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Description Quotes

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Description Quotes

“In describing a protein it is now common to distinguish the primary, secondary and tertiary structures. The primary structure is simply the order, or sequence, of the amino-acid residues along the polypeptide chains. This was first determined by [Frederick] Sanger using chemical techniques for the protein insulin, and has since been elucidated for a number of peptides and, in part, for one or two other small proteins. The secondary structure is the type of folding, coiling or puckering adopted by the polypeptide chain: the a-helix structure and the pleated sheet are examples. Secondary structure has been assigned in broad outline to a number of librous proteins such as silk, keratin and collagen; but we are ignorant of the nature of the secondary structure of any globular protein. True, there is suggestive evidence, though as yet no proof, that a-helices occur in globular proteins, to an extent which is difficult to gauge quantitatively in any particular case. The tertiary structure is the way in which the folded or coiled polypeptide chains are disposed to form the protein molecule as a three-dimensional object, in space. The chemical and physical properties of a protein cannot be fully interpreted until all three levels of structure are understood, for these properties depend on the spatial relationships between the amino-acids, and these in turn depend on the tertiary and secondary structures as much as on the primary. Only X-ray diffraction methods seem capable, even in principle, of unravelling the tertiary and secondary structures. [Co-author with G. Bodo, H. M. Dintzis, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff, and D. C. Phillips]”

ScienceProcessStructureDescriptionBiologyChemistryProteinNobel LaureateX RayAmino AcidFred SangerFrederick SangerPeptide
Author:John Kendrew
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“Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story. Good description is a learned skill,one of the prime reasons you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It's not just a question of how-to, you see; it's a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.”

WritingDescriptionReading Books
Book:On writing: a memoir of the craft
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“It was raining when Amarelle Parathis went out just after sunset to find a drink, and there was strange magic in the rain. It came down in pale lavenders and coppers and reds, soft lines like liquid dusk that turned luminescent mist on the warm pavement. The air itself felt like champagne bubbles breaking against the skin. Over the dark shapes of distant rooftops, blue-white lightning blazed, and stuttering thunder chased it.”

LandscapeDescriptionWorld BuildingSwooning Over SentencesPretty ProseDescription Wow
Book:Rogues
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“On the floor beside the spare pillow that had tumbled from the bed in her sleep was a single yellow flower. Five heart-shaped petals. As fresh and as pure as if it were in full bloom in a summer meadow. Drowsy and mind-fogged, she crept downstairs to look for a book on Irish wildflowers. It took her a while to find anything that resembled the yellow flower, but eventually she found an image and description that matched: "Cinquefoil, a flower renowned for its healing properties and a flower also said to be favored by fairy folk. Meanings associated with it include money, protection, sleep, prophetic dreams, and beloved daughter.”

MeaningDescriptionIrishWildflowerProphetic DreamsOlivia KavanaghFairy FolkCinquefoil
Book:The Cottingley Secret
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“The sky was dripping. Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn't quite managed. At first, the drops were cool. I felt them on my hands as I walked down from Frau Diller's, in the middle of the road. Above me, I could hear them. Through the overcast sky, I looked up and saw the tin-can planes. I watched their stomachs open and drop the bombs casually out. ... The bombs came down and soon the clouds would bake and the cold raindrops would turn to ash. Hot snowflakes would shower to the ground.”

BombsDescriptionTrajedy
Book:The Book Thief
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“Time, I think, is like walking backward away from something: say, from a kiss. First there is the kiss; then you step back, and the eyes fill up your vision, then the eyes are framed in the face as you step further away; the face then is part of a body, and then the body is framed in a doorway, then the doorway framed in the trees beside it. The path grows longer and the door smaller, the trees fill up your sight and the door is lost, then the path is lost in the woods and the woods lost in the hills. Yet somewhere in the center still is the kiss. That's what time is like.”

TimeDistanceMemoryKissDescriptionBackwardsWalking Away
Book:Engine Summer
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“Mehrâb tient derrière le voile une fille dont le visage est plus beau que le soleil. Elle est de la tête aux pieds comme de l'ivoire, ses joues sont comme le paradis, sa taille est comme un platane [sâj]. Sur son cou [épaule] d'argent tombent deux boucles musquées, dont les bouts sont courbés comme des anneaux de pied. Sa bouche [ses joues] est comme la fleur du grenadier, ses lèvres sont comme des cerises, et de son buste d'argent s'élèvent deux pommes de grenade. Ses deux yeux sont comme deux narcisses dans un jardin, ses cils ont emprunté leur couleur de l'aile du corbeau, ses deux sourcils sont comme un arc de Tharâz, couvert d'une écorce colorée délicatement par le musc. Si tu vois la lune, c'est son visage ; si tu sens le musc, c'est le parfum de ses cheveux. C'est un paradis orné de toutes parts rempli de grâces, d'agréments et de charmes.”

DescriptionIranBeautéFerdowsiShahnamehéPopée
Book:Shâhnâmeh : Le Livre des Rois persans
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“I remembered from movies and TV that a human being striking a window could cause it to shatter, but the glass was too strong or I was too weak. My body didn't do much anymore when I put it to things. I didn't even make much noise pounding my fist against the glass: the ones that turned to look dismissed me almost before they had swiveled their heads. I might have been a painting of a hysterical female, paused in motion and screaming decoratively. But my throat was going raw, and my hands hurt dully.”

DescriptionAlexandra KleemanHysterical Female
Book:You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
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“Some boys walk by and you cry, seeing them. They feel good, they look good, they are good. Oh, they're not above peeing off a bridge, or stealing an occasional dime-store pencil sharpener; it's not that. It's just, you know, seeing them pass, that's how they'll be all their life; they'll get hit, hurt, cut, bruised, and always wonder why, why does it happen? how can it happen to them?”

PainHurtBoysCrySadGoodnessGoodVulnerableInnocenceDescriptionPeople Will Hurt You
Book:Something Wicked This Way Comes
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“You want to stay here and sleep your life away? That's it?" "If you knew what would make you happy, wouldn't you do it?" I asked her. "See, you do want to be happy. Then why did you tell me that being happy is dumb?" she asked. "You said that to me more than once." "Let me be dumb," I said, glugging the NyQuil. "You go be smart and tell me how great it is. I'll be here, hibernating." Reva rolled her eyes. "It's natural," I told her. "People used to hibernate all the time." "People never hibernated. Where are you getting this?" She could look really pathetic when she was outraged. She got up and stood there holding her stupid knockoff Kate Spade bag or whatever it was, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and crowned with a useless, plastic, tortoiseshell headband. She was always getting her hair blown out, her eyebrows waxed into thin, arched, parentheses, her fingernails painted various shades of pink and purple, as though all of this made her a wonderful person. "It's not up for discussion, Reva. This is what I'm doing. If you can't accept it, then you don't have to.”

HumorHappinessSleepDialogueDescriptionSatireOttessa MoshfeghMy Year Of Rest And RelaxationHibernation
Book:My Year of Rest and Relaxation
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“Under the glass porte-cochère of a theatre Amory stood, watching the first great drops of rain splatter down and flatten to dark stains on the sidewalk. The air became grey and opalescent; a solitary light suddenly outlined a window over the way; then another light; then a hundred more danced and glimmered into vision. Under his feet a thick, iron-studded skylight turned yellow; in the street the lamps of the taxicabs sent out glistening sheens along the already black pavement. The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day’s last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night.”

DarknessRainDescriptionMelancholy
Book:This Side of Paradise
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“It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit, or analogy supply; but it is true likewise, that these ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be just. As we see more, we become possessed of more certainties, and consequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider base of analogy.”

KnowsMayIdeasRealityFoundPrinciplesKnowledgeGreaterGainsCertaintyReasoningDescriptionPossessedIncompleteExhibitsAnalogies
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Lives of the poets
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“The single most important technique for making progress is to write ten words. Doesn't matter if you're badly stuck, or your day is completely jam-packed, or you're away from your computer - carry a small paper notebook and write a sentence of description while you're waiting on line at a coffee shop. I think of this as baiting a hook. Even if you have a few days in a row where nothing comes except those ten words, I find that as long as you have to think about the novel enough to write ten words, the chances are that more will come.”

