Favourite quotes from novels

[Gadget]

Since we have one for films...

There are several, but the one that has stuck in my mind for years and still makes me smile goes something like this:
"Silk! What happened to our old friend Brill?"
"He was trying to fly last time I saw him."
"It's a difficult skill that takes years to master."
"He doesn't have that long..." [looks over the edge]
[thump].....[thump]
"Does bouncing count?" [turns, straightens tunic and smiles] "what a beautifull night"
{:D I can't remember the exact words, but it's something like that...I'll need to re-read the series.}


[faint then kick to jaw... Edward falls back, protecting his head; Anita drops back into fighting stance.]
"This is not a ****ing contest: you should have told me what was in there."
"I walked into it cold."
"Sh1t Edward.. Ted, you win: you're colder and tougher than me. Don't pi$s me off with this matcho crap."
[snip yada,yada,yada.. detective watching laughing till tears are streaming]
"If that's not you ****ed off, what is?"
[life drains from Anita's eyes]
"It's a good day; no-one's dead."
[heads back into the room]
{damn it, and I just read that chapter (again)...}

[Yliander]

First one I don't know - second one Anita & Ted is from the Anita Blake series not sure the exact book - guessing obsidian butterfly

try these

"Because love does not do sums, but instead makes choices, and then gives it's all."

"The Luggage had an elemental nature, absolutely no brain, a homicidal attitude towards anything that threatened it's master, and he wasn't quite sure that it's inside occupied the same space-time frame work as it's outside."

[Graham]

The second one is from The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

[Lou]

I always liked...

I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

[Yliander]

The second one is from The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. that is correct :flower:

[baldrick]

Mines a mis quote when a lysdexic was asked to read from the set book

"Look here comes Brasso"

Extra points for getting source

[philsmove]

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clock were striking thirteen.'

[philsmove]

Mines a mis quote when a lysdexic was asked to read from the set book

"Look here comes Brasso"

Extra points for getting source


Could be Blackadder “Look here comes Othello “

[ToeTrampler]

From one of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books on the art of flying..

"The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

also

"Most people fail to miss the ground and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard."

[Divissima]

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clock were striking thirteen.'1984?

[Little Monkey]

I always liked...

I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone....

Yep, I'm sad enough to admit to having read them all.....

Monkey

[Almost an Angel]

"Silk! What happened to our old friend Brill?"
"He was trying to fly last time I saw him."
"It's a difficult skill that takes years to master."
"He doesn't have that long..." [looks over the edge]
[thump].....[thump]
"Does bouncing count?" [turns, straightens tunic and smiles] "what a beautifull night"
{:D I can't remember the exact words, but it's something like that...I'll need to re-read the series.}

How about David Eddings (and leigh Eddings if you're being picky) -
Think it's part of the Malloreon or the Belgariad, Hmmm (thinks to self) could even be part of Belgarath

Do I get points for getting the author right?? :wink:

[Lynn]

"Silk! What happened to our old friend Brill?"...
Think it's part of the Malloreon or the Belgariad, Hmmm (thinks to self) could even be part of Belgarath Belgariad, not sure if it was the first or second book as Brill was following them for a while, can't remember when they shook him off, Kheldar (Silk) was my favourite character.

[Gadget]

Another good bit was when Silk met his (half) brother - that had me laughing outloud.

[Almost an Angel]

Yes very funny - I'm going to have to re-read them - despite the fact I've read them 3 or 4 times before.

have you read The Redemption of Althalus by the same author - very imaginative and very funny - same dry humour as the Belgariad etc but with a different twist. Althalus in some ways reminds me of Silk with the slyness and the attitude. Well worth reading.

[Forte]

My favourite bit of a novel is the final line in "The Silver Darlings" by Neil Gunn

"Life had come for him".

[Foofs]

From one of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books on the art of flying..

"The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

also

"Most people fail to miss the ground and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard."


Hitchhiker's is brilliant! :clap: :clap: Full of excellent one-liners... Now need to read them all again to find some!

[Divissima]

From one of my favourite novels -

"The wines were too various," he said: "it was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault. It was the mixture. Grasp that and you have the root of the matter. To understand all is to forgive all."

[ElaineB]

Could be Blackadder “Look here comes Othello “


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Elaine

[baldrick]

Could be Blackadder “Look here comes Othello “
Fun but no right.
And not sure I've seen that episode. :o

[Lynn]

Another good bit was when Silk met his (half) brother - that had me laughing outloud. I decided to re-read the Mallorean (can't find all of my Belgariad books), its been a while since I read them and I am really enjoying them. :grin:

[Isis]

"Nothing is ever a lady's fault" - Lord Trimingham

The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley

[Blueshoes]

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clock were striking thirteen.'


1984?


Definitely 1984 :)

[Blueshoes]

I always liked...

I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

Severus Snape; Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone :clap:

Added: Damn, just read back and seen that's someone else beat me to it.:blush:

[Beowulf]

"The Alchemist's Guild is opposite the Gambler's Guild. Usually. Sometimes it's above it, or below it, or falling in bits around it"

"Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad."

[Blueshoes]

"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey?"
"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."

[Beowulf]

"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey?"
"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."

"Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday" :wink:

I'm not as good with books as I am with films but I think I know that one..

I have the urge for some Hunny now !! ;)

[Blueshoes]

"Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday" :wink:


Spot on.

I love this quote, taken from the introduction to "Winnie-the-Pooh":

If you happen to have read another book about Christopher Robin, you may remember that he once had a swan (or the swan had Christopher Robin, I don't know which)....

And this is meant to be a childrens book?

[NZ Monkey]

OK then, a few quotes all taken from the same tv series.

‘’Mercy is the sign of great man’’
stabs downed unarmed opponent with a rapier
‘’Guess I’m just a good man….’’
stabs downed unarmed opponent with a rapier….again
‘’Well…I’m alright…..’’



‘’Remember Jayne, you only need to scare him’’
‘’Pain is scary…’’ Jayne looks hopeful

…..snip some other dialogue….

‘’See you can’t even lie convincingly. Now I *know* you didn’t get any message out in time’’ sigh ‘’I was going to get me an ear too….’’



‘’A man walks down the road wearing a hat like that, people know he isn’t afraid of anything’’


‘’I never run from a fight’’
‘’YES YOU DO! You run from fights all the time!’’
‘’Well, yeah, but not this one’’


‘’You want to say that to my face?’’
‘’Yeah! What ya goin’ do about it?!’’
‘’Oh nothin’. I just wanted you to face me so she could sneak around behind you…’’
bottle proceeds to be broken over the back of large thugs head


‘’I take it back. *This* must be what going crazy feels like’’

[straycat]

From memory:


OK then, a few quotes all taken from the same tv series.

‘’Mercy is the sign of great man’’
stabs downed unarmed opponent with a rapier
‘’Guess I’m just a good man….’’
stabs downed unarmed opponent with a rapier….again
‘’Well…I’m alright…..’’


"You didn't have to wound that man"
"I know... but it was funny"



‘’I take it back. *This* must be what going crazy feels like’’

He robbed from the rich, and gave to the poor.
Stood up to The Man, and gave him what for
Our love for him now, it ain't hard to explain
The hero of Canton - the man they call Jayne

[NZ Monkey]

The sad thing is you could virtually post the entire script from that show and it'd still fit in a favourite quotes thread....:respect:

[Beowulf]

returning the thread to it's bookish origins and away from TV shows :na:

"There had been eight Lazy Guns. A Lazy gun was a little over half a meter in length, about 30 centimetres in width and twenty centimetres in height. It's front was made up of two stubby cylinders which protruded from the smooth, matt-silver main body. The cylinders ended in slightly bulged black-glass lenses. A couple of hand controls sitting on stalks, an eyesight curving up on another extension, and a broad, adjustable metal strap all indicated that the weapon had been designed to be fired from the waist.

There were two controls, one on each hand grip; a zoom wheel and a trigger.

You looked though the sight, zoomed in until the target you had selected just filled your vision, then you pressed the trigger. The Lazy Gun did the rest instantaneously But you had no idea whatsoever exactly what was going to happen next

[...]

