Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it."

(Casual Chance, 1964)


Colette

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Anyone who tells you life has greater value when it comes with an expiration date is full of shit. I...
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An exhale, relieved that I understood. “Ye...
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You were just worried about me."
An exhale, relieved that I had understood. "Yeah"
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I’m halfway through
and I’ve gotten used
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Ben Adaephon Delat," Pearl said plaintively, "see the last who comes. You send me to my death."
STEVEN ERIKSON
Forget the girl who had everything. She died when her father did."
"But I--"
"Nothing is w...
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Who hit you?"
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The compass rose is nothing but a star with an infinite number of rays pointing in all directions. VERA NAZARIAN I thought told you to watch where you put your feet," he said accusingly. Erak shrugged.
I did,...
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To my babies,

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I desired to praise the Chosen One and was hindered
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I do not possess the ability to draw or paint.
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BRI JUSTINE
After all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can have n...
ISAAC D'ISRAELI
After all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can have n...
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He said 'it's all in your head'
and I said 'so's everything'
but he didn't get it.
FIONA APPLE
here I am simply trying to get into your head
you think you were born you die what a pity
IKKYU
What's the matter?" you asked, seizing an idea. "Did I burst your balloon - destroy the fantasy?" CHRIS KRAUS On the late afternoon streets, everyone hurries along, going about their own business.

Wh...
VERA NAZARIAN
Like one
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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, I wil...
ROBERTSON DAVIES
All you who are in love
Aye and can not remove it
I pity the pain that you endure.
Fo...
MAGGIE STIEFVATER
I would like to be the sea
I would like to break into millions of pieces
and I would like ...
JANE FADE MERRICK
Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman--a rope over an abyss.

A dan...
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
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How can I judge?" she said at last. "To me, he is a hero. To the world a monster." She let her head ...
ROBERT FANNEY
This is sams phone" there was a long,heavy pause, and then: "oh." Another pause. "Youre the girl, ar...
MAGGIE STIEFVATER
He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsm...
FRANCIS OF ASSISI
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something; EDWARD EVERETT HALE
WHAT IS TRUTH?

Truth is not a thing
Or a concept.
It is as multidimensional
SUZY KASSEM
I would not hurt you, little man,' he said.

'I think that I got the disorder in Mullingar...
FLANN O'BRIEN
Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation ...
LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
I love you more. I love you enough to let you go and live your dream." I tilted my head and shrugged...
S.C. STEPHENS
The soul is like an uninhabited world
that comes to life only when
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...
THOMAS AQUINAS
Why can’t people get along without criticizing one another?” Urashima shakes
his head as h...
OSAMU DAZAI
If he is anything other than a total gentleman, I’m going to gouge his eyes out.”
“So you...
JOHN GREEN
When I’m running, there’s always this split second when the pain is ripping through me and I can...
LAUREN OLIVER
In your novels do you lie deliberately or just out of ignorance?"

Laughter. A murmur of a...
JOSé EDUARDO AGUALUSA
What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!'
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J.R.R. TOLKIEN
People are not an interruption of our business. People are our business.
A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.
It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground.
The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed.
The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no diff...
The intelligence is proved not by ease of learning, but by understanding what we learn.
Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words.
Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads
Let love through good deeds show.
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
In everyone's heart stirs a great homesickness.
That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience.
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To reprove small faults within due vehemence, is as absurd as if a man should take a great hammer to...
Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light.
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of...
Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their chi...
A recent survey was said to prove that the people we Americans most admire are our politicians and d...
If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool.
Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog.
Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it ...
Freedom also includes the right to mismanage your own affairs.
Let your friends be the friends of your deliberate choice.
The man who has strong opinions and always says what he thinks is courageous - and friendless.
Friendship is love with understanding.
So few people think. When we find one who really does, we call him a genius
Your life can't go according to plan if you have no plan.
Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment.
Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue.
An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation
To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip, is to have li...
Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind
If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts.
We are born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy.
People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example.
Children are natural mimics; they act like their parents in spite of every effort to teach them good...
The guilty catch themselves.
Good habits are formed; bad habits we fall into.
If happiness could be brought, few of us could pay the price.
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.
Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it.
Hate pollutes the mind.
If we miraculously became the people we hate, how lovable we would find ourselves.
To feel "fit as a fiddle" you must tone down your middle.
Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it.
A patient going to a doctor for his first visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before coming t...
"Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you."
It is impossible to make wisdom hereditary.
Honesty is a question of right or wrong, not a matter of policy.

More Colette

Time spent with a cat is never wasted.
COLETTE
It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then...
COLETTE
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
COLETTE
What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
COLETTE
It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.
COLETTE
Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author i...
COLETTE
It's nothing to be born ugly. Sensibly, the ugly woman comes to terms with her ugliness and exploits...
COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. -Colette.
COLETTE
There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a ...
COLETTE
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
COLETTE
Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.
COLETTE
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a ...
COLETTE
The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.
COLETTE
I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have ...
COLETTE
We only do well the things we like doing.
COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
COLETTE
There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom,...
COLETTE
Hope costs nothing.
COLETTE
A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
COLETTE
In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly t...
COLETTE
There are no ordinary cats.
COLETTE
look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you...
COLETTE
If he's getting married, he's not longer interesting.
COLETTE
I did not look for her, because I was afraid of dispelling the mystery we attach to people whom we k...
COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm!
COLETTE
The more sensitive the lunatic, the less able is he to resist this prying interest of the normal hum...
COLETTE
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
COLETTE
When she raises her eyelids, it's as if she were taking off all her clothes.
COLETTE
The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixit...
COLETTE
It is the image in the mind that links us to our lost treasures; but it is the loss that shapes the ...
COLETTE
I went to collect the few personal belongings which...I held to be invaluable: my cat, my resolve to...
COLETTE
Once a man is on hand, a woman tends to stop believing in her own beliefs.
COLETTE DOWLING
Relationships are like a dance, with visible energy racing back and forth between partners. Some rel...
COLETTE DOWLING
No letters after your name are ever going to be a total guarantee of competence any more than they a...
COLETTE BOWE
No letters after your name are ever going to be a total guarantee of competence any more than they ...
COLETTE BOWE
Relationships are like a dance, with visible energy racing back and forth between partners. Some rel...
COLETTE DOWLING
At the halfway point in the season what we're looking for is making ourselves better and better with...
COLETTE QUAM
They also learn through songs, rhymes, and lots of literature. We read many books and introduce kids...
COLETTE JENSON
We are studying ways to challenge the government decision to freeze tariffs.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
With the upcoming Beijing Olympics and the re-emergence of Shanghai as a great city of the world, de...
COLETTE GARNSEY
One needs a referee on the value.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
Those who make a difference... Know they must be different!
COLETTE DEGRAFF
Fear (...) that has no relation to capabilities or even to reality is epidemic among women today. Fe...
COLETTE DOWLING
I assume he is going to try and convince me not to cast my vote.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
COLETTE QUAM
Watertown is an experienced team, but we were pretty disappointed with the 9-0 score. The 9-0 dual s...
COLETTE QUAM
Ashley had two really big wins to close out the tournament strong. Her play was definitely the highl...
COLETTE QUAM
It was every bit of those 40 mile-per-hour winds and it was hot. The heat had begun to take its toll...
COLETTE QUAM
I cannot accept that the assets of a company can be put beyond the control of its managers.
COLETTE NEUVILLE
I have been contacted by shareholders -- French and foreign ... who are worried that some decisions ...
COLETTE NEUVILLE
It's always nice when we get younger siblings of students we already have.
COLETTE JENSON
They have been very accommodating over the past six years. They give us tons of space and access to ...
COLETTE JENSON
We never set out to make a dinner theater.
COLETTE HILL
It's important the guests eat dinner and enjoy each other's company.
COLETTE HILL
It's a disaster. I've lived all over Canada and it's the worst ice storm I've ever seen.
COLETTE FONTAINE
Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
What a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised!
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trad...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Girls usually have a paper mâché face on their wedding day.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I n...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent do...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
But just as delicate fare does not stop you from craving for saveloys, so tried and exquisite friend...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixit...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
You do not notice changes in what is always before you.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us --a...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for i...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Among all the modernized aspects of the most luxurious of industries, the model, a vestige of volupt...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
January, month of empty pockets! Let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer's f...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Is suffering so very serious? I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignifi...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarett...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Can it be that chance has made me one of those women so immersed in one man that, whether they are b...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It's nothing to be born ugly. Sensibly, the ugly woman comes to terms with her ugliness and exploits...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Shall we never have done with that cliche, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut Animals up, alive, into small piec...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even onc...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Is suffering so very serious? I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignifi...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
January, month of empty pockets! let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer'...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
I am going away with him to an unknown country where I shall have no past and no name, and where I s...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Dr. Gunther talked about passing the baton to others and that is what we are doing. We hope we have ...
COLETTE JENKINS PARKER
I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we cal...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly t...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut [Animals] up, alive, into small pi...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of ...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
The day after that wedding night I found that a distance of a thousand miles, abyss and discovery an...
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Writing only leads to more writing.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTE
We have thoughts of designing a curriculum for the schools here that includes the history of the civ...
COLETTE JENKINS PARKER
After looking at the big picture, we've decided it has run its course.
COLETTE JENKINS PARKER