I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“It was a bizarre existence I led in my early twenties - that cliche of the comedian who goes out and entertains a roomful of people and then goes home to a lonely bedsit was unbelievably poignant for me because that was exactly what I was doing. I had periods of real loneliness.”
“It was a black and hooded head; and hanging there in the midst of so intense a calm, it seemed the Sphynx’s in the desert. “Speak, thou vast and venerable head,” muttered Ahab, “which, though ungarnished with a beard, yet here and there lookest hoary with mosses; speak, mighty head, and tell us the secret thing that is in thee. Of all divers, thou hast dived the deepest. That head upon which the upper sun now gleams, has moved amid this world’s foundations. Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home. Thou hast been where bell or diver never went; hast slept by many a sailor’s side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down. Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw’st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed—while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms. O head! thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!”
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“It was a black and white film [at first]. And then it changed to colour film, and I was surprised and culture shocked when I was six or seven years old. And then HD, then 3D now. So what's going? What's coming next? It's so exciting.”
“It was a black and white only computer at the time, but it kept me fascinated.”
“It was a blessing and also a curse of handwritten letters that unlike email you couldn’t obsessively reread what you’d written after you’d sent it. You couldn’t attempt to un-send it. Once you’d sent it it was gone. It was an object that no longer belonged to you but belonged to your recipient to do with what he would. You tended to remember the feeling of what you’d said more than the words. You gave to object away and left yourself with the memory. That was what it was to give.”
Source: Sisterhood Everlasting (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants): A Novel
“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”
“It was a boat, a small boat, an older boat, not much more than the length of a couple of blue whales, and there was one intention, the story immemorial: to survive the harpoon, skip the vortex, complete the job, and get back to where we came from.”
Source: Twist
“It was a bold, wild life for a faerie - most never even left their forests - but she was a bold, wild lass, and so were her daughter and granddaughter after her, and their place in the world was everywhere and nowhere, like gypsies on wing. No home had they but their caravans and campfires, and no family but the one they'd cobbled together of crows, creatures and kindred souls they'd met on their endless journey round and round the world.”
Source: Blackbringer
“It was a book [George Packer written on our presence in Nigeria] that was killed by the response of other people. Which sounds quite cowardly, perhaps, but it was the first manifestation of what is currently a really big issue: how political correctness defines the limits of what you can do. In that sense, it was super-exciting and maybe the most magical project we did, but at the same time fraught with mixed feelings.”
“It was a book for when the birds had flown south, the wood was stacked by the fireplace, and the fields were white with snow; that is, for when one has no desire to venture out and one's friends had no desire to venture in.”
Source: A Gentleman in Moscow
“It was a book to kill time for those who liked it better dead.”
“It was a brave old world.”
Source: The Fridgularity
“It was a brave thing you did, Susannah."
Something unfamiliar in his eyes warmed Susannah clear through, and at the same time made her feel strangely bare. "I wasn't trying to be brave."
Kit's lovely mouth lifted at the corner. "Which is what makes it brave." His expression was still difficult to read. He seemed so somber, almost shy, if she didn't know better. Humble? No, that couldn't be. But the warmth in it was unmistakable. "You'll be a little sore tomorrow." He absently reached out and kneaded her upper arm.
Susannah closed her eyes to slits; the kneading felt wonderful. It was almost more intimate than a kiss, but then again, almost nothing seemed intimate in comparison to having one's hand thrust up a horse, and Susannah, at the moment, didn't care.
Kit abruptly dropped her hand. She opened her eyes fully again.
And they stood again quietly together for a moment, simply looking at each other. A peculiar peace stole over Susannah, a lovely, dreamy sort of fullness.”
Source: Beauty and the Spy
“It was a breezy rainy day. As the breathful afternoon melted away into a warm evening, the cold caress of fresh air lapped up my heart with images of forever's smile. I watched and watched how a little boy walked hand in hand with his mother, how an old man sat waiting for someone in a distant shelter, how a youthful love sparkled away in that gentle embrace of moments in making, how an old lady watched the children laughing away in a happy carousel, how a noisy afternoon throbbed through clutching silences, how the sky sailed along a bunch of stories never to share, an untold harmony of unsung moments. And as the rain smoothed its wings to a lulling breeze, I saw a day smiling with moments of forever's shine. It was a breezy rainy day, and one of the most beautiful days of my wandering heart.”
