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A Quotes

Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.

All A Quotes

“A short list of things you need to know if you want to make sense of any of the rest of it. 1. You know all the times that people say stuff & it sounds like it's absolutely & positively true & then they tell you that You Better Listen if you know what's good for you mister (or Miss, as the case may be) Well, in about 100% of all cases, someone else told them that the very same way & they believed it & now they want you to, too. Don't. That's it for the list. Thank you. —Need to Know”

“A short story is a sprint, a novel is a marathon. Sprinters have seconds to get from here to there and then they are finished. Marathoners have to carefully pace themselves so that they don't run out of energy (or in the case of the novelist-- ideas) because they have so far to run. To mix the metaphor, writing a short story is like having a short intense affair, whereas writing a novel is like a long rich marriage.”

“A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole.”

“A Short Testament Whatever harm I may have done In all my life in all your wide creation If I cannot repair it I beg you to repair it, And then there are all the wounded The poor the deaf the lonely and the old Whom I have roughly dismissed As if I were not one of them. Where I have wronged them by it And cannot make amends I ask you To comfort them to overflowing, And where there are lives I may have withered around me, Or lives of strangers far or near That I've destroyed in blind complicity, And if I cannot find them Or have no way to serve them, Remember them. I beg you to remember them When winter is over And all your unimaginable promises Burst into song on death's bare branches.”

“A short time later, when the carpenter was taking measurements for the coffin, through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling. They fell on the town all through the night in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and blocked the doors and smothered the animals who slept outdoors. So many flowers fell from the sky that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a compact cushion and they had to clear them away with shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could pass by.”

“A short way into Teen Vogue I realized that teens see it as a guide for their lives and their careers, more than a place to teach them how to get boys. And they don't ask us fashion advice questions; they're too sophisticated. They're inspired by what they see and they think, 'These people at this magazine represent what I want to be, beyond shoes and makeup.'”

“A short-lived fascination with another person may be exciting-I think we've all seen people aglow, in a state of being "in love with love"-but such an attraction is not sustainable over the long run. Paradoxically, human love is sanctified not in the height of attraction and enthusiasm, but in the everyday struggles of living with another person. It is not in romance but in routine that the possibilities for transformation are made manifest. And that requires commitment.”

“A shout from far up the river sent a chill across his body and he un-hung the musket from his shoulder. It wasn’t a light firearm, weighing twelve pounds, but with the recently developed percussion lock, it was reliable—which is why it was indispensable for Jean’s expeditions both on the Mississippi and Barataria. It was—like Jean—tall and slender, elegant and yet simple, far-reaching and precise, and requiring particular attention to cleanliness.”

“A shout of ecstasy shakes the land of sadness, And the soul of light wants to erase the history of night. Every moment, a teacher, a guide, a sage in the voyage of life. If the soul has no light, even in sunlight, it loses the spirit of life. but with a soul of light, even at night, you see a thousand stars, exploding in the festival of light. There it begins, the play of galaxies in the midnight, For the soul has woken to the song of ecstasy, As the veins in deep, carry the rivers of light. Be the sun and the stars, so you will reach the shores of light in the wintry winds, in the dense nights, When sadness cloaks all around.”