I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“I pick up other people's trash. I'm sort of obsessed.”
“I pick up the details that drive the organization insane. But sweating the details is more important than anything else”
“I pick up the list of Benji's five favorite books because we've got work to do:
"Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon. He's a pretentious fuck and a liar.
"Underworld" by Don DeLillo. He's a snob.
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. He's a spoiled passport-carrying fuck stunted in eighth grade.
"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" by David Foster Wallace. Enough already.
"The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane. He's got Mayflowers in his blood.”
Source: You
“I pick up the New York Times or Time and it's talking about the latest rock group, which I'm sure is exciting to some people, but it neglects a huge area of music.”
“I pick what are my priorities and I limit those priorities to less than five in my life and really in those particular areas put in the energy to try to make good choices.”
“I picked and co-wrote the songs that if I was a guy who would be spending my hard-earned money buying an album I would want to hear.”
“I picked books by their covers - the worse the cover, the more I wanted to read it.”
“I picked cotton so you could pick up a book.”
Source: The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
“I picked ducks in a tub in my dorm room. I'd hang deer in the doorway between the bedroom and the little living room in our little apartment there, and I'd skin my deer, and all the guts would go in the tub, and I'd sneak them out so my fellow students on both sides wouldn't see all that, you know. I'd clean fish up there and all.”
“I picked fights with them, because I was terrified of connecting with them.”
Source: A World of Lost Words
“I picked one of the black dirt-encrusted beauties up and breathed in its earthy, sensual scent. This gift of gourmet delights, worth its weight in gold, was clearly delivered by the cooking gods.
"D'Artagnan and Aramis are not only hunting dogs, they're wildly talented truffle trackers,"said Phillipa.
Thanks to the Times, I knew dogs had mostly replaced pigs years ago on the quest for truffles because they were easier to train and didn't chow down on the fungus after they found it.”
Source: The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux
“I picked out my Halloween costume. I’m going as 'Slutty Madeleine Albright.'”
“I picked out Nathan and James standing next to each other and wiggled in between them.
"Dude we got lucky, threesome." James whispered over my head to Nathan.
"Puh-leez..." I muttered and rolled my eyes.
Nathan shushed us both.”
Source: Assassin: The Beginning
“I picked songs that I've been singing my whole life that stuck with me. I tried to pick stuff that was a variety. And I think the same way I always imagine that people are going to play the record at their house and I imagine them doing stuff with music on, like the way I am.”
“I picked such seemingly disparate essays, I thought it was important to say what was the guiding principle in the selection rather than focus on any one essay. I reached for some principle that had been subconscious in me and lifted it into consciousness. Authenticity and sincerity were the most important unifying principles of all these apparently different essays.”
“I picked this room because it was the closest," he muttered, "but hells bells, it's like walking into a pink nightmare." He shuddered and turned to her. "I have the sudden fear that I might be attacked by dozens of French poodles.”
Source: Evernight
“I picked this up again because every time I enter a really old building with a spiral staircase I remember this quote from this exact book about why spiral staircases spiral clockwise, and I don't know if it's true or apocryphal or just plain fiction -- I suppose I could look it up -- but I just love that it's permanently engrained in my memory at this point:
"That stairway would be a narrow spiral, set to the left-hand side and twisting the right as it ascended. In that way, a right-handed swordsman climbing the stairs would be at a disadvantage to a right-handed defender. An attacker would have to expose all of his body in order to use his sword, while the defender could strike with only his right side exposed. It was standard design for the castle tower.”
Source: The Siege of Macindaw
“I picked up a book called Anagrams and started to read. I felt someone's eyes on me and looked up. Stuart. I held up the book like someone would hold up a glass. Cheers. Parities, right? Ha-ha. It's that I don't know what to do or say it's just that I've been to so many parties that I'm tired of them and would rather read this book ha-ha so don't worry about me I'll just be here.”
Source: The Memory Book
“I picked up a book called Anagrams and started to read. I felt someone's eyes on me and looked up. Stuart. I held up the book like someone would hold up a glass. Cheers. Parties, right? Ha-ha. It's that I don't know what to do or say it's just that I've been to so many parties that I'm tired of them and would rather read this book ha-ha so don't worry about me I'll just be here.”
Source: The Memory Book
“I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty.”
“I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty. I could have just as easily picked up a knife or a gun, like many of my childhood friends did... most of whom were murdered or put in prison... but I chose not to go that way. I felt that I could somehow subdue these evils by doing something beautiful that people recognize me by, and thus make a whole different life for myself, which has proved to be so.”
“I picked up a fallen branch and struck a tree with it. Apples fell from the tree. The rope around one of the skeletons gave way and it fell to the ground. It lay there, crumpled and bent in ridiculous angles. I wondered if the person who the skeleton used to live inside would be embarrassed if he or she could see themselves now. I looked around the area but didn’t see any ghosts. Why would I see a ghost? They didn’t exist. Still, I looked a second time.”
Source: Orchard of Skeletons
“I picked up a guitar, and I knew what I wanted to do.”
“I picked up a hitch hiker. You've got to when you hit them.”
“I picked up a man from the street, and he was eaten up alive from worms. Nobody could stand him, and he was smelling so badly. I went to him to clean him, and he asked, 'Why do you do this?' I said, 'Because I love you.'”
“I picked up a small square shortbread biscuit and stared at it, noting the uneven angles, wishing it were a perfect square, but it was, after all, merely a baked good, and baked goods did not ordinarily form perfect squares.”
Source: A School for Unusual Girls
“I picked up a snake once. In Italy."
"Why did you do that?"
"For a bet."
"Was it poisonous?"
"We didn't know. That was the point of the bet."
"Did it bite you?"
"Of course."
"Why of course?"
"It wouldn't be much of a story, would it? If I'd put it down unharmed, and away it slid?”
Source: Wolf Hall
“I picked up an issue of 'Cosmopolitan' the other day that had tips for job interviews, because I was like, "I need to get better at interviews." The article was basically about how to get someone not to hate you in 20 minutes. Every single thing they told you not to do, I was like, "I do that every day."”
“I picked up business skills along the way, but there are things you learn at school like speaking the language of business so you can speak with CEOs.”
“I picked up my mocha and stood. The cup was still almost half-full, but I didn't want it anymore. Besides, it was now luke-warm. Which meant I didn't have to worry if it was scalding him when I tossed the remains in Ethan's face.I think Finn might have craked a smileas he held the door open for me, but I wasn't sure.”
“I picked up On The Road, Howl, and Naked Lunch (in that order) in high school. I was blown away. The writing was amazing and the places it took me was even more far out. It opened up new avenues of thinking for me and so I went down the beaten road.”
“I picked up one and then a second and then a third of these stones, finding them at about the rate of one stone to the acre. And here is where my adventure became magical, for in a striking foreshortening of time that embraced thousands of years, I had become the witness of this miserly rain from the stars. the marvel of marvels was that there on the rounded back of the planet, between this magnetic sheet and those stars, a human consciousness was present in which as in a mirror that rain could be reflected.”
Source: Wind, Sand and Stars
“I picked up one of the books and flipped through it. Don't get me wrong, I like reading. But some books should come with warning labels: Caution: contains characters and plots guaranteed to induce sleepiness. Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery after ingesting more than one chapter. Has been known to cause blindness, seizures and a terminal loathing of literature. Should only be taken under the supervision of a highly trained English teacher. Preferably one who grades on the curve.”
“I picked up Pandora's jar. The spirit of Hope fluttered inside, trying to warm the cold container. "Hestia," I said, "I give this to you as an offering." The goddess tilted her head. "I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?" "You're the last Olympian," I said. "And the most important." "And why is that, Percy Jackson?" "Because Hope survives best at the hearth," I said. "Guard it for me, and I won't be tempted to give up again."”
“I picked up reading late because I grew up dyslexic. When I went to college, a friend who was a big reader got me started on a number of writers, including Hemingway.”
“I picked up the back of the shirt, the light breen scales shimmering in the makeshift lighting of the bathroom. Something light swims up inside of me. Something like hope.
Maybe I would be able to do it.”
Source: Tamir
“I picked up the Bible and read it from cover to cover one weekend - just as if it were a novel - very rapidly, and I've never gotten over the shock of it. The miracles, the inconsistencies, the improbabilities, the impossibilities, the wretched history, the sordid sex, the sadism in it - the whole thing shocked me profoundly.”
“I picked up the blue tube again, unscrewed the cap, and squeezed a perfect line of paint onto the palate. As soon as I brushed it on the canvas, I was responsible for it, for the inevitable imperfections. My world had always been like that paint, left on a palate. That color was a passive observer. But not it wanted to make something of itself. And I was terrified.”
Source: Fans of the Impossible Life
“I picked up the glass and swirled it, staring at the dark liquid. The thought of eating and drinking here suddenly filled me with dread. Persephone had tasted the food of the underworld just once, and she was never able to leave. But then, I was never meant to leave here anyway.
"It's not laced with blood or poison." His smile flashed; apparently his amusement at my fears was inexhaustible. "I may be a demon, but I'm not Tantalus or Mithridates."
"That's a pity," I muttered, and sipped my wine. "I wouldn't mind Mithridates. Then I'd get a quick death or a useful immunity.”
Source: Cruel Beauty
“I picked up the guitar at 11, but even before then, I was writing songs on the organ.”
“I picked up the Joss Stone album, Josh Groban, and the new Norah Jones. I love, love, love Norah.”
“I picked up the phone to call the police, but then I considered how it would sound when I told them that I was calling from inside my bathroom, where I’d OD’ed on laxatives, and that a possible rapist was quietly passing me notes under the bathroom door.”
Source: Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir)
“I picked up [the term 'pleasure activism'] from harm reductionist Keith Cylar, who I met only briefly before he passed on April 5, 2004 after twenty years of living with HIV. Initially, pleasure activism was about claiming our right to experience pleasure, to be safe and respected in the pleasures we choose.
It was expanded for me over the years as I have come to believe that facts, guilt, and shame are limited motivations for creating change, even though those are the primary forces we use in our organizing work. I suspect that to really transform our society, we will need to make justice one of the most pleasurable experiences we can have.”
“I picked up the umeboshi from my tray and popped it into my mouth. I made a show of savoring the flavor. Truth be known, it was sour enough to twist my mouth as tight as a crab's ass at low tide, but I wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of seeing that.”
Source: All You Need Is Kill
“I picked up the writing on the very day he died. It was the only consolation I could find.”
“I picked up this book called Blue Mountain, supposed to be a really good book on the Civil War.”
“I picture heaven as a vast library, with unlimited volumes to read. And paintings and statues to examine galore. I picture it as a great doorway to learning...rather than one great dull answer to all our questions”
“I picture it like Judgement Day,' he says finally, his eyes on the water. 'We'll rise up out of our bodies and find each other again in spirit form. We'll meet in that new place, all of us together, and first it'll seem strange, and pretty soon it'll seem strange that you could ever lose someone, or get lost.”
“I picture my books as movies when I get stuck, and when I'm working on a new idea, the first thing I do is hit theaters to work out pacing and mood.”
“I picture my epitaph: 'Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown.”