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
“It was a broiling afternoon of mid-August in Brinoe and everybody who was anybody had long ago quit its burning pavements and chilly palaces for the mountains or the sea.”
“It was a brutal picture, a tug-of-war between two equal but opposing impulses. It had the ring of truth, however.”
Source: All Souls Trilogy
“It was a brutal schedule. I would be on the airplane going back Monday morning at six after shooting all Sunday night, every time barely making my flight. When I arrived in Los Angeles, I had to rush straight to the Paramount studios and be a whole other person, this wildly different character, Paige. My brain was starting to scramble on top of its already fragile state.”
Source: Brave
“It was a buoyant place under a clear sky, everything in the air whispered that the plains were far behind and the sunlight sent a flicker and a flash of reflections glancing up from the snow; and two more invisible lines had been crossed and important ones: the accent had changed and wine cellars had taken the place of beerhalls. Instead of those grey mastodontic mugs, wine-glasses glittered on the oak. (It was under a vista of old casks in a Weinstube that I settled with my diary till bedtime.) The plain bowls of those wine-glasses were poised on slender glass stalks, or on diminishing pagodas of little globes, and both kinds of stem were coloured: a deep green for Mosel and, for Rhenish, a brown smoky gold that was almost amber. When horny hands lifted them, each flashed forth its coloured message in the lamplight. It is impossible, drinking by glass in those charmingly named inns and wine-cellars, not to drink too much. Deceptively and treacherously, those innocent-looking goblets hold nearly half a bottle and simply by sipping one could explore the two great rivers below and the Danube and all Swabia, and Franconia too by proxy, and the vales of Imhof and the faraway slopes of Würzburg: journeying in time from year to year, with draughts as cool as a deep well, limpidly varying from dark gold to pale silver and smelling of glades and meadows and flowers.”
Source: A Time of Gifts
“It was a busy day, but even so, she caught these moments in between: a husband wiping cream off his wife’s chin; a mother splitting a muffin with her daughter; friends laughing so hard their eyes filled with tears; an old man reading quietly and contentedly on his own.”
Source: The Baby Dragon Café
“It was a careworn face. But most of the lines, if followed back like a trail, would lead to happiness. To the faces a face made when laughing or smiling, or sitting quietly enjoying the day.
Though some of those lines led elsewhere. Into a wilderness, into the wild. Where terrible things had happened. Some of the lines of his face led to events inhuman and abominable. To horrific sights. To unspeakable acts.
Some of them his.
The lines of his face were the longitude and latitude of his life.”
Source: A Great Reckoning
“It was a case of two dogs playing on a hearth-rug; one worrying a paper screw, snarling, snapping, giving a pinch, now and then, at the old dog's ear; the other lying somnolent, blinking at the fire, raising a paw, turning and growling good-temperedly. They had to be together, share with each other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other.”
Source: Mrs. Dalloway
“It was a catch-22: If you didn’t put the trauma behind you, you couldn’t move on. But if you did put the trauma behind you, you willingly gave up your claim to the person you were before it happened.”
Source: The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes
“It was a challenge for me to play somebody who was so quiet and receding and depressed because she's also on screen all the time, and she has to remain compelling and entertaining. I was really nervous that people were not going to stay with me while I was just staying behind that bloody
counter.”
“It was a challenge for me to see how I could deal with that at Jil, and I had a lot of doubt about it. I wondered if maybe it was just better to do your own thing in the long run, like an artist.”
“It was a challenge to my teammates to help me.”
“It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.”
“It was a challenging experience. I'm looking forward to a break.”
“It was a chance encounter with a biotech entrepreneur from Ireland that got me started as an entrepreneur in India, because I partnered this Irish company in setting up India's first biotech company.”
“It was a chance meeting with a lady at Mariah Carey's record company who was here in our office, actually. And I pulled her in here to this very office that we're sitting in now, and I played her the clip of me and George Michael singing. And I was like, it's joyful. And that's what people want.”
“It was a charming fantasy of romantics that the spies would stop spying, that political conflict would end and politicians would tell the truth. Unfortunately that has not been the case.”
“It was a cheap shot. They won the game, move on. My thing is, I don't ask for a lot, but I demand my respect, especially from a guy like that.”
“It was a cheesy cheeseball, covered with Cheez Whiz and served on a bed of Cheez-Its. With a side of queso.”
Source: After Ever After
“It was a cherished experience. I feel I got the chance to see the inner workings of the grand order of things. In the overall scheme of things, it proves that men can do about anything they want to if they work hard enough at it, and I knew that I could do it . . . and that leads, of course, to a strong suspicion that everybody else can do it if they want to.”
“It was a childish ignorance, But now 'tis little joy To know I'm further off from heaven Than when I was a boy.”
Source: The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hood: With a Biographical Sketch and Notes
“It was a chilly morning after the night's rain, and the sun hung in the sky like a pale coin lost by someone high up in the clouds.”
Source: Inkheart
“It was a choice of making it or still eating chicken onstage.”
“It was a classic southern spread. Shrimp and grits, red rice, biscuits, mac and cheese, pulled pork, and a ton of other sides. It smelled delicious. I made myself a little pulled pork sandwich with Carolina BBQ sauce on a Hawaiian roll. It was even better than it smelled. I made a note of the caterer. Hamby. Of course. Hamby Cateringwas the caterer; they did all the best events in Charleston. We both wolfed down the delicious chicken salad sandwiches, huge helpings of mac and cheese, and two biscuits that were lighter than clouds--- not as good as Maggie's, but pretty good.”
Source: The Violet Hour
“It was a clear, black morning, encrusted with stars.”
Source: The Secret History
“It was a cold-blooded lie that a god had lovingly made the world and set out the sun and moon as lights to land dwellers, that brothers had fought, that one of the races was saved, the other cursed. Yet he, the old Shaper, might make it true, by the sweetness of his harp, his cunning trickery. It came to me with a fierce jolt that I wanted it.”
Source: Grendel
“It was a cold day but the sun was out and the trees were like great bonfires against gray distant fields and hills.”
Source: Sherwood Anderson: Short Stories
“It was a cold hard easterly morning when he latched the garden gate and turned away. The light snowfall which had feathered his schoolroom windows on the Thursday, still lingered in the air, and was falling white, while the wind blew black.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
“It was a cold November day and she had dressed herself up in layers of cardigans and covered the whole lot with her old tweed coat, the one she might have used for feeding the chickens in.”
Source: Jane and Prudence
“It was a comet. The boy saw the comet and he felt as though his life had meaning. And when it went away, he waited his entire life for it to come back to him. It was more than just a comet because of what it brought to his life: direction, beauty, meaning. There are many who couldn't understand, and sometimes he walked among them. But even in his darkest hours, he knew in his heart that someday it would return to him, and his world would be whole again... And his belief in God and love and art would be re-awakened in his heart. The boy saw the comet and suddenly his life had meaning.”
“It was a common saying among the Christians in the primitive Church, "The soul and the body make a man; the spirit and discipline make a Christian;" implying, that none could be real Christians, without the help of Christian discipline. But if this be so, is it any wonder that we find so few Christians; for where is Christian discipline”
“It was a community, and in Ibrahim's opinion that was how human beings were designed to live. At Coopers Chase, anytime you wanted to be alone, you would simply close your front door, and anytime you wanted to be with people, you would open it up again. If there was a better recipe for happiness than that, then Ibrahim was yet to hear it.”
Source: The Thursday Murder Club
“It was a competitive examination [in Boston Latin School]. Poor kids, Brahmans, middle-class kids. The masters, as the teachers were called, didn't give a damn about - how we felt, what was - things like at home. I mean, this goes against the current grain. All they thought about was: `You're here. You made the exam. You can do the work. And if you can't, we'll throw you out.'”
“It was a complete dream to work with David LaChapelle. I collected his books as a teenager, and I fantasised that he would direct the video for 'Spectrum' from the moment the song was written. I still can't believe it actually happened, and I'm completely overjoyed that he felt such a connection with the song.”
“It was a complete inversion of the natural order. It was a man's job to worry about wealth and wordly success, and a woman's merely to adorn him.”
Source: Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow
“It was a completely new feeling for me–like someone had just released a million, tiny butterflies loose in my stomach, and they were feverishly flying up into my head and making me lose my mind.”