Rumour had it that some of the earlier Lazy Guns, at least, had shown what looked suspiciously like humour when they had been used

[...]

A Lazy Gun was light but massy, and weighed exactly three times as much turned upside down as it did the right way up"

hehe... you've just got to admire the imagination of Iain M. Banks.

[wokingdancer]

From one of my favourite novels -

"The wines were too various," he said: "it was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault. It was the mixture. Grasp that and you have the root of the matter. To understand all is to forgive all."

Ah, Brideshead Revisited. One of my favourites, in fact it may be my most read book :)

[straycat]

hehe... you've just got to admire the imagination of Iain M. Banks.

:yeah:
Amongst many other things... in his Culture novels, the Culture's convention for naming spaceships is wonderful, leading to names like:

GSV 'No More Mr Nice Guy'
GCU 'Fate Amenable To Change'
GCU 'Grey Area'
ROU 'Frank Exchange Of Views'
GSV Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival
GCU A Series Of Unlikely Explanations
GCU Big Sexy Beast
GCU Funny, It Worked Last Time...
LSV Serious Callers Only

to name some favourites, but there's many many more where those came from...

[straycat]

An old favourite - such beautiful use of language...

Saki, on the dangers of offending your cook (probably his best-known quote)

"She was a good cook, as cooks go, and as cooks go, she went. "

[straycat]

And another Saki quote, while I'm in the mood:

"Then, in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a different complexion on the struggle."

[Barry Shnikov]

What larks, Joe!

[Beowulf]

What larks, Joe!

Great Expectations?

"Wot larks eh Pip?"

[JonD]

"Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food."

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window."

"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket"

"From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away."

"The General spoke again, slowly, using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings."

Just a few - same author, three books.

[Dreadful Scathe]

ah some classics

to briefly go back to FIREFLY I like this exchange

river : "Jayne's a girls name"
Jayne : "but Jayne ain't no girl"

Mr Pratchett has some classics - I particularly like the line about the man who, in the resulting watch report, "committed suicide" by going into the mended drum and proclaiming himself "vincent the invincible"

[Barry Shnikov]

"Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food."

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window."

"She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket"

"From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away."

"The General spoke again, slowly, using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings."

Just a few - same author, three books.

Raymond Chandler: Big Sleep is one of them (the general); others would be - Long goodbye and...Lady in the lake?

"Your sister just tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up."

[Dai]

Don't know if this one has been put in already or not - but here you go

"Punctuality is the theif of time" Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorain Gray

Well its my excuse for always being late!!

[straycat]

Mr Pratchett has some classics - I particularly like the line about the man who, in the resulting watch report, "committed suicide" by going into the mended drum and proclaiming himself "vincent the invincible"
:yeah:
Mr Pratchett has some fantastic quotes - one of his footnotes, iirc, reads:

*The greatest lovers on the disc were Melius and Gretalina, who's passionate, soul searing affair would have scorched the pages of history, had it not been for the unfortunate fact that they were born centuries apart, on separate continents. The gods took pity on them, however, and turned him into an ironing board, and her into a small brass bollard.**
**When you're a god, you don't need reasons.

Or even some of his blink-and-you-miss-it throwaway lines (Vimes complaining about a watery cup of coffee, saying 'This is love-in-a-canoe coffee if ever there was any.' - to my shame, I failed to spot the reference, and it had to be pointed out to me.)

[Tiggerbabe]

Or even some of his blink-and-you-miss-it throwaway lines (Vimes complaining about a watery cup of coffee, saying 'This is love-in-a-canoe coffee if ever there was any.' - to my shame, I failed to spot the reference, and it had to be pointed out to me.)
His character names make me smile too - Casanunda, being my favourite one :)

[Mezzosoprano]

Love TP -

"How did you meet her anyway", said Colon quickly. "What? Oh, our eyes met when I shoved an IOU in her garter, sarge" said Nobby happily.

[JonD]

Raymond Chandler: Big Sleep is one of them (the general); others would be - Long goodbye and...Lady in the lake?
The first three are from "Farewell My Lovely"; as you say, General Sternwood is from "The Big Sleep"; the make up one is from "The High Window".

I just found this one from a story I don't know called "Playback":


"On the dance floor half a dozen couples were throwing themselves around with the reckless abandon of a night watchman with arthritis"

Sounds like a blues room to me!

[whitetiger1518]

Love TP -

"How did you meet her anyway", said Colon quickly. "What? Oh, our eyes met when I shoved an IOU in her garter, sarge" said Nobby happily.

Found these two:


God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"


The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.

Terry Pratchett, "Hogfather", footnote


Whitetiger

[Dreadful Scathe]

There are other contenders (http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/) for best analogy :) im sure i posted this years ago somewhere ...

[Dreadful Scathe]

My favourite is
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

[Beowulf]

There are other contenders (http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/) for best analogy :) im sure i posted this years ago somewhere ...

funny link but this one


9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

Is lifted straight out of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy


The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't

[Dreadful Scathe]

funny link but this one



Is lifted straight out of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
its hardly lifted. Its an obvious bad analogy, one i could've come up with myself.

[Dreadful Scathe]

just had to post this (http://monster-island.org/tinashumor/humor/madonna.html).....cant stop laughing ..hahahaha

[straycat]

funny link but this one

Is lifted straight out of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

True enough. Another set of books ripe for quoting:

"In the beginning, the universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry, and is widely regarded as a bad move."

or this gem:

Prosser: The plans were on display.
Arthur: I eventually had to go down to the cellar...
Prosser: That's the display department.
Arthur: ... with a torch.
Prosser: Ah, the lights had probably gone.
Arthur: So had the stairs.
Prosser: But you found the notice, didn't you?
Arthur: Yes. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.’ Ever thought of going into advertising?

[Stuart M]

True enough. Another set of books ripe for quoting:

"In the beginning, the universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry, and is widely regarded as a bad move."
Don't start me...

My unsung favourites are Marvin's description of Trillian in the third book, the only quadruple negative I've ever read:
"Trillian is one of the least benightedly unintelligent life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting."

And the cautionary teleport limerick:

"I teleported hom one night,
with Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Meggie's heart away,
and I got Sidney's leg"

[Beowulf]

I like this opening paragraph from one of my Favorite Books, Films (and thanks to Twirly) T-shirts ;)

"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is
Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in
the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do
with the evening, a flip dark chill winter b*stard though dry.
The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O
my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like,
things changing so skorry these days and everybody very
quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither.
Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They
had no license for selling liquor, but there was no law yet
against prodding some of the new veshches which they used
to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vel-
locet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other vesh-
ches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen
minutes admiring Bog And All His Holy Angels and Saints in
your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg."

(Jeez that made my spell checker complain.. just as well I didn't post a quote from Feersum Endjinn ;) )

[timbp]

"They went for the greater glory of God. They meant no harm."

That quote is from the back cover blurb—which is supposed to sell the book. For several years, I looked at the book, read the back cover, and didn't buy it, because I didn't want to read a tragedy.

The prologue expands this:
"They went for the reasons Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God.
They meant no harm."

Eventually, I read it. And it is one of the best books I've ever read. Not an easy read, not a happy read, but ultimately a great read.

PS. I went to a Jesuit school.

[rubyred]

I like this opening paragraph from one of my Favorite Books, Films (and thanks to Twirly) T-shirts ;)

"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is
Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in
the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do
with the evening, ..................to the old moloko, so you could peet it with vel-locet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other vesh-
ches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen
minutes admiring Bog And All His Holy Angels and Saints in
your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg."

(Jeez that made my spell checker complain.. just as well I didn't post a quote from Feersum Endjinn ;) )


Clockwork Orange ..Anthony Burgess


"They went for the greater glory of God. They meant no harm."

PS. I went to a Jesuit school.

The Sparrow ..Mary Russell

[Stuart M]

Two from my favourite American novel:

Dear Mrs., Mr., Miss, or Mr. And Mrs. Daneeka: Words cannot express the deep personal grief I experienced when your husband, son, father, or brother was killed, wounded, or reported missing in action.

Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

[DQueen]

Washington Square by Henry James

"She ordered a cup of tea, which proved excessively bad, and this gave her a sense that she was suffering in a romantic cause."