This is a selection of my favourite lines from various books...
"The trouble is, for the born smartass, the impulse has nine times out of ten been acted upon before the brain can even engage first gear."
Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis
"Something he had not known was there rose in him and compelled him to make the point, loudly and again.
'But I tell you there isn't a beast!'"
William Golding
Lord of the Flies
"As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra."
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
"Neighbours bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbour. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbours give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing in return, and it made me sad."
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
"'Tonight I could fly to the moon if I wanted to.'"
Stephen King
The Shining
"If you could look to the bottom of a human being, what desires would you find there? And what desires are concealed beneath my white shirt and bow tie, my civilised veneer?"
Stephen Dobyns
The Church of Dead Girls
"I have a strange illusion quite often. I think I've become deaf. I have to make a little noise to prove I'm not. I clear my throat to show myself that everything's normal. It's like the little Japanese girl they found in the ruins of Hiroshima. Everything dead; and she was singing to her dolls."
John Fowles
The Collector
"'So what's your star sign?' said Mary Ellen.
'Cunnilingus,' Katz answered and looked profoundly unhappy.
She looked at him. 'I don't know that one.' She made an I'll-be-darned frown and said, 'I thought I knew them all. Mine's Libra.' She turned to me. 'What's yours?'
'I don't know.' I tried to think of something. 'Necrophilia.'
'I don't know that one either. Say, are you guys having me on?'"
Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods
"He was quiet a moment. 'That's it? That's your best plan? That's your very best plan?'
'Have you got a better one?'
'No, but I didn't go to college for four years.'
'Stephen, I didn't study how to save your ass in Waynesboro, I majored in political science. If your problem was to do with proportional representation in Switzerland, I might be able to help you.'"
Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods
