Wilkie Collins quote: "The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare."

The dull people decided years and years ago, as everyone knows, that novel-writing was the lowest sp...
WILKIE COLLINS

My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.
WILKIE COLLINS

Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own...
WILKIE COLLINS

I am an average good Christian, when you don't push my Christianity too far. And all the rest of you...
WILKIE COLLINS

But I am a just man, even to my enemy—and I will acknowledge, beforehand, that they are cleverer b...
WILKIE COLLINS

It is the nature of truth to struggle to the light.
WILKIE COLLINS

I have always maintained that the one important phenomenon presented by modern society is - the enor...
WILKIE COLLINS

Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind.
WILKIE COLLINS

I am (thank God) constitutionally superior to reason.
WILKIE COLLINS

Whenever a woman tries to put you out of temper, turn the tables, and put HER out of temper instead....
WILKIE COLLINS

The first and last weakness of his life, before him again. For a moment he felt himself blinded by h...
WILKIE COLLINS

You musn't talk of a young lady *belonging* to anybody, as if she was a piece of furniture, or money...
WILKIE COLLINS

But, ah me! where is the faultless human creature who can persevere in a good resolution, without so...
WILKIE COLLINS

It may not be amiss to add, for the benefit of incredulous readers, that all the 'improbable events'...
WILKIE COLLINS

No sensible man ever engages, unprepared, in a fencing match of words with a woman.
WILKIE COLLINS

The mystery which underlies the beauty of women is never raised above the reach of all expression un...
WILKIE COLLINS

I dread the beginning of her new life more than words can tell, but I see some hope for her if she t...
WILKIE COLLINS

I am not against hasty marriages where a mutual flame is fanned by an adequate income.
WILKIE COLLINS

Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service.
WILKIE COLLINS

We had our breakfasts-whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn't matter, you must ha...
WILKIE COLLINS

I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept ...
WILKIE COLLINS

In every class of society, gratitude is the rarest of all human virtues.
WILKIE COLLINS

The little that he had said, thus far, had been sufficient to convince me that I was speaking to a g...
WILKIE COLLINS

Not a word had dropped from my lips, or from hers, that could unsettle either of us—and yet the sa...
WILKIE COLLINS

It is quite possible that I may be altogether wrong in this idea. My own impression, however, is, th...
WILKIE COLLINS

At any time, and under any circumstances of human interest, is it not strange to see how little real...
WILKIE COLLINS

The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.
WILKIE COLLINS

The fool's crime is the crime that is found out and the wise man's crime is the crime that is not fo...
WILKIE COLLINS

If you will look about you (which most people won't do)," says Sergeant Cuff, "you will see that the...
WILKIE COLLINS

The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used ...
WILKIE COLLINS

The best men are not consistent in good—why should the worst men be consistent in evil?
WILKIE COLLINS

The mountain-path of Action is no longer a path for me; my future hope pauses with my present happin...
WILKIE COLLINS

Through all the ways of our unintelligible world, the trivial and the terrible walk hand in hand tog...
WILKIE COLLINS

In all my experience along the dirtiest ways of this dirty little world, I have never met with such ...
WILKIE COLLINS

Is there any wilderness of sand in the deserts of Arabia, is there any prospect of desolation among ...
WILKIE COLLINS

I haven't much time to be fond of anything ... but when I have a moment's fondness to bestow,...
WILKIE COLLINS

Habits of literary composition are perfectly familiar to me. One of the rarest of all the intellectu...
WILKIE COLLINS

It was cold and barren. It was no longer the view that I remembered. The sunshine of her presence wa...
WILKIE COLLINS

Tears are scientifically described as a Secretion. I can understand that a secretion may be healthy ...
WILKIE COLLINS

Men little know when they say hard things to us how well we remember them, and how much harm they do...
WILKIE COLLINS

I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them m...
WILKIE COLLINS

Dont speak of tomorrow.Let the music speak to us tonight,in a happier language than ours.
WILKIE COLLINS

Who cares for his causes of complaint? Are you to break your heart to set his mind at ease? No man u...
WILKIE COLLINS

...it will always remain my private persuasion that Nature was absorbed in making cabbages when Mrs....
WILKIE COLLINS

