Quotessence
Home / Topics / Short Story Quotes

Short Story Quotes

Browse 815 quotes about Short Story.

Related topics

WritingNovelThinkingIfsFirstsBookPeopleFictionWantWayTryingCharacterKnowsStory WritersFormLongWriting Short StoriesDifferentInsightfulKindWorldWrittenYearsLittlesReadingTwoFeelsIdeasWriting ShortCollectionsReaderWantedLiteratureWellsArtGivingMayPagesSeemsSongHumansMadeMenRealUsedEndsI CanDoneEssaysFilmMeanMindPlayWholeCertainCoursesFeelingsNeedsNightNovelistsProseShouldStory WritingBitsEnoughPiecesSometimesStillsAffairBelieveCollegeCoupleDetailsHardMy FavoriteNarrativeScreenplaysStudentsWonderfulBreakChekhovChildrenDifficultEnjoyFinishedGraceHas BeensHuman BeingsMagazinesMomentsNextPoetPublishersRealitySchoolThreeTogetherWaitingWeek

Short Story Quotes

“Her boy—this child she raised on her own, in whom she placed her purest faith, to whom she read on countless evenings books he loved, which she found dull, for whom she baked special birthday cakes in the shapes of superheroes, and with whom she whooped and hollered around the backyard while pointing cowboy sticks against darkening skies—was no longer her ally. Bang, bang.”

LoveMotherhoodShort StoryGrowing PainsParenting TeensShort Story CollectionMothers And Sons
Book:The Kindness of Terrible People and Other Stories
Create image

“As the thing came closer, what was left of Nick’s body became revealed and I could see how the dead boy’s eyes had bled from the trauma inflicted upon him; they dripped with steady succession onto the floor between his splayed legs. He looked like a rejected marionette tossed haphazardly in the corner by a frustrated puppeteer, his head drooping so low that his chin rested against his chest. His motionless arms lay at his sides, both of them squeezed into tight fists, as if he’d died futilely trying to defend himself.”

HorrorShort StoryHalloweenHaunted Houses
Book:The End of Summer: Thirteen Tales of Halloween
Create image

“But the fantasy kingdom and trappings of success soon lost their luster, as I discovered that the most prestigious and remunerative of my resume's way stations was also the most tedious and unfulfilling I had ever experienced. This paradox only made me more morose about modernity. Why was I going to watch my hairline recede in front of two-thousand-line spreadsheets staring at me from cold, glowing monitors? Why was everyone in my office apparently so happy to be spending so many hours there, when the things they really cared about - people, pets, pastimes - were all relegated to a few photographs on their desks? That seemed to be the formula: spend the best years of your life in an office with photos of what you really care about.”

Life LessonsPurposeFamilyStruggleClarityThought ProvokingNew York CityShort StoryAlexUnfulfilling FeelingChoices Success
Book:The Doorman
Create image

“The way the girls used the word, "chueca" stood for bent lives, bent minds -- not the narrow, straight existence that girls were expected to have. Not these girls -- abused by drunken fathers, humiliated by scornful mothers, beaten by raging brothers. They were pushed into all kinds of shape by forces stronger than their innocence could withstand. They also felt harder than most girls, survivors, who took the worst beatings, sexual assaults, putdowns, and were still able to stand up without tears and declare, "You ain't changed me." Their hearts were bent, but not broken.”

FictionShort StoryLatinaEast Los Angeles
Book:The Republic of East L.A.
Create image

“from Mad for It, a short story in the Asian Erotica anthology: And I didn’t leave California with my pockets full of gold. About 20k in the bank and an old Taylor guitar on my back. I chew on dowry for a week or two, but she doesn’t like delays. I came to Thailand because I can live in a bungalow near the beach, swim every day and eat mango, coconut and banana. Drink red wine. She locks herself in my bedroom and talks on her cellphone for hours. Comes out in a denim mini-skirt and heels and leaves me alone until midnight. I’m licking paint off the walls. She gets distant. Starts the going out thing a few times a week. I try to follow her once, but get lost in the mountains. I’m on a steep, dark incline. No streetlights. Weird sounds from the forest. A cool and ominous wind shakes the trees. I’m the only man on the planet. On the way down, I crash into a guard rail. Call her for help, but she doesn’t answer. I know she’s fucking around. But it feels like a way out. I didn’t come to Thailand to be a wingman.”

Short StoryEroticaThailand
Book:Best of Asian Erotica 1
Create image

“Segala hal yang dikatakan Komandan mengenai Orde adalah kebenaran yang tidak dilebih-lebihkan. Orde memang bersinonim dengan kebaikan. Orde menghargai kemajuan. Orde mencintai kehidupan. Orde bahkan mengajarkan pertobatan. Semua yang dijabarkan di dalam Kitab pada dasarnya akan berakhir pada kebahagiaan, pun setelah kematian. Akan tetapi Orde dan Kitab adalah takdir. Yang tidak dapat dibantah dan harus diterima semua orang dengan pasrah. Sama seperti penglihatanku, Orde tidak memberikan pilihan.”

ReligionOrderChoicesFateShort StoryFantasy FictionIndonesian
Book:Fantasy Fiesta 2010: Antologi Cerita Fantasi Terbaik 2010
Create image

“The Head Scissor and CEO of a major corporation was once asked to give a seminar on the topic of innovation to a young and thriving startup company. After looking out upon the big-eyed crowd of young and inexperienced scissors standing there on their snippers, the aged guru opened and closed with a few thoughts that made every scissor look deep within themselves. She said, “The heart asks us to make incisions by following it along the path of intuition. Otherwise, we can be certain we’re just following behind someone else’s dotted lines. Every morning when I get out of the shower and look in the mirror, I say to myself, ‘You stand tall with long legs and bright eyes, but what good are you, if you can’t stay on the cutting edge of your self?’” After receiving a thunderous applause she gave a knowing smile and made her exit.”

PoetryLeadershipIntuitionShort StorySelf DevelopmentFollow Your HeartCutting EdgeScissorsFollow Your Own PathHafiz
Author:Curtis Tyrone Jones
Create image

“Anton does not have a need to give our home a touch of anything British. This British man living in this house, with his blind devotion to—his love affair with—not the Orient, but his idea of the Orient, colored by its history, its culture, its underdog-now-having-its-revenge role in world affairs, is all the British this house ever needs.”

RomanceFictionShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoEstrangementManilaPhuketWorld Affair
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“On days her spirits are low, like now, or between ballet seasons, when she has time to think about herself outside of the roles she plays, when she is not Odette in Swan Lake or Clara in The Nutcracker, she finds her feet reason enough to doubt the grace for which she is applauded when she spins on the tips of her toes.”

FictionShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoManilaHigh Society
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“I turned anti-American. I joined the European chorus of disdain for America. And because, like many other Filipinos, including practically every Philippine president from the time of Emilio Aguinaldo, my father was a true disciple of the Great American Dream, I turned against him, too, as I thumbed my nose at the Americanization of the world.”

FictionShort StoryPhilippinesAthensDiasporaManilaPan De Regla
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“He knew this was bound to happen but he kept himself at a safe distance, though he saw it come in every possible form, in trees felled to make way for new streets or cities, in chemicals that mimicked the human cells to invade the body, in every huff and puff of a CO2-emitting vehicle. What about the evil armies raised in the robotics classes of kindergarteners? What about the fake food with which the children had been fed? What about the devil winning the people’s vote on a ticket of broken promises, empty threats, and outright lies and a mission to send them straight to hell?”

FictionShort StoryEnd Of The WorldVenicePhilippinesFilipinoManilaOutbreakPanic On The VaporettoVenice Biennale
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“But politics has no space in Rob’s mind right now or ever. Neither do his migrant roots nor does the Philippines, with which his parents maintain a sentimental bond and to which, while he was growing up, they tried to endear him, speaking to him in a mix of Tagalog and Bicolano, of which he remembers not a word, except Mabuhay and magayon, salamat, too, and taking him as often as they could on vacations to famous Philippine beaches, fiestas, and other sites, including Christmas in Manila.”

FictionNew YorkShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoManilaCountdown To A Kiss
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“I am almost thirty, never been in love, at least not enough to stay in love through the foul moods, the oppressive silences, the subjugation, the acquiescence, the petty fights, the nagging questions, all the other complications that tend to get factored into a relationship once it stews in time, simmering to a boil.”

RomanceFictionShort StoryBerlinLgbtqiaPhilippinesFilipinoDiasporaManilaOn A Sunday In August
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“At night, touching himself, he would imagine her in every carnal detail, always determined he would see her at last, on Erzèbet Square, but always, once he was done, he would be consumed by guilt, which would not replace the fantasy, only dissipate it, and he would decide she was just an itch he could scratch away so easily without harming her or himself.”

FictionShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoDiasporaManilaFlash Flood
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“It was then that it dawned on my great-great-great-great-grandmother that Avenida in Santa Cruz—with all its dark, dank, dreary alleyways, its patchwork of cheap cement, cheaper wood, and even cheaper corrugated iron that passed for houses, its ground littered with all sorts of scrap, including crumbs of goodies and morsels of meals to which they were never invited, its all-present humidity and intermittent rain, all its mud and flood on rainy days and all its dust on dry days, all its dirt, all its noise, and all the cruelty and fear and abomination and prejudice—was paradise.”

Short StoryPhilippinesFilipinoSpeculative FictionDiasporaManilaThe Nameless
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image

“We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, according to Charles Dickens in whose nest of words I grew up, and so, as rain filled the drains, flooded the streets, inundated the city, my great-great-great-great-grandmother and her community were driven skyward, gasping for air from the underworld.”

Short StoryPhilippinesFilipinoSpeculative FictionDiasporaManilaFableThe Nameless
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
Create image