Favorite book lines

2/26/2013

Do you have a favorite line from a book? Something literary and insightful, or so hilarious you snortle (that's a combination of snorting and chortling) every time you read it? I have favorite movie lines, and at least once a week I catch myself on Facebook posting a line or two of lyrics that struck me from whatever song was playing, but I realized I don't have any favorite book lines. Or even excerpts.

I'm always so envious of authors who find that exact phrase from Shakespeare or the Bible or some other piece of literature to start off a chapter. I read Shakespeare and honestly just get lost in the jumble of words, yet others can pluck out that one line that will perfectly define Part 2 of their novel. (I'm looking at you, Nora Roberts!)

So what's your favorite line(s)?

Though I don't have one from literature, I did memorize the first stanza of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan while in high school, and that imagery of emerald grass, clear water, and black caves has always stuck with me. As did the sibilance of Edgar Allan Poe's silken, sad, and uncertain violet draperies. Plus, I've always looked for ways to use the verb "wrought" in conversation without referencing pretty iron balconies.

9 Comments

Jason

2/26/2013 01:27:27 am

One of my favorites is the opening page of chapter one of the book "the Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton.

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house I only had two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman--he looks tough and I don't-- but I guess my own looks aren't too bad..."

Something about the imagery and the way Ponyboy was feeling in that moment has always stuck with me, had been something that I have identified with even from a young age.

I had also at one point memorized all of Adrian Henri's "Tonight at Noon" (http://www.swans.com/library/art6/xxx053.html) and that is another piece that has stayed with me, carried by my soul.

Monica link

2/26/2013 01:49:59 am

I have a few:

“Nora— Forgive me for copyediting, but it must be said—you have raped the semicolon yet again. Stop it. It wasn’t asking for it no matter how it was dressed. If you don’t know how to use punctuation then do away with it altogether, write like Faulkner and we’ll pretend it’s on purpose.” - The Siren, Tiffany Reisz

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you” - The Count of Monte Crista by Alexandre Dumas

“Coffee first. Schemes later.”
-Darker Still, Leanna Renee Heiber

Ella Quinn link

2/26/2013 07:15:58 am

There have been lines I've loved, but I never remember them long enough to recite them elsewhere. They are never long and usually have a back story to them. In Mama Mia the movie, for example, one character asks another, "Bill, where's your spontaneity?" It becomes a running joke and we use it the same way in our family.

2/26/2013 07:30:20 am

These are from The Seduction of Lady Phobe, which goes on pre-order in April and releases in September.

The first is from a discussion between Phoebe sister and brother-in-law.
Hermione shook her head. “I am not precisely sure, other than it happened at the house party where you and I were betrothed. One minute Phoebe was asking me about love, and the next time I saw her she was leaving the gallery in a tearful rage. When I looked down the corridor, Lord Marcus was lying on the floor.”

“On the floor? Doing what?” Edwin asked.
“Bleeding.”

This is the hero tossing out an importuning young blood.

Marcus scowled. “Take this fool, and do not allow him back in the inn.”

The ostler eyed Marcus cautiously. “But, my lord, he’s stayin’ here.”

Margaret Taylor

2/26/2013 08:33:23 am

I'm a bit like Ella. I love lines in books but can never remember them long enough to recite them again.

However, I do have several that have come from my years of Role-Play Gaming and are running jokes between myself and that community of my friends. They usually have backstories to go with them, but if used properly can apply to a real world setting.

The best example of that is the following:

If you ever find someone asking you:

"What do we do with this?"

It does not matter what the "this" is, simply look them right in the eye, smile your best smile and say: "I don't know! Touch it, love it, make it part of the crew!"

I can almost guarantee that simple statement will have them rolling on the floor laughing and open the way to solving whatever dilemma the "this" has created.

Taylor

2/26/2013 11:01:16 am

Thanks, all! These are great!

Kathy aka C. K. Crouch

2/26/2013 03:14:38 pm

I guess I have to say the line from Lord of the Rings Return of the Kings where Smeagol tells Sam "Give them to us raw and wriggling. you keep nasty chips" he was talking about rabbits lol.

Lacey Falcone link

2/26/2013 07:37:45 pm

Hi Taylor -

I never remember book lines (or movie lines for that matter, either). There are quite a few quotes I've had to memorize (probably out of books, but I don't know)... My favorite is John Stuart Mill - "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being freed unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

My favorite poem, by Robert Frost, 'The Road Not Taken' - "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..."

And then, whenever I hear somebody who just goes on and on about how something isn't their fault... the line by Lady MacBeth always pops into my head (and I probably misquote it) - something like "Ye doth protesteth overmuch..." indicating that if you feel you have to continue to tell me over and over how you didn't do it, it means you probably actually did do it.

That's about the extent of it for me...

BTW - I love Ella's excerpt! :)

Good luck finding your own favorite lines!

2/27/2013 01:51:35 pm

Thanks, ladies! I haven't read any of the LOTR books (lamentable lack in my literary education, right???). As for the Mill quote, I like that one - thanks for sharing it, Lacey!

I was pretty happy with a short scene I wrote last night, so that's a start :)

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