When two members of a family or two intimate friends are separated, and one goes abroad and one rema...
WILKIE COLLINS

Don't let me think.
WILKIE COLLINS

Where is the woman who has ever really torn from her heart the image that has been once fixed in it ...
WILKIE COLLINS

The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void i...
WILKIE COLLINS

I am a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man!
WILKIE COLLINS

There are three things that none of the young men of the present generation can do.They can't sit ov...
WILKIE COLLINS

She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have stee...
WILKIE COLLINS

This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve.
WILKIE COLLINS

I am thinking,’ he remarked quietly, ’whether I shall add to the disorder in this room, by scatt...
WILKIE COLLINS

Some of us rush through life and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey sat through life.
WILKIE COLLINS

I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to...
WILKIE COLLINS

Silence is safe.
WILKIE COLLINS

Let the music speak to us of tonight, in a happier language than our own.
WILKIE COLLINS

Women can resist a man's love, a man's fame, a man's personal appearance, and a man's money, but the...
WILKIE COLLINS

I have abstained from expressing any opinion, so far," says Mr. Superintendent, with his military vo...
WILKIE COLLINS

I have heard all I ever want to hear about the past," he said; "and I know what I most wanted to kno...
WILKIE COLLINS

He started up, and wrung my hand in quite an ecstasy of gratitude. How I do hate people who can only...
WILKIE COLLINS

Well may your heart believe the truths I tell; 'Tis virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.
WILKIE (WILLIAM) COLLINS

Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind.
WILKIE (WILLIAM) COLLINS

It's an environmentally friendly solution for an unpleasant housekeeping task. It's not often that o...
ANN WILKIE

In covered lagoons, which are less efficient than fixed-film anaerobic digesters, the digestive bact...
ANN WILKIE

The key to our waste management system is a natural biological process called anaerobic digestion th...
ANN WILKIE

Who is ready to settle for five minutes when three hours does nicely?
JACKIE COLLINS

Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.
KIM COLLINS

I have inspiration and feelings of being alive most every day I live.
JUDY COLLINS

We work to create a new wave of feminism that is more inclusive. I want others to feel equal. It'...
PETRA COLLINS

I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much m...
JACKIE COLLINS

People are intrigued by fame, power and wealth and I think Hollywood is the only place where you get...
JACKIE COLLINS

Agents are essential, because publishers will not read unsolicited manuscripts.
JACKIE COLLINS

I have considered rap music stars, and there is one in my new book, Lovers and Players, and there is...
JACKIE COLLINS

Authors change publishers because it's like being married for a long time and suddenly you want ...
JACKIE COLLINS

Ideas are all around me. If I wasn't interested in them myself, I don't think anyone else wo...
JACKIE COLLINS

I write synopses after the book is completed. I can't write it beforehand, because I don't k...
JACKIE COLLINS

Brittany Murphy... who knows if she's going to be around. Kirsten Dunst, I think she's reall...
JACKIE COLLINS

The husbands, who sometimes have another family who's grown, are going, Now I can spend time wit...
JACKIE COLLINS

I have written 20 books, and each one is like having a baby. Writing is not easy; some people want t...
JACKIE COLLINS

Whatever you have a passion for, then you must do. If you want to write, write about something you k...
JACKIE COLLINS

I really fall in love with my characters, even the bad ones. I love getting together with them. They...
JACKIE COLLINS

I have this theory that people in Hollywood don't read. They read 'Vanity Fair' and then...
JACKIE COLLINS

My philosophy is, unless you're sick and need help, why bother?
JACKIE COLLINS

I don't believe in writing anything that I don't know about or haven't researched about ...
JACKIE COLLINS

I have visited Australia several times, and I always try to make a point of going to Melbourne becau...
JACKIE COLLINS

Do not copy my style! The first rule of writing is write about what you know, not what you think you...
JACKIE COLLINS

I write about the American dream: if you set your mind to do something, you can do it. My fans know ...
JACKIE COLLINS

If you want to achieve your dreams, you must follow them, and the best way to follow them is not to ...
JACKIE COLLINS

If immigration reform passes, it'll be a big victory for sanity - nobody really believes it'...
GAIL COLLINS

I prefer black music in general.
PHIL COLLINS

It used to bother me - having bigger, fuller brows. I even plucked them once so I'd fit in, but ...
LILY COLLINS

