSSELL), MOVIE BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA