149 Memorable Novel Quotes

Books have the extraordinary ability to transport us to different worlds, touch our hearts, and leave a lasting impression with a single line. As we meander through the pages of our favorite novels, every so often, a quote stands out, distilling profound wisdom, encapsulating raw emotion, or simply resonating deeply with our own experiences. In this compilation, we've gathered 149 of the most memorable novel quotes that have captivated readers, sparked imaginations, and stood the test of time. Whether you're a seasoned bibliophile or just beginning your literary journey, these quotes are sure to inspire, provoke thought, and perhaps even offer a new perspective. Join us in celebrating the timeless power of words.

1. “I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.” - Mario Puzo

2. “A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.” - Yevgeny Zamyatin

3. “Talking about ideas for a novel is a bit like showing pictures of the ultrasound if you're pregnant. Until they're out in the world, they can only be wonderful to you.” - Clare Boylan

4. “And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever.” - Nicholas Sparks

5. “When Don Quixote went out into the world, that world turned into a mystery before his eyes. That is the legacy of the first European novel to the entire subsequent history of the novel. The novel teaches us to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude.” - Milan Kundera

6. “It began with a perfect plan. Shape-wise we had a circle, a simple uncomplicated curve to guide us comfortably from one thing to another, an easy predictable ride promising a natural progression from A to B, C and D, and so on until we reached our destination. But somewhere down that smooth line, I think around F, it all went pear-shaped.” - Ivana Hruba

7. “The novel cannot submit to authority.” - Julian Gough

8. “Be quick, but don't hurry.” - John Wooden

9. “The novel is a formidable mass, and it is so amorphous - no mountain in it to climb, no Parnassus or Helicon, not even a Pisgah. It is most distinctly one of the moister areas of literature - irrigated by a hundred rills and occasionally degenerating into a swamp. I do not wonder that the poets despise it, though they sometimes find themselves in it by accident. And I am not surprised at the annoyance of the historians when by accident it finds itself among them.” - E.M. Forster

10. “If you surround yourself with the good and righteous, they can only raise you up. If you surround yourself with the others, they will drag you down into the doldrums of mediocrity, and they will keep you there, but only as long as you permit it.” - Mark Glamack

11. “Please, touch me, I pray.” - Jess C. Scott

12. “For a moment, I wondered how different my life would have been had they been my parents, but I shook the thought away. I knew my father had done the best he could, and I had no regrets about the way I'd turned out. Regrets about the journey, maybe, but not the destination. Because however it had happened, I'd somehow ended up eating shrimp in a dingy downtown shack with a girl that I already knew I'd never forget.” - Nicholas Sparks

13. “It was disconcerting that being in love felt lonelier than lonelines.” - Emily Maguire

14. “Madam Kluger, pufoasă, apretată şi cu genele atât de albe încât par pudrate cu zahăr, îmi face un cornet artistic [...]” - Rodica Ojog - Brasoveanu

15. “A novel does not assert anything, a novel poses questions... The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. When Don Quixote went out into the world, that world turned into a mystery before his eyes. That is the legacy of the first European novel to the entire subsequent history of the novel. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude.” - Milan Kundera

16. “He looks out the window at the falling snow, then turns and takes his wife in his arms, feeling grateful to be here even as he wonders what he is going to do with his life in strictly practical terms. For years he had trained himself to do one thing, and he did it well, but he doesn't know whether he wants to keep doing it for the rest of his life, for that matter, whether anyone will let him. He is still worrying when they go to bed.Feeling his wife's head nesting in the pillow below his shoulder, he is almost certain that they will find ways to manage. They've been learning to get by with less, and they'll keep learning. It seems to him as if they're taking a course in loss lately. And as he feels himself falling asleep he has an insight he believes is important, which he hopes he will remember in the morning, although it is one of those thoughts that seldom survive translation to the language of daylight hours: knowing that whatever plenty befalls them together or separately in the future, they will become more and more intimate with loss as the years accumulate, friends dying or slipping away undramatically into the crowded past, memory itself finally flickering and growing treacherous toward the end; knowing that even the children who may be in their future will eventually school them in the pain of growth and separation, as their own parents and mentors die off and leave them alone in the world, shivering at the dark threshold.” - Jay Mcinerney

17. “أعرف مثلاً أنني -يوماً ما- سأقضي حياتي متنقلاً بين شقة وأخرى في المناطق التي لم أعش فيها يوماً في هذا البلد وتبدو لي غريبة. برج حمود مثلاً. المجتمع الأرمني يجذبني. ربما لأنني لا أعرف عنه كثيراً. يجنح بي الخيال لأرى نفسي في حضرة عجوز أرمنية في كرسي هزاز فيما أنا تحت قدميها، أجلس القرفصاء وأستمع لحكاياتها التي لا تنتهي عن بطل أرمني ما ذبحه الأتراك.وستخبرني العجوز الأرمنية عن الرمّان وهي تقدم لي بعض حبوبه. تقول لي أن كوز الرمان يحوي 365 حبة. تقول لي أن الرمان أنقذ العائلات الأرمنية من الموت المحتم في زمن الأتراك. في الكهوف جلسوا. كلٌّ بيده رمانة. حبة واحدة كل يوم. حبة تبعد الموت لعام كامل. هل هذا صحيح؟ الأرجح لا. لكنّ قصة الرمانة تبقى، شأنها شأن كل القصص، شأنها كل المشاهد التي رأيتها والتي لستُ حتى واثقاً من حدوثها فعلياً.” - هلال شومان

18. “سألاحظ الأشخاص أسفل نافذتي الموجودة على يميني. البائع الذي يصبِّح على جاره علانيةً ويهمس شاتماً لما يدخل إلى محله. نسب التنزيلات الملصقة على واجهة محلات الألبسة وهي تكثر وتقل، تكبر وتصغر. زمير أبواق السيارات وزحمة الشارع. النزلاء في الفندق المقابل وهم يغلقون ستائر غرفهم. أسراب الحمام في سماء الشارع الضيق، تمر سويةً وترحل معاً بإشارة من رجل على سطح بناء قريب. تلك الجارة التي لا تنتبه إلى الستارة المفتوحة إلا بعد أن تخلع بنطالها، ويبين لباسها الداخلي. طاولة الطعام التي يتجمع عليها أفراد عائلة من ذووي الملامح الصامتة. الولد الشقي الذي يدخل رأسه في فتحة الدرابزين الحديدي وينادي لأخته كي تساعده في إخراج رأسه الذي علق. عادةً ما يستغرق الأمر خمس دقائق قبل أن تدخل الفتاة لتخبر أمها وتأتي الأم مستشيطة غضباً. سأشاهد الخادمة، سريلنكية الجنسية، وهي تتواصل مع صديقتها السريلنكية في البناية المقابلة. الكلمات في لغتهما الهجينة تمر في الفضاء بين البنايتين. سأتابع "سيدتها" وهي تخرج مجابهةً إياها بشتائم من العيار الثقيل، لأنها "تقلل من مستواها". ” - هلال شومان

19. “ لم يُكتب قط نصٌ في الدنيا إلا وكان له موسيقاه الخلفية.” - هلال شومان

20. “You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a novel.” - James M. Cain

21. “You see that old woman? That will never happen to you. You will never grow old, and you will never die.And it means something else too, doesn't it? I shall never ever grow up.” - Anne Rice

22. “and all I could think was that I would like to spend every morning for the rest of my life waking up beside her” - Nicholas Sparks

23. “If writers only dared to dare, a Suetonius or a Tacitus of the Novel could exist, for the Novel is essentially the history of manners, turned into a story and a play, as is History itself often enough. And there is no other difference than this: that the one, the Novel, cloaks its manners under the disguise of invented characters, while the other, History, provides names and addresses. Only, the Novel probes much deeper than history. It has an ideal, and History has none; it is limited by reality. The Novel also holds the stage much longer. ("A Woman's Vengeance")” - Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly

24. “One’s options in this world are as vast as the horizon, which is technically a circle and thus infinitely broad. Yet we must choose each step we take with utmost caution, for the footprints we leave behind are as important as the path we will follow. They’re part of the same journey — our story.” - Lori R. Lopez

25. “A novel takes the courage of a marathon runner, and as long as you have to run, you might as well be a winning marathon runner. Serendipity and blind faith faith in yourself won't hurt a thing. All the bastards in the world will snicker and sneer because they haven't the talent to zip up their flies by themselves. To hell with them, particularly the critics. Stand in there, son, no matter how badly you are battered and hurt.” - Leon Uris

26. “If she spoke, she would tell him the truth: she was not okay at all, but horribly empty, now that she knew what it was like to be filled.” - Jodi Picoult

27. “If we're open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives... to change us. It might be a laughing child, car brakes that need fixing, a sale on pot roast, a cloudless sky, a trip to the woods to cut down a Christmas tree, a school teacher, a Dunhill Billiard pipe...or even a pair of shoes. Some people will never believe. They may feel that such things are too trivial, too simple, or too insignificant to forever change a life. But I believe. And I always will.” - Donna VanLiere

28. “... isn't breaking a supervillian out of jail a little ... much?” - Kirstin van Dyke

29. “On my website there's a quote from the writer Anthony Burgess: "The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind." I've always found that inspiring because the written word, as an art form, is unlike any other: movies, TV, music, they're shared experiences, but books aren't like that. The relationship between a writer and a reader is utterly unique to those two individuals. The world that forms in your head as you read a book will be slightly different to that experienced by every other reader. Anywhere. Ever. Reading is very personal, a communication from one mind to another, something which can't be exactly copied, or replicated, or directly shared. If I read the work of, say, one of the great Victorian novelists, it's like a gift from the past, a momentary connection to another's thoughts. Their ideas are down on paper, to be picked up by me, over a century later. Writers can speak individually to readers across a year, or ten years, or a thousand. That's why I love books.” - Simon Cheshire

30. “V-Day…if you need this one day in a year to show everyone else you truly care for “your loved one” I think it’s quite stupid. I hate this commercialism. It’s all artificial, and has nothing to do with real love.” - Jess C. Scott

31. “I was flipping channels, watching this cheerleading program on MTV. They took a field hockey girl and “transformed” her into a cheerleader by the end of the show. I was just wondering: what if she liked field hockey better?” - Jess C. Scott

