This is exactly what it sounds like: A collection of quotes and passages that are very well-written, that I scribbled down in the margins of a notebook or two. I've been scrounging through my large stash of notebooks over the weekend and thought a post on here was in order. As best I can figure, most of these books were read from 2009-2011.
Joe DiMaggio, when asked why he hustled on an absolutely meaningless play; "I figure there's some kid out there in the stands who's watching me for the first time. Don't I owe him my best?"
"The search for Deborah's undiscovered genius continued through cello, flute and clarinet lessons as well as several other instruments that wheezed, whistled and bawled like dying animals. The piano was a last resort, Mrs. Harding-Smith confessed. It was difficult to make a piano sound like anything other than a piano, no matter how badly played it might be." - Bodie Thoene, Danzig Passage, page 176 (Read this and the rest of her Zion Covenant series as soon as you can, if you like WWII or character-driven historical fiction.)
"Books don't transform you, but paragraphs and sentences do." - Unknown (AMEN.)
"....returned Amy, who was gifted with domestic power, but was chosen because she was small enough to be carried away shrieking by the hero of the piece." - Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, chapter 1 (Very good book.)
"Amy followed, but she poked her hands out stiffly beside her and jerked herself along as if she went by machinery; and her "Ow!" was more suggestive of pins being run into her than of pain and anguish." - Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, chapter 1
"She has the close-to-the-door-when-anything-interesting-is-going-on technique highly developed." - Agatha Christie, Remembered Death
"But some girls seem born for the express purpose of making trouble, and would manage to do it if they lived in a howling wilderness." - Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl (This would not be included in my list of favorite Alcott books, but it had a fair amount of quotable phrases.)
"Able-bodied men are apt to leave the place[the town of King's Abbot] early in life; but we are rich in unmarried ladies and retired military officers. Our hobbies and recreations can be summed up in the one word, 'gossip'." - Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Amazing. But no spoilers here....)
"The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst no worse, if imagination amends them."
"It must be your imagination, then, and not theirs."
"If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men." - Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, Scene 1, lines 206-210
"'He's a cobweb; a pinch would annihilate him.'" - [Heathcliff], Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (This book was unbearably depressing, but I did like this quote.)
"He spoke like a gardener should, mournfully, but with dignity, something like if an emperor spoke at a funeral." - Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery
"The only thing that we knew about the man was that he grew vegetable marrows. But that was not the sort of thing Caroline wanted to know. She wants to know where he comes from, what he does, whether he is married, what his wife was, or is, like, whether he has children, what his mother's maiden name was, and so on. Somebody very like Caroline must have invented the questions on passports, I think." - [Dr. James Sheppard, speaking about his sister and Hercule Poirot], Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
"It's not your average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill ho-hum fairy tale." - the previews tagline for the movie version of The Princess Bride
"She was a tall, serene-looking young woman of 27, who, although her face was unlined, looked older than her years, probably from a sedate maturity that seemed part of her make-up." - Agatha Christie, Ordeal by Innocence
"They moved down the field with maniacal relentless precision. If the Japanese had invented football, this is how they would have played it." H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights (Extremely well-written book. If you've seen the TV show, they matched the tone perfectly.)
"It did them all good, for music is a beautiful magician, and few can resist its power." - Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl
"Nobody likes to be talked to, but nobody can resist the eloquence of unconscious preaching." - Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl
"...said Maud, who had a talent for betraying trifles which people preferred should not be mentioned in public." - Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl
"It was Mr. Blatt's apparent ambition to be the life and soul of wherever he happened to be... He was puzzled at the way people seemed to melt and disappear whenever he himself appeared on the scene." - Agatha Christie, Evil Under the Sun
"She moved with that insolent effortless grace that is common among those who have been professional mannequins." - Agatha Christie, Hickory Dickory Death
"I think you can always tell when the artist is having a good time: the energy and life come out in their work." - Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Collection (I agree. And it's been too long since I read Calvin and Hobbes or Peanuts.)
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