A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“As I sit and watch the stars, I am struck by the beauty of the universe and the loneliness of my place within it.”
“As I sit down and start to work, I often panic. I stare at the empty piece of music paper. How can I say that my piece will be ready for performance next January when I do not have a recipe for making it happen?”
“AS I SIT HERE ON this plane, I wonder how on earth I got here. I was meant to be at university like most of my friends. Am I really doing the right thing? Too late now, I say to myself as the plane takes off.”
“As I sit here writing to you, I have propped my stocking feet much too close to the hearth. I’ve actually singed my stockings on occasion, and once I had to stomp out my feet when they started smoking. Even after that I can’t seem to rid myself of the habit. There, now you could pick me out of a crowd blindfolded. Simply follow the scent of scorched stockings.”
Source: Love in the Afternoon
“As I sit, my back leaning against a damp, moss-covered tree trunk, my eyes sweeping the canopy above, my ears straining to catch the crack of a distant branch that betrays an orangutan moving in the treetops, I think about how we humans search for God. The tropical rain forest is the most complex thing an ordinary human can experience on this planet. A walk in the rain forest is a walk into the mind of God.”
Source: Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo
“As I sit on the folding metal chair I begin to fear getting up. As the finale approaches, I experience outright panic. What if my feet no longer move? What if my muscles lock? What if this neuritis or neuropathy or neurological inflammation has evolved into a condition more malign? I once in my late twenties had an exclusionary diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, believe later by the neurologist who made the diagnosis to be in remission, but what if it is no longer in remission? What if it never was? What if it has returned? What if I stand up from this folding chair in this rehearsal room on West Forty-second Street and collapse, fall to the floor, the folding metal chair collapsing with me?
Or what if---
(Another series of dire possibilities occurs to me, this series even more alarming than the last---)
What if the damage extends beyond the physical?
What if the problem is now cognitive?
What if the absence of style that I welcomed at one point---the directness that I encouraged, even cultivated---what if this absence of style has now taken on a pernicious life of its own?
What if my new inability to summon the right word, the apt thought, the connection that enables the words to make sense, the rhythm, the music itself---
What if this new inability is systemic?
What if I can never again locate the words that work?”
“As I sit with pen in hand, I am wondering, "Just what the hell do you think you are doing, Kelly?" I ask myself all the questions: how and why and will they be able to understand; can you spell good enough to get this message across? I keep coming up with the same answer: "Give it a try"- this as you see, is what I will do.”
Source: Escape to the Sea
“AS I SLEEP
I fear that darkness
Finds me
As I sleep
When life is quieted
Midnight’s brutal feet
Cast upon me
Cementing me
Against my pillow
In a heaven
Of black roses”
Source: Internal Devices: The Faulty Drives Within My Mortal Hardware
“As I slid off my coat and pulled a hanger from the closet, I noticed Gracie glaring at me sanctimoniously. Gracie had an uncannily strong drunk detector for a nine-year-old cat, and her you stayed out past curfew face was something to behold. It told me she knew I'd had too much to drink on a Tuesday night and lied to my family about having a boyfriend. It also told me I should have been home to play with her hours ago.
"Meow," Gracie lectured.
I couldn't even be mad. "I deserve that," I agreed.
"Meow," Gracie said again, with feeling.
Okay, that was a bridge too far. "Look. I've had a really rough day." Part of me knew it was ridiculous to get into an argument with a cat. The rest of me needed Gracie to understand.
Instead of understanding, Gracie chose to jump onto the kitchen counter where Sophie put my mail.
Right there, on top of the spring issue of the University of Chicago alumni magazine and the new issue of Cat Fanciers was the wedding invitation Mom had said was coming.
I looked helplessly at Gracie, who seemed to have given up on judging my life choices in favor of bathing her right front paw.
"I don't want to open it," I told her.
Instead of backing me up, Gracie signaled this conversation was over by jumping off the counter and sauntering over to my living room couch. One downside to having a nonhuman roommate was when I needed someone to validate me, I was usually out of luck.”
Source: My Vampire Plus-One
“As I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious.”
Source: Mark Twain on Religion
“As I small child and hearing all the stories about him I, of course, looked up to him as some kind of miracle. Then I got to eight years old and suddenly I was taller than [Bernie Ecclestone].”
“As I sobbed, I longed for some magic. Where were you then with your duct tape? Could you conjure up a magic strip of duct tape to reassemble the pieces of my broken heart?”
Source: My New Friend, Grief
“As I soon learned, this was the dream to which Gene had alluded so often in the past. Interestingly, though he’d said many times before that there might be something in this for me, that day I won a part that had yet to be created. It was only after I’d been brought on board, and Gene and I conceived and created her, that Uhura was born. Many times through the years I’ve referred to Uhura as my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of the twenty-third century. Gene and I agreed that she would be a citizen of the United States of Africa. And her name, Uhura, is derived from Uhuru, which is Swahili for “freedom.” According to the “biography” Gene and I developed for my character, Uhura was far more than an intergalactic telephone operator. As head of Communications, she commanded a corps of largely unseen communications technicians, linguists, and other specialists who worked in the bowels of the Enterprise, in the “comm-center.” A linguistics scholar and a top graduate of Starfleet Academy, she was a protégée of Mr. Spock, whom she admired for his daring, his intelligence, his stoicism, and especially his logic. We even had outlined exactly where Uhura had grown up, who her parents were, and why she had been chosen over other candidates for the Enterprise’s five-year mission.”
Source: Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories
“As I speak for many in the budding new missional church world I have to share that I no longer judge the faithful fervent work of so many pastors who have pastored well but who struggle to find their place in this new world. They deserve to be honored instead of belittled. Without their legacy we would have nothing to build upon.”
“As I speak to you today, government censors somewhere are working furiously to erase my words from the records of history. But history itself has already condemned these tactics.”
“As I spoke of another's love and looked into the wide, blue windows of her soul, a rich, insistent yearning flooded my senses.
--"Tango”
Source: While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction
“As I spoke with scientists about the way fat behaves, I couldn't resist drawing an analogy to the realm of narcotics. If sugar is the methamphetamine of processed food ingredients, with its high-speed, blunt assault on our brains, then fat is the opiate, a smooth operator whose effects are less obvious but no less powerful.”
“As I squeeze, he turns his head, and there is the tiniest, slimmest of moments when he sees me. I look into those wolf eyes, and even though they are empty, they're still alive. In that split second he is alive and looking at me. I am alive and looking at him. Then the moment is over, the trigger is pulled back, and the gun is empty.”
Source: Ruthless
“As I stand among the barren gulches in these days and look away at the slow-awakening hills of Montana, I hear the high, swelling, half tired, half-hopeful song of the world. As I listen I know that there are things, other than the Virtue and the Truth and the Love, that are not for me. There is beyond me, like these, the unbreaking, undying bond of human fellowship—a thing that is earth-old.”
Source: I Await the Devil's Coming
“As I stand cloaked in some seemingly perpetual darkness desperately hoping for a scant ray of light, I ask, “Why has the sun never risen?” And I realize that it rose a long, long time ago. I just refused to open my eyes sufficiently to see it.”
“As I stand there, staring absently at the stirring pot on the wall, I remember Greg’s words all those years ago: No one could create peace for me. Yes, I did the tough work to heal on my own. But in the process I’d missed the finer point.
An insular life is just another wall. The realization rushes over me: There can be no peace without community. Real community – people to count on, and who could count on me.”
Source: Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness
“As I stare across the never-ending whiteness that is my arctic prison, I realize that while I seek isolation at times, the work requires me to interact with the locals—we each have something that the other party needs. And out here in the frigid wilderness, the night creeps in, expanding across several months, making my life, and duty, that much more difficult. I’m not getting any younger, and the cabin I live in, while ringed with several layers of protection, is not going to keep me safe from my work. (Opening paragraph of prologue.)”
Source: Incarnate: A Novel
“As I stare at it,I can feel little invisible strings,silently tugging me toward it. I have to touch it. I have to wear it. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.”
Source: Confessions of a Shopaholic
“As I stared into his shining gaze, there was something raw in the way his eyes trapped mine. It had become a wordless conversation that only my soul understood.”
Source: A Taste of Peace
“As I stared into those crystalline eyes, I knew I had finally found what I was looking for, but it came with a price. Damien was everything I hated and it wasn't until that moment that I realized how lost I really was.
My soul was drawn to his very aura, but the ache within my heart was the undeniable reminder that it could never be a reality.
My pride and stubbornness had forever wrecked what Damien and I could have had. I was but a galaxy within a black hole, something so majestic and extraordinary, and it was irrevocably lost to me.”
Source: Wrecked
“As I start each day I have a blank canvas. I will make every effort to fill it with color.”
“As I start up the steep hillside, I hear a man screaming. It’s Reck, shrieking in the darkness somewhere. Brag has him.
“GOOD BOY!” I shout, scrambling up the dusty trail on all fours. But there’s no need to go any farther because Brag is bringing Reck to me.
They appear in a surreal cloud of flash-light-beam illuminating dust. Brag is dragging the man by his lower leg, thrashing his head like a shark, digging his paws into the dusty earth.”
Source: Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
“As I started getting older and started to learn about the world, my friends would tell me about video games and dirt bikes and stuff, and I'd be like, "Oh, I got none of that." I started asking questions, like, "Why we can't get this stuff?" And it was like, "Well, we work hard to make sure da da da..."”
“As I started getting older, I realized, 'I'm so happy!' I didn't expect this! I wasn't happy when I was young.”
“As I started going deeper into meditation, I realised that its silence is more melodious than all the songs of the world.”
“As I started reading about it, I saw that at the beginning of the 19th century, outside of New England - which was an unusually literate place - practically no one could read or write. And even in New England, the overall rate was only about 60 percent. That still means four out of 10 people couldn't put their name to a will.”