32. “I suppose it’s not a social norm, and not a manly thing to do — to feel, discuss feelings. So that’s what I’m giving the finger to. Social norms and stuff…what good are social norms, really? I think all they do is project a limited and harmful image of people. It thus impedes a broader social acceptance of what someone, or a group of people, might actually be like.” - Jess C. Scott

33. “I write all these remarks with exactly the same feeling as if I were writing a letter to post into the distant past: I am so sure that everything we now take for granted is going to be utterly swept away in the next decade.(So why write novels? Indeed, why! I suppose we have to go on living as if ...)” - Doris Lessing

34. “A fit, healthy body—that is the best fashion statement” - Jess C. Scott

35. “It is the form that allows a writer the greatest opportunity to explore human experience...For that reason, reading a novel is potentially a significant act. Because there are so many varieties of human experience, so many kinds of interaction between humans, and so many ways of creating patterns in the novel that can’t be created in a short story, a play, a poem or a movie. The novel, simply, offers more opportunities for a reader to understand the world better, including the world of artistic creation. That sounds pretty grand, but I think it’s true.” - Don DeLillo

36. “The best part of the fiction in many novels is the notice that the characters are imaginary.” - Franklin P. Adams

37. “إن التماس المعرفة أعظم ألوان التطهير” - محمد خضير

38. “The first inkling of this notion had come to him the Christmas before, at his daughter's place in Vermont. On Christmas Eve, as indifferent evening took hold in the blue squares of the windows, he sat alone in the crepuscular kitchen, imbued with a profound sense of the identity of winter and twilight, of twilight and time, of time and memory, of his childhood and that church which on this night waited to celebrate the second greatest of its feasts. For a moment or an hour as he sat, become one with the blue of the snow and the silence, a congruity of star, cradle, winter, sacrament, self, it was as though he listened to a voice that had long been trying to catch his attention, to tell him, Yes, this was the subject long withheld from him, which he now knew, and must eventually act on. He had managed, though, to avoid it. He only brought it out now to please his editor, at the same time aware that it wasn't what she had in mind at all. But he couldn't do better; he had really only the one subject, if subject was the word for it, this idea of a notion or a holy thing growing clear in the stream of time, being made manifest in unexpected ways to an assortment of people: the revelation itself wasn't important, it could be anything, almost. Beyond that he had only one interest, the seasons, which he could describe endlessly and with all the passion of a country-bred boy grown old in the city. He was beginning to doubt (he said) whether these were sufficient to make any more novels out of, though he knew that writers of genius had made great ones out of less. He supposed really (he didn't say) that he wasn't a novelist at all, but a failed poet, like a failed priest, one who had perceived that in fact he had no vocation, had renounced his vows, and yet had found nothing at all else in the world worth doing when measured by the calling he didn't have, and went on through life fatally attracted to whatever of the sacerdotal he could find or invent in whatever occupation he fell into, plumbing or psychiatry or tending bar. ("Novelty")” - John Crowley

39. “He had a book to finish. Ten-thousand words. The other ninety thousand had been difficult. This last tenth seemed impossible. His plot had become derailed. He was unable to see his way through the smoke and coke dust of a mythical railway track that should stretch ahead. Yes, the characters were there, good and solid. Indeed, the story's engine was strong and had shunted yet forward and forward, with only one or two sharp halts. But six weeks ago he met the bumpers. R. was now stuck in a deserted station, his progress blocked. ("Out Back")” - Garry Kilworth

40. “Already, Seattle is taking hold of her. She still holds Sedona in the dry tan of her skin and in her hair, but the fine mist of the Northwest is making its way to places she didn’t know were parched.” - Susan Wiggs

41. “That's the way life takes us,' Elleke once said. 'It takes us like this, then it turns us over and takes us like that.' What she didn't say was that through it all we manage to cling to something that makes sense.” - Abdulrazak Gurnah

42. “aku tak habis mengerti, mengapa orang-orang gampang sekali mengata-ngatai pemerintah. Kalau bicara, sekehendak hatinya saja. Apa mereka kira gampang mengelola negara? Mengurusi ratusan juta manusia? Yang semuanya tak bisa diatur. Kalau mereka sendiri yang disuruh mengurusi negara, takkan becus juga!” - Andrea Hirata

43. “As we stood there, chest high in water, I felt like I was in the middle of my own romance novel.” - Em Bailey

44. “Truth is irrelevant; what matters is what people believe.” - Henry Mosquera

45. “You know what feels really fucking awesome? Loving someone so much that it's all consuming. Telling that person you love them, even though they refuse to say it back. And then finally hearing them say that they do love you, but to someone else. To someone they have slept with. Someone that isn't you. I want to forget I heard those three words. I want to dissolve the images I have in my heard of her with him. I think I'm going to throw up.” - Stephanie Campbell

46. “الحب ذريعة لنتمسك بالحياة أكثر.” - محمد حامد

47. “كل الأشياء التي يمكن استبدالها جرم أن نبكي عليها!” - محمد حامد

48. “حدثني عنك واكذب في ذلك، أريد أن أعلم غير الحقيقة.” - محمد حامد

49. “الكل ينجح حين يشغله أمر الجودة ويتقن صنعته.” - محمد حامد

50. “There’s no better way to get to know a city than to walk its streets. A place will reveal its soul through its sights, sounds and smells, and eventually, it’ll teach you its rhythm.” - Henry Mosquera

