Contemporary Fiction Quotes

“Are you really a reporter?” asked Brown.
“You already asked me that. Come back to Levita, take the pardon.”
 “I doubt I’ll live long enough to get there,” said Brown bitterly.
“I hope you survive. You are a fighter. And we have the antidote for your habit on
Levita. I suggest you take a vacation. There’s nothing much that’s going to happen here.”
With that she left, leaving Brown more confused than ever.
He was a father, he had a son. And, the Levitians had a cure for his drug-addled body.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“I just want to know—are you rooting for me? Are you hoping I pull this off?"

Cath's eyes settled on his, tentatively, like they'd fly away if he moved.

She nodded her head.

The right side of his mouth pulled up.

"I'm rooting for you," she whispered. She wasn't even sure he could hear her from the bed.

Levi's smile broke free and devoured his whole face.”
― Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

“I don't want just a night or a week or a month with you. I want you all the time. I like you better than calculus, and math is the only thing that unites the universe.”
― Helen Hoang, The Kiss Quotient

“Books are keys that open many doors.”
― James Rollins

“We're selling vacuum cleaners.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“[novan]: bassists are very good with their fingers
[novan]: and some of us sing backup vocals, so that means we're good with our mouths too...

(~ IM chat with Novan Chang, 18, bassist)”
― Jess C Scott, EyeLeash: A Blog Novel

“There have been times I have thought some dreams should never be dreamt, but I would hate a world where that was true.”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“She felt the cold blast from the sterile air conditioning on her bare arms and thighs, as she ambled down the center of the shopping complex's ground floor.

The scene was a swirl of candy bright lights--the Victoria's Secret fuchsia signboard, signboards which lured one to purchase "confidence," or "sexual appeal," or whatever it was that was being advertised--the fluorescent lights in each store, contrasting with the shiny, black-tiled walls and eye-catching speckled marble tiles on the ground.

One could lick the floor--the tiles were spotless, clean like the fake air she was breathing in, like the atoms and cells in her that were decaying in stale neglect.”
― Jess C Scott, Jack in the Box

“I don't make threats," she said. "I make reality.”
― Lee Matthew Goldberg, Stalker Stalked

“I don’t want to leave. I’m not sure how to carry on without you. We’ve always been together.
“And that will never change. You’ll still be able to watch over me and keep me safe.”
I’m not going to say goodbye then. See you later?
“You bet,” Karlee said. “But not for another sixty years or so.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Crossover

“Whatever you did to make that sweet little cheerleader out on your deck ignore you so completely. Do me a favor and give her my number when you call it quits. She could use a little of the Jim-meister’s lovin’.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Crossover

“Write your dreams down, toss them into the sea, and make a wish, Isabel. Life is too short to live with regrets, own today as if it was your last.”
― A.M. Willard, Fading Memories

“It takes years to know a human being. An entire lifetime. It's what makes a home a home.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“It’s funny how books can change you. You open up a book and one minute you are who you’ve always been, then you read some random passage and you become someone else.”
― Brian Joyce

“The moment-when I could no longer face myself in the mirror-wasn't easily explained; nor was the oppressive misery I experienced once I finally became the person I was meant to be but then realized with terrific horror how much I still hated her.”
― Jodi LaPalm, The Choice Not Taken

“To the jaded eye, all vampires seem alike, but they are wonderful in their versatility. Some come to life in moonlight, others are killed by the sun, some pierce with their eyes, others with fangs, some are reactionary, others are rebels, but all are disturbingly close to the mortals they prey on. I can think of no other monsters who are so receptive. Vampires are neither inhuman nor nonhuman nor all-too-human, they are simply more alive than they should be.”
― Nina Auerbach

“Shortly before school started, I moved into a studio apartment on a quiet street near the bustle of the downtown in one of the most self-conscious bends of the world. The “Gold Coast” was a neighborhood that stretched five blocks along the lake in a sliver of land just south of Lincoln Park and north of River North. The streets were like fine necklaces and strung together were the brownstone houses and tall condominiums and tiny mansions like pearls, and when the day broke and the sun faded away, their lights burned like jewels shining gaudily in the night.
The world’s most elegant bazaar, Michigan Avenue, jutted out from its eastern tip near The Drake Hotel and the timeless blue-green waters of Lake Michigan pressed its shores. The fractious make-up of the people that inhabited it, the flat squareness of its parks and the hint of the lake at the ends of its tree-lined streets squeezed together a domesticated cesspool of age and wealth and standing. It was a place one could readily dress up for an expensive dinner at one of the fashionable restaurants or have a drink miles high in the lounge of the looming John Hancock Building and five minutes later be out walking on the beach with pants cuffed and feet in the cool water at the lake’s edge.”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“It was a generation growing in its disillusionment about the deepening recession and the backroom handshakes and greedy deals for private little pots of gold that created the largest financial meltdown since the Great Depression. As heirs to the throne, we all knew, of course, how bad the economy was, and our dreams, the ones we were told were all right to dream, were teetering gradually toward disintegration. However, on that night, everyone seemed physically at ease and exempt from life’s worries with final exams over and bar class a distant dream with a week before the first lecture, and as I looked around at the jubilant faces and loud voices, if you listened carefully enough you could almost hear the culmination of three years in the breath of the night gasp in an exultant sigh as if to say, “Law school was over at last!”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“I got gold in one hand and mud in the other.......In the end it's the same for all of us we go out the same way we came in ....alone”
― Saira Viola

“HISTORIA RADICALMENTE CONCENTRADA DE LA ERA POSTINDUSTRIAL

Cuando fueron presentados, él hizo un comentario ingenioso porque quería caer bien. Ella soltó una risotada estrepitosa porque quería caer bien. Luego los dos cogieron sus coches y se fueron solos a sus casas, mirando fijamente la carretera, con la misma mueca en la cara.
Al hombre que los había presentado no le caía demasiado bien ninguno de los dos, pero fingía que sí porque le preocupaba mucho tener buenas relaciones con todo el mundo. Después de todo, nunca se sabe, ¿verdad que no? ¿Verdad? ¿Verdad?”
― David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

“Hold your fire!’ screamed Edward, ‘it’s not a gun! She’s got a bloody camera! It’s not a gun! Stand down! Stand down!’
She swivelled at his shout and pointed the camera at him. They locked eyes. There was one more flash. She winked suggestively then sat down… The Harleys revved and were across the bridge in seconds.
Edward bent double, head down, hands on knees, gasping for breath. She’d actually fucking winked! He picked up her abandoned helmet. He could smell her perfume.”
― Willi Pochinov, Maskirovka

“Well, Captain van der Velde, you’re so deep in the ordure, you’re standing on tip toe and it’s still up to your ear lobes. I reckon you’re the ideal man to find some answers.’
‘But I’m under mess arrest, Sir!’
‘That’s not my bloody problem is it, Captain? Now you listen to me! We don’t know how far up this thing goes. I want you to find out what the hell is going on and report back to me personally. So, get your arse of that bed and get yourself out of here any way you like. But you can’t blame me, I can’t be connected to you!’
The Brigadier shook Edward’s hand. ‘Good luck!’ The door clicked shut.”
― Willi Pochinov, Maskirovka

“Edward, along with The King and Sir Oleg’s other guests, was glued to the rolling news reports of little green men in London. There were endless drone shots of Buckingham Palace surrounded by foreign tanks.
Edward soon realised that the “news” items were constantly re-fuelled by speculation and counter speculation, rumour and counter rumour, real news and fake news. There was even a short piece to camera about the probable abdication of The King.”
― Willi Pochinov, Maskirovka

“In the soft glow of a screen, we discover the parts of ourselves we were too busy to notice in the daylight.”
― Lauren Rothery, Television

“Staring over him in the dim light of a side lamp, my tired eyes traced along the path of faint, yet emerging, lines etched around his equally-tired eyes. They'd become a permanent reminder of his ever-smiling face, and I wished–even after all of these years together-that I could absorb some of his contentment.”
― Jodi LaPalm, The Choice Not Taken

“Some silences don’t fade — they become the background music of our memories.
Love doesn’t always need a promise — sometimes, it just needs presence.
Moving on isn’t forgetting — it’s learning to breathe differently.
Some goodbyes are silent, but they echo for a lifetime.”
― Dhwani Maheshwari, No Rewind for Us: Some Silences Change Everything

“Her exquisiteness was intangible. She was my burning rose.”
― M.K. Morris, Lies We Extinguished: A Novel

“Bo laughed. "It’s ok, West Coast. You been away out in the world a long time. I jus’ been here. You might be divorced from your shadow, but mine? It’s right here. Right here with me”
― Shane Bruce, Hope For Chattanooga

“This being why she, Stacey Kinsella, had always been the definition of unlucky when it came to all things love and romance. A schoolteacher spinster in the making who also happened to have two cats.”
― Christine Miles

“She studied her body under the silvery glaze of the moon, from her dust-peppered feet on the clay earth to her flabby waist. It must be laughable that a large woman like her could feel small, but so were palm nuts hidden beneath layers of fleshy, fibrous fruit.”
― Oyindamola Dosunmu, Your Tomorrow Was Today