Fiction Novel Quotes

“Guilt often resembles shadows, playing games in the dark.”
― H. Meadow Hopewell, Rage Against the Machine

“She raised the gun.
Fired.
The sound cracked through the cabin like a door
slamming on the past.”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: Secrets

“They both start with a B. Do you think Baudelaire sounds like Bernhardt?" Her niece eyed her for a moment, then shook her head. "Mommy always says you say the strangest things.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“They passed through a marbled rotunda and Sarah gasped. Heading straight for them was a stampeding herd of skeletal animals, their bleached bones and empty eye-sockets shimmering in sunlight that flooded the vast hall from overhead windows.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“No book can be written till it wants to be written, till it shouts to be written, and raises up a persistent din in the writer's head. And then, if you want peace, you just have to pull it out and freeze it in print. Nothing less would do.”
― Jyoti Arora

“Mary moved down to join the gathered actors, but little was said beyond questioning whispers. This was, after all, a morgue.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“Her silence was not weakness; it was the only weapon left.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“Anyone who has lost a love to death can tell you about that fall. You wake from a hard-won sleep and be there warm and groggy and consider engaging the day. And then you remember. Half of you is not there, and never will be again. The person who focused all the disparate parts of you into a whole is gone. The agony is too much; you almost welcome the great slide ahead of you. But there is no oblivion in it. Only blackness and an endless well of red pain.”
― Anne Rivers Siddons, Off Season

“Revenge is never justice. it’s just another name for hunger.”
― Yarro Rai

“Etta gave Will a small, knowing smile. "Will, sometimes you have to love people for who they are, not who you want them to be.”
― Deanna Lynn Sletten, Outlaw Heroes

“She learned too late that victory can taste like ashes.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“She wanted truth, but truth came wrapped in blood.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“It wasn’t bullets that killed her father. It was compromise, wrapped in a handshake.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“[When asked about Writing Conferences]

"You meet people that will change your life.”
― Susan Wingate, Drowning

“Power doesn’t seduce, it suffocates.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“The law was too small for the size of her vengeance.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“LOVE is the most incendiary element ever known, once it sparks the heart, the flame is inextinguishable.”
― H.S. Rissam, The Scapel: Game Beneath

“Hope was a knife sharp, fragile, and always cutting her hand.”
― Yarro Rai, Vice and Virtue

“...If you are meant to reach the cottage, it won’t matter if you lose the map. Your companion and the cottage will guide you. In life, too, it doesn’t matter if you have a roadmap. What matters is that you trust your companion and make them feel worthy of the journey.”
― Kotoba Clan, Moon Face Witch

“Burn bright before you burn out!”
― K. A. Phillips

“Now I was living the nine-to-five life, with every minute of my day carefully planned out, every hour stripped of any disruptions of moments of spontaneity, and every day feeling unusually the same.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“Up until then, I had always been frightened of the world, always on edge and afraid the things outside might hurt me in the slightest of ways. "A pussy," as Travis would call it.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“I couldn't believe I was sitting in front of the same girl. Or maybe her years of traveling had turned her into a woman. It's never really clear when that transition happens—if it even happens at all.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“Once Jonas and Sara had gone to bed, Hannah and I found ourselves leaning in closer with every conversation. She was wonderful, and this became clearer with each passing minute. Around two in the morning, I put my arm around her. It just felt like the right thing to do. Not long after, our lips met for the first time. We were now sailing on open waters, surrounded by nothing but sea. Far in the distance, a great thunderstorm was lighting up the night sky. Our feet dangled off the edge of the steering room balcony as we rode toward the stormy horizon. At that moment, it was just us. With the rest of the world fast asleep, we stood on top of the world, at the edge of everything. It was in this fleeting moment that two lost souls found one another.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“How did he become this insatiable womanizer who took things one day at a time? Maybe he was overcompensating for something, I thought. Maybe the Man in the Sky had cursed him with a microscopically small penis. Maybe it was all some Freudian Oedipus conflict, where he needed to outdo his dad as a bigger playboy than he once was. Or maybe he was just desperately looking for somebody to love, someone who could keep up with him and his hyperactive mind.
Who knew.
I sure didn’t.
What could possibly motivate a guy who could come up with these profound insights about life, and at the same time use opening lines like “My dad says I’m a great kisser” and “Hey, who keeps farting in my pants?”
You tell me.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“As we lay there, the weight of the world lifted from my chest. The miles that separated me from home and the memories that once haunted me had vanished. There were no thoughts, no past or future, just us and the beating of our hearts. We slept like babies that night, long forgetting there was still a killer on the loose.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“Ah, come on, dude!” I said, taking a long swig from my bottle. “There must be something! Something that you do differently from all those other schmucks—like myself—out there.”
“Alright, alright, hold your horses! You wanna hear the actual secret? The simple truth that everybody wants to know? The thing that’s right in front of your nose but hardly anyone sees?” John looked around as if to make sure nobody was eavesdropping, but there was no one around. He leaned in to whisper something in my ear.
“Alright. Now, listen very closely…”
It got awfully quiet as I eagerly waited for the answer.
John squinted his eyes.
Then, he ripped a huge fart.
One that was so loud it could have been a serious contender for the Guinness World Records, if they had a category for fart volume (turns out they do). The thing even smelled the part.
“God damn it, you asshole!”
And we couldn’t stop laughing.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“Rose. That was her name. Simple and sweet, like the flower.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“As Tom and I boarded a bus to Bangkok, I swallowed a couple of knock-off Valium pills I’d bought earlier at a local pharmacy to numb the agony of the long ride ahead. I was blasted out of my mind in the front seats, high up on the double-decker bus, forgetting to breathe at times, lost in the hazy depths of my mind. Tom yelled at me to get my shit together, and I tried to keep myself busy by playing games and challenging myself to hold my breath as long as possible. It felt like the Valium made time stand still, and I held my breath for what seemed like an eternity. But even that got old after a while, and the hours dragged on like an endless fever dream.
Then there I was, back in Bangkok again, wondering why the hell I kept coming back.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner

“Harry and I were now tubing side-by-side, and I could smell him—and he smelled bad.
“Hey, so you guys brought your own booze, aye?” he said. “That’s clever. Wanna know a trick I use to score free beers?”
For some reason, Harry always seemed to be low on cash, even though there were rumors going round that he was born into a wealthy family of British aristocrats.
“Sure,” I said.
With a mischievous grin, he then told me his secret plan. “You know, mate, when I’ve got just a bit of beer left in my glass, I give it a little rub with my fingers—running these two,” he said, holding up his index and middle fingers, “right through my butt crack. Then I walk up to the bartender, hold the glass under their nose, and say, ‘Apologies, but my beer seems to have an odd smell.’”
“My god, Harry…”
“Works like a charm—they always give me a fresh one on the house,” he said, giving me the most awkward wink in human history.”
― A.C. van Wonderen, Mad Monkeys: Memoirs of a Stoner