IfsThinkingWritingLongImportantMatterEnoughWaitingLinesChanceNovelProgressTenPaperComputerSentencesTechniqueCoffeeStuckShopsDescriptionHookJamChances AreNotebookCoffee Shop
Author:Naomi Novik
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“The challenge of abating one with a genuine ego problem is to not try to put him down. Any and all antagonization, in his mind, is merely compensated for by his own descriptions: his feelings of persecution by the envious and his ideals of worth. Arguably, the genuine ego is more of a circumstantial defense mechanism rather than a steady arrogance in need of starvation.”

NeedsTryingMindFeelingsProblemChallengesBrainEgoIdealsDefenseGenuineArroganceDescriptionSteadyMechanismPersecutionStarvationEnviousDefense MechanismsEgo Problem
Book:Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
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“Indeed, the very first acknowledgment (as far as I am aware) of the attraction of mutilated bodies occurs in a founding description of mental conflict. It is a passage in The Republic, Book IV, where Plato’s Socrates describes how our reason may be overwhelmed by an unworthy desire, which drives the self to become angry with a part of its nature.”

FirstsMayBookSelfReasonBodyDesireConflictAngryAttractionDescriptionRepublicPassagesPlatoFoundingOverwhelmedUnworthyAcknowledgmentPlato S
Book:Regarding the Pain of Others
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“Someone has described the modern American as a person who drives a bank financed car over a bond financed highway on credit card gas to open a charge account at a department store so he can fill his savings and loan financed home with installment purchased furniture. may this also be a description of many modern professed Christians? And may this not be one reason why modern Christians have so little time to pray? Importunity combined with perfect faith in unconquerable!”

MayLittlesPersonsReasonHomeChristianPrayerPerfectModernCarPrayingAccountsCreditStoresCardsSavingReason WhyDepartmentGasDescriptionFurnitureHighwaysLoanSavingsCredit CardLittle TimeDepartment StoresUnconquerable
Author:Paul Billheimer
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“I feel as though I am trying to describe a three-dimensional experience while living in a two-dimension world. The appropriate words, descriptions, and concepts don't even exist in our current language. I have subsequently read the accounts of other people's near-death experiences and their portrayals of heaven and I am able to see the same limitations in their descriptions and vocabulary that I see in my own.”

PeopleWorldFeelsTryingTwoGodAbleChristianThreeLanguageHeavenReligiousMy OwnConceptsAccountsCurrentsLimitationDimensionsAppropriateDescriptionVocabularyNear DeathPortrayalNear Death Experience
Author:Mary C. Neal
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“A lot of people they don’t know that Africans even named the stars, that different peoples, different so-called native peoples, have their own names for the stars, and have star charts just as accurate as the Chinese star charts, which are more ancient than the European star charts or even the Arabic ones or the star charts of the New World civilizations. Everybody’s got their own cosmology. Everybody’s got their own description of the universe.”

PeopleKnowsWorldDifferentUniverseNamesStarsCivilizationAncientChineseNativeDescriptionNew WorldAccurateDifferent PeoplesCosmology
Book:The Healing
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“There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all-important, and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory.”

WayMindTwoImportantFactsOpinionTheoryFitAuthorityMethodProofDescriptionAcademicConvenienceTwo WaysScientific MethodScholastics
Author:Robert A. Heinlein
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“The ideal woman which is in every man's mind is evoked by a word or phrase or the shape of her wrist, her hand. The most beautiful description of a woman is by understatement. Remember, all Tolstoy ever said to describe Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat. Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.”

MenMindSaidIdeasDifferentHandsBeautifulRememberWomenDarkTreeShapesShadowIdealsCatEvery ManPhrasesBranchesDescriptionGesturesWristsAnnaDifferent IdeasUnderstatementIdeal Woman
Author:William Faulkner
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