I think there's a lot of different ways to win. You've seen teams that win championships wit...
DOUG COLLINS

Emily Dickinson never developed. She remained loyal to her persona and to that same little metrical ...
BILLY COLLINS

When the women's movement started in the 1960s, there was a vision of a future where women didn&...
GAIL COLLINS

It's amazing to see things that are suggested in the book fully developed and so brilliantly rea...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I actually do not believe that there are any collisions between what I believe as a Christian, and w...
FRANCIS COLLINS

Can I say that I think it should be against the law for one state to use taxpayer money to try to br...
GAIL COLLINS

Soaring prescription drug costs have placed a tremendous strain on family budgets. They have also im...
SUSAN COLLINS

When hired three years ago, I willingly accepted the challenge of leading the Bulls back to the type...
DOUG COLLINS

I might be in an airport, late or angry with a ticket person, and I'm going to sort of check mys...
STEPHEN COLLINS

Natural Texas politicians make terrible, terrible presidential candidates. Phil Gramm, I remember th...
GAIL COLLINS

Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Remember?" he asks. "This is where you kissed me."
So the heavy dose of morphling administered...
SUZANNE COLLINS

The Bushes were certainly part of Texas in their mind, but they didn't have the kind of politica...
GAIL COLLINS

I'm a fiend for costume jewellery and have countless pairs of rhinestone or diamante earrings, w...
JOAN COLLINS

Certainly Nancy Reagan had an extraordinary effect on her husband. I'm truly not sure that, say,...
GAIL COLLINS

It's been fascinating working on a set in New York. Just to be in the thick of it is really inte...
JESSICA COLLINS

I may like the Blizzard best, of all the songs I have written.
JUDY COLLINS

I'll listen to anything authentic whether it's bluegrass or gospel or blues.
BILLY COLLINS

Both the 'Gregor' series and 'The Hunger Games' are what I call lightning-bolt ideas...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I have a stack of those plastic card hotel room keys that I picked up on this latest book tour. It&#...
BILLY COLLINS

Yeah, because what it all boils down to is at the end of the day, we are all riding on the same boat...
BOOTSY COLLINS

In the 1960s, you had this booming economy, and you didn't really have enough men around to fill...
GAIL COLLINS

Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that bother you in co...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I was actually the one who decided to move to LA. Mom and I were driving on Sunset Boulevard during ...
LILY COLLINS

If there's a more helpless feeling than trying to reach someone you love who's trapped underground, ...
SUZANNE COLLINS

When I finish dressing before a night out and have put on all the accessories, I usually look at mys...
JOAN COLLINS

We were brash young fellows'. I was always hanging with the older crowd anyway. The musicians we...
BOOTSY COLLINS

I used to go over to Gene Kelly's house and play volleyball, and Paul Newman and Marlon Brando w...
JOAN COLLINS

My mind is changing all the time. I can't live in a space that has a fixed aesthetic. I just nee...
PETRA COLLINS

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest!
WILLIAM COLLINS

Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part, Nature in him was almost lost in art.
WILLIAM COLLINS

And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.
WILLIAM COLLINS

To look into that persons eyes and find yourself so completely lost in another world, a world full o...
LILY COLLINS

We are liberated by the examples of the brave, the talented, and the successful if we allow ourselve...
TERESA COLLINS

I'm going to wake Peeta," I say.
"No, wait," says Finnick. "Let's do it together. Put our faces...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I turn and put my lips close to Peeta's and drop my eyelids in imitation... "He offered me sugar and...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I pull an arrow, whip the notch into place, and am about to let it fly when I'm stopped by the sight...
SUZANNE COLLINS

That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I'm free to act as desperately as I wish.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Katniss," Gale says softly.
I recognize that voice. It's the same one he uses to approach wound...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Look, if you wanted to be babied you should have asked Peeta.
SUZANNE COLLINS

The idea of being strong for someone else having never entered their heads, I find myself in the pos...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Tick, tock.
SUZANNE COLLINS

It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I'm so sorry," I whisper. I lean forward and kiss him.
His eyelashes flutter and he looks at me...
SUZANNE COLLINS

So that's who Finnick loves, I think. Not his string of fancy lovers in the Capitol. But a poor, mad...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I guess this is a bad time to mention I hung a dummy and painted Seneca Crane's name on it...
SUZANNE COLLINS

We star-crossed lovers of District 12, who suffered so much and enjoyed so little the rewards of our...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Aim higher in case you fall short.
SUZANNE COLLINS

So I only say, "So what should we do with our last few days?"