51. “...Love can give you the most exhilarating wonderful highs at times... ...Then there will be dives that will take all you have just to hold on... Quote on the Title Page of "Love TORN Asunder” - Elizabeth Funderbirk

52. “People have incredible nerve to do terrible things, but never actually admit to them.” - Henry Mosquera

53. “Si tuvieras que elegir entre la cordura, tu vida tal como la recuerdas, antes que la verdadera inestabilidad, ¿qué elegirías como manera adecuada para vivir de un estudioso?” - Elizabeth Kostova

54. “Me pregunto cómo sería el mundo si todos viviéramos realmente como si no hubiera mañana.” - Judith Krantz

55. “El problema es que los humanos tienen el don de elegir precisamente las cosas que son peores para ellos.” - J.K. Rowling

56. “No sé, todavía qué es lo que separa el aprecio del amor.” - Jane Austen

57. “No podría ser feliz con un hombre cuyo gusto no coincidiera en todo momento con el mío. Tendría que participar en todos mis sentimientos. Los mismos libros, la misma música habría de hechizarnos a los dos.” - Jane Austen

58. “Fe es aquello que nos permite creer en cosas que sabemos que no son ciertas.” - Bram Stoker

59. “El que ella no se lo reproche, no lo justifica a él. Solo demuestra que ella carece de algo, bien de prudencia, bien de sentimiento.” - Jane Austen

60. “Hay tanto de gratitud o de vanidad en casi todos los defectos, que no es cauto abandonarse de ellos.” - Jane Austen

61. “Durante tantos milenios como llevan existiendo, los humanos no han comprendido en realidad qué es el amor. ¿Cuánto hay de físico y cuánto de mental en todo eso? ¿Cuándo es accidente y cuándo destino? ¿Por qué se destruyen parejas que son perfectas y funcionan otras que parecen imposibles? No conozco las respuestas mejor que ellos. El amor está simplemente donde está.” - Stephenie Meyer

62. “God Hates divorce.""He hates cruelty even more."Caring For Eleanor” - Sonia Rumzi

63. “Any self-defense class worth its salt will tell you thatyou don’t pull out a weapon unless you intend to use it.The same should apply to ballsy remarks.” - Henry Mosquera

64. “A novel is an impression, not an argument; and there the matter must rest.” - Thomas Hardy

65. “I don’t care what Einstein said about God not playing dice; If he exists, he’s addicted to craps.” - Henry Mosquera

66. “WEST SALEM ~ October 2011A sudden vision, fraught with malevolence and darkness, obscured her sight. The face of a menacing figure turned from the shadows of his grisly handiwork and stared at Sorcha.Her muscles tensed. By the Goddess, could he see her?Please! No!She wanted to scream, to run, but the vision ensnared her into the horrific moment like a fly in a spider's web.” - Chérie De Sues

67. “Jika ada hal lain yang sangat menakjubkan di dunia ini selain cinta, adalah sepakbola.” - Andrea Hirata

68. “Kamu bener-bener selalu ngedapetin apa yang kamu mau ya?" | "Nggak semuanya. Karena aku belum memiliki kamu lagi." - Good Fight” - Christian Simamora

69. “A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.” - Paula Fox

70. “Succede, a volte, di provare una grande attrazione per qualcuno che poco ha a che fare con i nostri valori, le nostre abitudini, le nostre passioni. Che sia chimica, follia, istinto animale poco importa. Ciò che importa è che spesso, invece di dare alle cose il proprio nome, ci si affanna a interpretarle nel modo più indolore possibile, per non mettere in discussione la propria dignità, per tener fede a dogmi e precetti dai quali ci si sta svincolando, senza volerlo ammettere. (…) Si forniscono alibi, giustificazioni, si cercano attinenze che non esistono ma alle quali ci si aggrappa come polpastrelli in una scalata che renderà difficile sgretolare poi la roccia, pena il precipizio.” - Cristina Obber

71. “Con Irene bisognava diluire. In un litro di silenzio le sue pretese si disperdevano lente, giorno dopo giorno, goccia dopo goccia. La rabbia lasciava spazio a nuove apprensioni che stendevano ligie il tappeto della riconciliazione, nell’attesa di un nuovo incontro.” - Cristina Obber

72. “That’s where they found the skeletons. Right where you’re standing.” - Teresa Flavin

73. “Matt was almost completely naked. A tattered loincloth and an ugly chain with a yellow diamond were his only apparel.” - Priya Ardis

74. “Rough palms cradled my face while my fingers gripped the pillow on either side of his. Lips, teeth, tongue, mingled together. I ate him up and didn’t let go until I had to come up for air.” - Priya Ardis

75. “I think all artists struggle to represent the geometryof life in their own way, just like writers deal witharchetypes. There are only so many stories that you cantell, but an infinite number of storytellers.” - Henry Mosquera

76. “You try spending six months sitting at somebody's bedside, waiting for them to die and then tell me that the happy-ending love story isn't one of God's good gifts.” - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

77. “Someone once told me that we move when it becomes less painful than staying where we are".” - Anne Hines

78. “La gloire, c'est comme la gouache, ça prend très vite puis ça part à la première goutte de pluie.” - Olivier Weber

79. “Beginikah rasanya saat benar-benar bahagia?” - Irin Sintriana

80. “Anne did think on the question with perfect decision, and said as much in replay as her own feelings could accomplish, or as his seemed able to bear, for he was too much affected to renew the subject - and when he spoke again, it was something totally different.” - Jane Austen

81. “The human mind is not a dignified organ, and I do not see how we can exercise it sincerely except through eclecticism. And the only advice I would offer my fellow eclectics is: "Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful.” - E.M. Forster

82. “Parenthood doesn’t improve one’s character, it exposes it.” - Leslie A. Gordon

83. “Why must some of us deliberate between brands of toothpaste while others deliberate between damp dirt and bone dust to quiet the fire of an empty stomach lining?” - Barbara Kingsolver

84. “And so the bird was the end of the man, and the man was the beginning of the bird.” - Autumn Sanders

85. “Holy hell, Trev! What kind of move was that?”Trevor leaned over her with a big smile on his face. “You really thought I would give up that easy? I am a geek, Cassie, not a friggin’ wimp. It’s called the internet and how to videos.” - Cecilia Aubrey & Chris Almeida

86. “Monk worked on his remaining Intertect cases at his dining table while I tried to hone my detecting instincts by reading the Murder, She Wrote novel he bought in Mill Valley.I can't say that I learned much about investigative procedure but I discovered that you should stay far away from Cabot Cove. That tiny New England village is deadlier than Beirut, South Central Los Angeles, and the darkest back alley in Juarez combined. Even though every killer eventually gets caught by Jessica Fletcher, I still wouldn't feel safe there. I'm surprised the old biddy walks around town unarmed.” - Lee Goldberg

87. “If you love somebody then tell them how you feel dont be scared of their reaction or rejection life is too short. you should take a chance and if things dont work out as you plan dont worry cuz life moves on and true love will be waiting for you again.” - Atul Purohit

88. “Somewhere there's someone who dreams of your smile, and finds in your presence that life is worthwhile. So, when you are lonely remember it's true: somebody, somewhere is thinking of you.” - Atul Purohit

89. “Love is a way of living so how can our souls be healthy enough to live without love. I will continue to love you for as long as I have life because you've showed me the light. I always look forward to waking up in the morning because you're there waiting to love me again with your arms open wide waiting to embrace me with your love. The love I will strive to keep hold on forever. I love you!!” - Atul Purohit

90. “To be honest with you, I don't have the words to make you feel better, but I do have the arms to give you a hug, ears to listen to whatever you want to talk about, and I have a heart; a heart that's aching to see you smile again.lines from Love Vs Destiny...” - Atul Purohit

91. “I'm gonna sit around here, stay away from there I'm gonna make pretend I just don't care. I could get up, go get her back or maybe I'll just let her go.Something beyond Love...lines from Love Vs Destiny...” - Atul Purohit

92. “No matter how many miles I move away, my love will always remain within the boundary of your heartLines from Love Vs Destiny...” - Atul Purohit

93. “I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living in me and now I enjoy ever bit of my life and hope best for rest...something beyond lovelines from Love Vs Destiny...” - Atul Purohit

94. “Kenyataan terpahit dalam hidup adalah ketika melihat orang yang kita cintai terluka dan menangis karena kita. Dan kita tidak dapat melakukan apapun untuk mencegahnya.” - Irin Sintriana

95. “I just came this morning and haven't been debriefed yet about the status of our latest prisoners. As a matter of fact, I'd barely stepped inside,” - Elle Aycart

96. “This was the first time I thought of S— that day. Her music was beautiful, her voice was beautiful, her body was beautiful. Even the dirty little pads of her feet were beautiful. I cursed myself then. For once, heaven had sent me Beauty in its most perfected form and I abandoned it. She might not have been a girl after all but an angel: a force to guide me on this hazardous path of life I hurry down. How can life be hazardous if it can only end in death?” - Roman Payne

97. “The manager swiftly overtook him, sliding effortlessly past the skinny Englishman, with the practiced ease of someone used to slinking around ailing, despotic monarchs.” - Tom Vater

98. “We all fight for money, some for power, but most of all for love. But me, I fight to become a champion.” - Jonathan Anthony Burkett

99. “Irma, she said. But I had started to walk away. I heard her say some more things but by then I had yanked my skirt up and was running down the road away from her and begging the wind to obliterate her voice. She wanted to live with me. She missed me. She wanted me to come back home. She wanted to run away. She was yelling all this stuff and I wanted so badly for her to shut up. She was quiet for a second and I stopped running and turned around once to look at her. She was a thimble-sized girl on the road, a speck of a living thing. Her white-blond hair flew around her head like a small fire and it was all I could see because everything else about her blended in with the countryside. He offered you a what? she yelled. An espresso! I yelled back. It was like yelling at a shorting wire or a burning bush. What is it? she said. Coffee! I yelled. Irma, can I come and live--I turned around again and began to run.” - Miriam Toews

100. “I was beginning to understand something I couldn't articulate. It was a jazzy feeling in my chest, a fluttering, a kind of buzzing in my brain. Warmth. Life. The circulation of blood. Sanguinity. I don't know. I understood the enormous risk of telling the truth, how the telling could result in every level of hell reigning down on you, your skin scorched to the bone and then bone to ash and then nothing but a lingering odour of shame and decomposition, but now I was also beginning to understand the new and alien feeling of taking the risk and having the person on the other end of the telling, the listener, say: Bad shit at home? You guys are running away? Yeah, I said. I understand, said, Noehmi.” - Miriam Toews

101. “All cats are gray in the dark. And besides, her actions have less to do with her, and everything to do with you.” - Jaye Frances

102. “Our books are the deepest glimpses into our souls, the most raw and real anybody will ever find us.” - Melodie Ramone

103. “I noticed him right away. No, it wasn’t his lean, rugged face. Or the dark waves of shiny hair that hung just a little too long on his forehead. It wasn’t the slim, collarless biker jacket he wore, hugging his lean shoulders. It was the way he stood. The confident way he waited in the cafeteria line to get a slice of pizza. He didn’t saunter. He didn’t amble. He stood at the center, and let the other people buzz around him. His stance was straight and sure.” - Priya Ardis

104. “I am the happiest person on this world, who has never seen ups and downs in life. I got whatever I wished for… And I woke up!” - Rahul Rampal

105. “كيفما كان وجهه، سيبقى وجها أحبه.” - لطيفة الحاج

106. “حتى أن الوهم بدأ يتضاءل، كان كبيرا في البداية واليوم صار ينكمش ويصغر، مع هذا لا أزال متمسكة به.” - لطيفة الحاج

107. “نحن حين نحب لا نتساءل على الأعمار، لا تشغلنا الظروف، لا تؤرقنا الحقائق، ولا تهمنا الصغائر.” - لطيفة الحاج

108. “العشاق لا يرون، لا يعون الأمور التي لا تتوافق مع ما يريدون الوصول إليه، لا يعترفون بأي شيء يثنيهم عن الوصول إلى هدفهم” - لطيفة الحاج

109. “The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck” - Jack London

110. “Experience, then, was something that enabled you to do nothing with a clear conscience. Experience was an overrated quality.” - Nick Hornby

111. “The gods command that there can be only one king. But I swear that I am no better than a common soldier today, and you are as good as kings. Each man here is part of me. So what’s left for the king to say? Only two words, but they are the two that your hearts want to hear. Victory.And home!” Then his command cracked like a whip. “All together—move!” - Deepak Chopra

112. “Out in the field, any connection with home just makes you weaker. It reminds you that you were once civilized, soft; and that can get you killed faster than a bullet through the head.” - Henry Mosquera

113. “«She had Google, and she had Wikipedia. She could look up anything obscure, any words or phrases that she didn’t understand. A romance novel was just a book, while the Internet was the Internet. The Internet would crack these nuts for sure.»” - Bruce Sterling

114. “Why certainly, words possess power.  They do!  But releasing their magic requires combining and arranging those words in the right order.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

115. “If the US is a human melting pot, then Eastern Europe is a scrap yard.” - Péter Zilahy

116. “The Americans have perfected weather forecasts: a model presents a model of the Earth, a map, and jabs at it with her pointer – here and here, this is going to happen. Voodoo.” - Péter Zilahy

117. “Be careful what you tell me. You could end up in my next novel.” - P.C. Zick

118. “تنتظرين الآن متى تنقضي اللحظة و أنا في حالة توتر ، أحاول أن أقول كل ما بداخلي ، و أعلم أن اختصار ذلك يكون في أن تضعي أناملك على صدري ، أجزم أن يبللها الندى ، أرواحنا من ماء ، ونبضها مطر، وعطائها ورد، عانقيني بقوة ، دعيني أخضر أكثر ويفوح طهرك فيني ، ويتنفسني العالم ، العالم الكبير المختزل في ذاتك وحدك ، وحدك من أشعر بها ، وأجدها، وأعلم يقيناً أنها مني ، وأتجاهل كل شيء آخر بالمناسبة لا أعير اهتماماً لكل ما يعبرني من بعيد لذلك أبدو بليداً في الوقت الذي أتقين أني أقف في المنتصف عند مركز الحياة ، بالضبط عند نبضك فيني . حبيبتي .. أكثر من الحب أحبك” - محمد حامد

119. “نحو الغياب أمضي بخطواتٍ ثابتة ، حنين يعيديني ولا أقوى على مواجهته ، مللت من التفاصيل الصغيرة المتناثرة في كل صوت أسمعه ، من كل الحكايات التي يتوهم البعض أنها منّا وهي عنهم، والحكايات التي تكبر كغيمة ولا تمطر ، والحكايات التي تبتر قبل أن تتخلق كاملة ، من كل الأشياء الناقصة والمواعيد المؤجلة والأمنيات المعلقة في لوح القدر ولم يحن قطافها بعد .” - محمد حامد

120. “My conception of a novel is that it ought to be a personal struggle, a direct and total engagement with the author's story of his or her own life. This conception, again, I take from Kafka, who, although he was never transformed into an insect, and although he never had a piece of food (an apple from his family's table!) lodged in his flesh and rotting there, devoted his whole life as a writer to describing his personal struggle with his family, with women, with moral law, with his Jewish heritage, with his Unconscious, with his sense of guilt, and with the modern world. Kafka's work, which grows out of the nighttime dreamworld in Kafka's brain, is *more* autobiographical than any realistic retelling of his daytime experiences at the office or with his family or with a prostitute could have been. What is fiction, after all, if not a kind of purposeful dreaming? The writer works to create a dream that is vivid and has meaning, so that the reader can then vividly dream it and experience meaning. And work like Kafka's, which seems to proceed directly from dream, is therefore an exceptionally pure form of autobiography. There's an important paradox here that I would like to stress: the greater the autobiographical content of a fiction writer's work, the *smaller* its superficial resemblance to the writer's actual life. The deeper the writer digs for meaning, the more the random particulars of the writer's life become *impediments* to deliberate dreaming.” - Jonathan Franzen

121. “رجالنا لا يعرفون كيف يحبون .يجدون دائما الفرصة لتنغيص الحياة عليهم وعلى من يدعون حبه ، في هذه المدينة لا يتقنون حتى الأدوار التي تمارسها الحيوانات براحة وغريزية .ما يفرحوك حتى في شيء” - واسيني الأعرج

122. “كنت أشاهد أضواء موربيل تتوارى في الضباب و أنا صامت أمام غرفة الطوربيد ، و لم أكن أفكر في ماري ..كنت أفكر في البحر \ حكاية بحار غريق” - جابرييل جارسيا ماركيز

123. “إنه يبحث عن نفسه ! يتلمس الأرواح لعلّه يجده ، يدير جسده بنصف خيبة ، يلوك وجعه ويمضي” - محمد حامد

124. “وربما لا أفارق فراشي وأحلم .. وأحلم أنك تأتين ونحتفل ، وأحلم بأن الحلم الذي كنت أتلوه على مسامع أوراقي يتحقق ، وأحلم أن الغد الجميل أقبل ، وأحلم أن الورد والعطر والمطر وأنا أربعة نمارس لعبة النرد على غيمة ، وأحلم أن أنام . . وتهدهدني الملائكة .” - محمد حامد

125. “Pressed against her I can hear eternity -- hollow, lonely spaces and currents that churn ceaselessly, and the fallen snow welcomes the falling snow with a whispered "Hush".” - Craig Thompson

126. “I went mad before he did, you killed everything in me. Kiss me,will you. Stop defending yourself.” - Michael Ondaatje

127. “-I think you are inhuman. If I leave you, who will you go to? Would you find another lover?I said nothing.-Deny it,damn you!” - Michael Ondaatje

128. “Waktu, membuatku tahu. Bahwa ada hal-hal yang terkadang abadi bersamanya. Berjalan beriringan, tanpa dapat ditinggalkan.” - Irin Sintriana

129. “Para el obispo, la vista de la guillotina fue un golpe terrible del cual tardó mucho tiempo en reponerse. En efecto: el patíbulo, cuando está ante nuestros ojos levantado, derecho, tiene algo que alucina. Se puede sentir cierta indiferencia hacia la pena de muerte, no pronunciarse ni en pro ni en contra, no decir ni sí ni que no mientras no se ha visto una guillotina; pero si se llega a ver una, la sacudida es violenta; es menester decidirse y tomar partido en pro o en contra de ella. Los unos admiran, como De Maistre; los otros execran, como Beccaria. La guillotina es la concreción de la ley: se llama 'vindicta'; no es indiferente ni os permite que lo seáis tampoco. Quien llega a verla se estremece con el más misterioso de los estremecimientos. Todas las cuestiones sociales alzan sus interrogantes en torno de aquella cuchilla. El cadalso es una visión: no es un tablado ni una máquina, ni un mecanismo frío de madera, de hierro y de cuerdas. Parece que es una especie de ser que tiene no sé qué sombría iniciativa. Se diría que aquellos andamios ven, que aquella madera, aquel hierro y aquellas cuerdas tienen voluntad. En la horrible meditación en que aquella vista sume al alma, el patíbulo aparece terrible y como teniendo conciencia de lo que hace. El patíbulo es el cómplice del verdugo; devora, come carne, bebe sangre. Es una especie de monstruo fabricado por el juez y por el carpintero; un espectro que parece vivir una especie de vida espantosa, hecha con todas las muertes que ha dado.” - Victor Hugo

130. “It’s not that we have to leave this life one day, it's how many things we have to leave all at once: holding hands, hotel rooms, wine, summertime, drunkenness, and the physics of falling leaves, clothing, myrrh, perfumed hair, flirting friends, two strangers' glance; the reflection of the moon, with words like, 'Soon' ... 'do you want me?' ... '...to lie enlaced' ... 'and sleep entwined' thinking ahead, with thoughts behind...?' Ô, Why!Why can’t we leave this life slowly?” - Roman Payne

131. “..Cinta itu sesuatu yang misterius. Lebih misterius dari segitiga bermuda atau puncak gunung himalaya. Kita gak akan bisa menduganya..” - Luna Torashyngu

132. “«Je m’appelle Paloma, j’ai douze ans, j’habite au 7 rue de Grenelle dans un appartement de riches. Mais malgré toute cette chance et toute cette richesse, depuis très longtemps, je sais que la destination finale, c’est le bocal à poissons; la vacuité et l’ineptie de l’existence. Comment est-ce que je le sais ? Il se trouve que je suis très intelligente. Exceptionnellement intelligente, même. Même si on compare avec les adultes, je suis beaucoup plus maligne que la plupart d’entre eux. C’est comme ça. Je n’en suis pas spécialement fière parce que je n’y suis pour rien. Mais ce qui est certain, c’est que dans le bocal, je n’irais pas. C’est une décision bien réfléchie. Même pour une personne aussi intelligente que moi, aussi douée pour les études, aussi différente des autres et aussi supérieure à la plupart, la vie est déjà toute tracée et c’est triste à pleurer : personne ne semble avoir songé au fait que si l’existence est absurde, y réussir brillamment n’a pas plus de valeur qu’y échouer. C’est seulement plus confortable. Et encore : je crois que la lucidité rend le succès amer alors que la médiocrité espère toujours quelque chose.»” - Muriel Barbery

133. “Ardo,aku tidak meminta banyak padamu, aku tidak akan meminta uangmu, tidak waktumu dan tidak nyawamu, aku hanya minta tetaplah menjadi seperti Ardo yg aku kenal, tidak hanya hari ini, tetapi juga esok dan seterusnya” - Rangga Wirianto Putra

134. “Sometimes a girl's gotta be bad to be good.Murder in the Dog Park” - Jill Yesko

135. “There is no right or wrong way to write a novel. Each journey is different for every individual work and for every writer. The first error is never to begin; the second is never to finish.” - Don Roff

136. “As writers we live life twice, like a cow that eats its food once and then regurgitates it to chew and digest it again. We have a second chance at biting into our experience and examining it. ...This is our life and it's not going to last forever. There isn't time to talk about someday writing that short story or poem or novel. Slow down now, touch what is around you, and out of care and compassion for each moment and detail, put pen to paper and begin to write.” - Natalie Goldberg

137. “Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.” - Barbara Kingsolver

138. “A novel is just a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.” - George Saunders

139. “He saw the reflection of her face in a compact mirror as she painted on her re lips. She did it with such care, he had felt she was trapping something behind the colour.She had touched life, played with it a little, bit it was a slippery bugger,and finally we must close the door, and leave it behind.” - Rachel Joyce

140. “The bourgeois novel is the greatest enemy of truth and honesty that was ever invented.” - J.G. Ballard

141. “Outside of the dreary rubbish that is churned out by god knows how many hacks of varying degrees of talent, the novel is, it seems to me, a very special and rarefied kind of literary form, and was, for a brief moment only, wide-ranging in its sociocultural influence. For the most part, it has always been an acquired taste and it asks a good deal from its audience. Our great contemporary problem is in separating that which is really serious from that which is either frivolously and fashionably "radical" and that which is a kind of literary analogy to the Letterman show. It's not that there is pop culture around, it's that so few people can see the difference between it and high culture, if you will. Morton Feldman is not Stephen Sondheim. The latter is a wonderful what-he-is, but he is not what-he-is-not. To pretend that he is is to insult Feldman and embarrass Sondheim, to enact a process of homogenization that is something like pretending that David Mamet, say, breathes the same air as Samuel Beckett. People used to understand that there is, at any given time, a handful of superb writers or painters or whatever--and then there are all the rest. Nothing wrong with that. But it now makes people very uncomfortable, very edgy, as if the very idea of a Matisse or a Charles Ives or a Thelonious Monk is an affront to the notion of "ain't everything just great!" We have the spectacle of perfectly nice, respectable, harmless writers, etc., being accorded the status of important artists...Essentially the serious novelist should do what s/he can do and simply forgo the idea of a substantial audience.” - Gilbert Sorrentino

142. “Life is a great novel, discovering your calling is the far better sequel” - Carl Henegan

143. “Everyone makes mistakes, but only a few could forgive. Padahal ada banyak kesalahan yang hanya perlu dimaafkan, bukan dihukum. An eye for an eye will make us all blind.” - Morra Quatro

144. “There is a brilliant novel in all of us. Some imagine it…others live it. Authors dwell in an auspicious life by having the ability to fuse the two.” - Carl Henegan

145. “Aku menutup mata, damai sekali rasanya meski Leon marah-marah. Begitu menyenangkan ketika bisa merasakan ada seseorang disampingmu. Ia akan menjadi matamu, tanganmu, segalanya untuk menjagamu.” - Ayuwidya

146. “Death doesn’t always want your eternal sleep. Sometimes Death just wants your eternity.” - Jacquelynn Gagne

147. “He who spends too long regretting his ruined crop will be neglect to plant next year's harvest.” - Francois Lelord

148. “We’re novel worthy, day walking, blood sucking, tortured souls trapped in a body that can’t die for all eternity with no feelings, no emotions and no heart. - Elaine White, Runaway Girl” - Stavros and contributors

149. “I am a dash man and not a miler, and it is probable that I will never write a novel. So far the novels of this war have had too much of the strength, maturity and craftsmanship critics are looking for, and too little of the glorious imperfections which teeter and fall off the best minds. The men who have been in this war deserve some sort of trembling melody rendered without embarrassment or regret. I’ll watch for that book.” - J.D. Salinger