“As I started to allow my emotions, I relaxed into my own body and developed a new confidence.”
“As I started to buy cars, I didn't know that I was building a collection. I just wanted the cars I was dreaming about. Once you drive a good one, it is like having a fever.”
“As I started to pursue the subject more deeply I realized that walking was this wonderful meandering path through everything I was already interested in - gender politics, public space and urban life, demonstrations and parades and marches. The relationship between walking and thinking and between the mind and the body.”
“As I started to read nonfiction in the mid '70s, I discovered, holy cow, there was a lot of imaginative nonfiction. Not the kind where people use composite characters and invented quotes. I hate that kind of nonfiction. But imaginative in the sense that good writing and unexpected structure and vivid reporting could be combined with presenting facts.”
“As I started writing about loss and grief, I was taking what felt unmanageable and using my songwriting, my sense of poetry and discipline, to try and make it manageable.”
“As I stated earlier, I do not believe there is anything inherently wrong with even the most overused elements of epic fantasy. Magic swords, dragons, destined heroes -- even dark lords and ultimate evils can legitimately be used in literature of serious intent, not just mocked in satirical meta-fiction. To claim that they cannot would be much the same as claiming that nothing good can ever again be done with fiction involving detectives, or young lovers, or unhappy families. The value of a fictive element is not an inherent quality, but a contextual one, determined by its relationship to the other elements of the story it is embedded in.
In other words, whether a scene in which a dragon is introduced is affecting, amusing, or agonizingly dull depends primarily on the choices made by the scene's author. I say "primarily" because dragons have appeared in thousands of stories over the centuries, and almost any reader may be presumed to have been exposed to at least one such. The reader's reaction will naturally be influenced by how they feel this new dragon compares to the dragons which they have been introduced to in the past. (Favorably, one would hope. A dragon must learn to make a good first impression if it is to do well in this life.) Such variables are out of the author's control, as are any unreasoning prejudices against dragons on the part of the reader. All that can be done is to make the dragon as vivid and well-suited for its purpose as is possible. If all the elements of fantasy and fiction in a work are fitted to their purposes and combine to create a moving story set in a convincing world, that work will presumably be a masterpiece.”
“As I step off at the surface at Taurus-Littrow, I'd like to dedicate the first step of Apollo 17 to all those who made it possible.”
“As I stepped down into the dirt yard, I thought I heard him say one last thing, almost under his breath: "Be humble." I wondered when I would see him again. pg. 168”
Source: The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing
“As I stepped on the moon, I looked around, dazed...magnifice nt. The vast, sandy silver surface was almost illusory.”
“As I stepped out to face myself in the mirror, reaching a hand to smooth away the steam, I saw myself differently. It was as if I had grown again as I slept, but this time just to fit my own size. As if my soul had expanded, filling out the gaps of the height that had burdened me all these months. Like a balloon filling slowly with air, becoming all smooth and buoyant, I felt like I finally fit within myself, edge to edge, every crevice filled.”
Source: That Summer
“As I stepped to the stage to pick up my degree, and the locusts sang off in the distance.”
“As I stood alone and forsaken, and the power of the sea and the battle of the elements reminded me of my own nothingness, and on the other hand, the sure flight of the birds recalled the words spoken by Christ: Not a sparrow shall fall on the ground without your Father: then, all at once, I felt how great and how small I was; then did those two mighty forces, pride and humility, happily unite in friendship.”
“As I stood and watched the mists slowly rising this morning I wondered what view was more beautiful than this.”
“As I stood in front of the mirror in the beautiful little black dress, I knew that I was looking at a woman whom I would never see again. I wished I had never seen her in the first place, but the truth is she had always been there. I was being dishonest to myself by pretending that she hadn't.”
Source: Nine Women, One Dress
“As I stood in line at the drug store one day, I heard a man yelling for someone to come to him, he even whistled. I expected a child (although that would have been unacceptable in its own right), but what I saw was a grown woman, ashamed, frightened. I haven’t been able to get the look in her eyes out of my mind.
Shenita Etwaroo”
“As I stood in the booth chatting to people, it occurred to me that besides good racing, the Crew Classic provided an ideal setting for the brotherhood of rowing. The brotherhood connects real rowing people. Teammates who haven't visited in years came together, and so do former opponents who once battled like mortal enemies. Suddenly they discovered they have much more in common. Long live the brotherhood of rowing.”
“As I stood looking out at the view, the answer was so clear I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. Everest was not about me. I wasn't supposed to be doing it alone. I wasn't supposed to be scaling mountains and staking my flag at their peaks like some modern-day conquistadora. It was about what I had to offer, what I had to give to a community--to women, to girls, like me. I had to keep my promise to climb Everest, but I was supposed to bring others with me. Other women like me. Survivors. That had been the message all along.”
Source: In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage
“As I stood on the lonely backroad, I'm sure I heard birds, kookaburras, laughing ...”
“As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No ... eight days a week.”
Source: The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle