353 Quotes About Literary-fiction

From THE SPEED OF LIFE, Part II, chapter 1, "Andrew."From Part II Chapter 1, “Andrew”Gravity plunged the stars into another violent implosion that warped, wrenched, and twisted spacetime so that it folded back upon itself, forming a whirling, tumbling black hole that was masked by a cloak of invisibility to those in ordinary reality, but not to Betty Mae, witnessing the cataclysm with absolute delight in hidden reality.

There he lay, in a pale frothing liquid which she had, for a dreadful moment, believed to be some eccentric vital fluid of his own, but which issued from a case of broken bottles which lay near him.

I think I'd rather get a job." "Why?" "Why not?" "Jobs are for people who need them. You don't need one. You'd be taking it from somebody else who did.

The borborygmy, or rumbling of the stomach, has not received the attention from either art or science which it deserves. It is as characteristic of each individual as the tone of the voice. It can be vehement, plaintive, ejaculatory, conversational, humorous -- its variety is boundless. But there are few who are prepared to give it an understanding ear; it is dismissed too often with embarrassment or low wit.

They needed me, Mackilwraith; they needed me. And if there is one thing which utterly destroys a boy's character, it is to be needed. Boys are unendurable unless they are wholly expendable.

one elderly teacher, who had seen generations of neophytes pass through these early tests, was known to have sobbed a little, in professional ecstasy of joy, when describing Hector's lesson on the Lowest Common Denominator.

She had an ability, invaluable in a weak person, to persuade herself that whatever was inevitable had her full approval, and was in some measure her own doing.

Hector was sent to his office to wait, while Rat-face was restored to such limited consciousness as his heredity and his fate permitted him to enjoy.

There is a touch of the fascist in most adolescents; they admire the strong man who stands no nonsense; they have no objection to seeing the weak trampled underfoot; mercy in its more subtle forms is outside their understanding and has no meaning for them.