Quotessence
Home / Topics / Collection Quotes

Collection Quotes

Browse 30 quotes about Collection.

Collection Quotes

“With more time spent in their mother's presence, Maggie kept topics of conversation to small stuff, seldom ever wanted to dig below the surface, learned from her mother: just be polite, which makes Callie's own facile mental questioning and creative drive, paired with her physical rigidity, all the more oppositional, and, how they dance around serious subjects, laughable.”

FamilyChristmasHolidaySistersLiterary FictionShort StoriesCollection
Book:Hark: A Christmas Collection
Create image

“I deal in the ideal—and that's an idea. Average people collect things, but I gather my thoughts, and my brain is my warehouse. But what about a duck? It has one word on its mind, quack, which is its answer to every question, so does that mean it's got the most efficiently organized cerebral cortex in the universe?”

MindBrainCommunicationThoughtsDucksIdeaDuckCerebralCollectionBrainy
Book:Music is fluid, and my saxophone overflows when my ducks slosh in the sounds I make in elevators.
Create image

“Your self-defense becomes a self-defeat when you are doing it for selfish reasons! It's not about you and your pocket alone; let it be for the collective joy of your entire neighbourhood and beyond!”

LoveReasonCareJoyShareFood For ThoughtDefeatIsraelmore AyivorDefenseNeighborSelfishGenerositySelfishnessGenerousNeighborhoodBe KindSelflessNeighbourReasonsDefendSelf DefenceLove PeopleCollectionPocketEntireCollectSelf DefeatNeihbourhood
Book:Daily Drive 365
Create image

“You think your life is unfurling in a certain way, and you let yourself grow happy about it, a smile rising at the slightest thing. A boy in short pants eating a pastelito makes you grin like a lunatic at the vision of your own hoped‐for children, their dark shiny heads rising, year by year, from the Cuban earth, your wife towering behind them, kind and wise. Then you find yourself in a midnight cemetery guarding your mustache from the covetous ghost of an American woman you once loved. Who wouldn’t laugh?”

UniqueGhostsHauntingLiterary FictionSurrealCubaMagical RealismCemeterySpeculative FictionCollection
Book:The Only Sound Is the Wind: Stories
Create image

“Never forget,' says Sugar Daddy, 'we are a nation built on sugar. It is our history and it is the source of our prosperity, now and in the future.' This is true. Our entire nation sits on reclaimed land made from sugar. Ours is an island that rose out of the sea, built on a hard core of toffee.”

BooksFutureProsperityAustraliaSatireSugarAsiaNationShort StoriesCapitalMisfitsCollectionSugar DaddyToffeeSingapore LiteratureIreadbooksactuallySugar Coated
Book:Capital Misfits
Create image

“Mindfulness is not the path of chasing. It is the path of beautification. When flowers blossom, the fragrance spreads, and the bees come.”

MindLife LessonsMeditationLivingMindfulnessMindsetBeesFlowersMind PowerMind Body SpiritNew AgeMomentLiving LifeNowLiving Life To The FullestMindfulness PracticeMoments Of LifeLiving In The PresentLiving In The MomentMoments QuotesCollective ConsciousnessThe PresentMindfulness MeditationCollectionFragrancesLiving Life To The FullBeautificationMoment Of BeingMindfulness TrainingMindfulness BuddhismFlowers BloomingPresent Moment Life And LivingFragrance Of A FlowerBees ComeBeautification Of MomentFlowers Of KindnessFragrance Spreads
Book:Mindfulness Living in the Moment - Living in the Breath
Create image

“My shell collection Here are my shells, orderly to the eye, mysterious to the mind. Some are rough and grainy, others are soft and pearly. Mine are all empty, but out in the sea there are empty ones too – as many as there are full. When the creatures emerge, they leave part of themselves behind. That is why I think of these spirals as living though they are asleep in their forms.”

ShellsCollectionSea CreaturesRembrandt Van Rijn
Book:Van Rijn
Create image

“You might think the desert dreams of the sea, but I think deserts dream of other deserts, scorched spaces just like themselves. With them, they don’t feel so alien, so bizarre. They don’t have the bother of explaining—the way they would with the sea—how it is they’re all sand and rock and sagebrush and how the only sound is the wind across the earth.”

SurrealMagical RealismBeautiful WritingShort Story CollectionCollectionStrong Characters
Book:The Only Sound Is the Wind: Stories
Create image

“She tossed him a small mirror so that he could see the results, and what he saw horrified him.  The boiling concoction left a deep trail of burnt skin that stretched from the crown of his head all the way to his chin – almost like an artificial sluice that burned his flesh to form a large rivulet that ran down the center of his face.”

FunFantasyUniqueScarySci FiImaginativeShort StoriesCollectionSlasherVaried
Book:The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction
Create image

“She put all of her weight against the sill of the balcony, her lovesick heart ready and willing to join the man she loved.  She closed her eyes and pushed herself forward.  From three stories high, she plummeted to the earth.  Before hitting the ground, she swore she saw him, racing down from the heavens and lifting her up towards God’s domain where lovers never ceased to rule.”

FunDramaUniqueScaryRevengeIntrigueShort StoriesPerspectivesCollectionVaried
Book:The Odd and The Strange: A Collection of Very Short Fiction
Create image

“The birds had multiplied. She'd installed rows upon rows of floating melamine shelves above shoulder height to accommodate the expression of her once humble collection. Though she'd had bird figurines all over the apartment, the bulk of her prized collection was confined to her bedroom because it had given her joy to wake up to them every morning. Before I'd left, I had a tradition of gifting her with bird figurines. It began with a storm petrel, a Wakamba carving of ebony wood from Kenya I had picked up at the museum gift shop from a sixth-grade school field trip. She'd adored the unexpected birthday present, and I had hunted for them since. Clusters of ceramic birds were perched on every shelf. Her obsession had brought her happiness, so I'd fed it. The tiki bird from French Polynesia nested beside a delft bluebird from the Netherlands. One of my favorites was a glass rainbow macaw from an Argentinian artist that mimicked the vibrant barrios of Buenos Aires. Since the sixth grade, I'd given her one every year until I'd left: eight birds in total. As I lifted each member of her extensive bird collection, I imagined Ma-ma was with me, telling a story about each one. There were no signs of dust anywhere; cleanliness had been her religion. I counted eighty-eight birds in total. Ma-ma had been busy collecting while I was gone. I couldn't deny that every time I saw a beautiful feathered creature in figurine form, I thought of my mother. If only I'd sent her one, even a single bird, from my travels, it could have been the precursor to establishing communication once more. Ma-ma had spoken to her birds often, especially when she cleaned them every Saturday morning. I had imagined she was some fairy-tale princess in the Black Forest holding court over an avian kingdom. I was tempted to speak to them now, but I didn't want to be the one to convey the loss of their queen. Suddenly, however, Ma-ma's collection stirred. It began as a single chirp, a mournful cry swelling into a chorus. The figurines burst into song, tiny beaks opening, chests puffed, to release a somber tribute to their departed beloved. The tune was unfamiliar, yet its melancholy was palpable, rising, surging until the final trill when every bird bowed their heads toward the empty bed, frozen as if they hadn't sung seconds before. I thanked them for the happiness they'd bestowed on Ma-ma.”

MotherBirdsTributeBirdsongCollectionAvianFigurines
Book:Natalie Tan's Book of Luck & Fortune
Create image