"I just want to spend every...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstaces are. If you die, and I live, there's no l...
SUZANNE COLLINS

The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. ...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I always channel my emotions into my work. That way, I don't hurt anyone but myself.
SUZANNE COLLINS

So it's you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.
SUZANNE COLLINS

My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here.
SUZANNE COLLINS

You know, you could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve him.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forever.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.
SUZANNE COLLINS

You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Knowing it and seeing it are two different things.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Finnick?" I say, "Maybe some pants?"
He looks down at his legs as if noticing his outfit for th...
SUZANNE COLLINS

And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anywa...
SUZANNE COLLINS

One more time? For the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow, which is worse. Alrea...
SUZANNE COLLINS

My spirit. This is a new thought. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it suggests I'm a fighter....
SUZANNE COLLINS

And then he gives me a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I knew you'd kiss me."
"How?" I say. Because I didn't know myself.
"Because I am in pain,...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I realize, for the first time, how very lonely I've been in the arena. How comforting the presence o...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Katniss. I remember about the bread.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Delly lost her temper at Peeta over how he treated you. She got very squeaky. It was like someone st...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.
SUZANNE COLLINS

At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead.The hard thi...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Fire beats roses again.
SUZANNE COLLINS

In the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Peeta,” I say lightly. “You said at the interview you’d had a crush on me forever. When did fo...
SUZANNE COLLINS

You're alive," I whisper, pressing my palms against my cheeks, feeling the smile that's so wide it m...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I just...I just miss him. And I hate being so alone.
SUZANNE COLLINS

You're punishing him over and over for things that are out of his control. Now, I'm not saying you s...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I had to do that. At least once.
SUZANNE COLLINS

No problem," Gale replies. "I wake up ten times a night anyway."
"To make sure Katniss is still...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Because I can count on my fingers the number of sunsets I have left, and I don't want to miss any of...
SUZANNE COLLINS

All those months of taking it for granted that Peeta thought I was wonderful are over. Finally, he c...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Stay with me.

Always.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pl...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss," says Peeta. "Even if my mother isn't a healer."
I'm j...
SUZANNE COLLINS

No. Now, shut up and eat your pears.
SUZANNE COLLINS

You have a... remarkable memory."
"I remember everything about you. You're the one who wasn't p...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Really, the combination of the scabs and the ointment looks hideous. I can't help enjoying his distr...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and...
SUZANNE COLLINS

What about Gale?"
"He's not a bad kisser either," I say shortly.
"And it was okay with bo...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Oh, Peeta, Don't make me sorry I restarted your heart.
SUZANNE COLLINS

There's a chance that the old Peeta, the one who loves you, is still inside. Trying to get back to y...
SUZANNE COLLINS

But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a...
SUZANNE COLLINS

At a few minutes before four, Peeta turns to me again. "Your favorite colour . . . it's green?"
SUZANNE COLLINS

She's not here," I tell him. Buttercup hisses again. "She's not here. You can hiss all you like. You...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I raise my left arm and twist my neck down to rip off the pill on my sleeve. Instead my teeth sink i...
SUZANNE COLLINS

They'll either want to kill you, kiss you, or be you.
SUZANNE COLLINS

That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire ...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Closing my eyes doesn't help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I think....you still have no idea. The effect you can have.
SUZANNE COLLINS

I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there's no relief in waking.
SUZANNE COLLINS

Technically, I am unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do. Es...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Are you, are you coming to the tree?
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Stra...
SUZANNE COLLINS

Ally." Peeta says the words slowly, tasting it. "Friend. Lover. Victor. Enemy. Fiancee. Target. Mutt...
SUZANNE COLLINS

I clench his hands to the point of pain. "Stay with me."
His pupils contract to pinpoints, dial...
SUZANNE COLLINS

There are much worse games to play.
SUZANNE COLLINS

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.

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Wilkie Collins

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.

Wilkie Collins

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