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Original poster

Fave one liner from a book?

360 replies

judgejudyandexecutioner · 02/05/2013 15:45

"It's lipless mouth quivered and slathered"
War of the Worlds - H G Wells
Grin

OP posts:
LtEveDallas · 02/05/2013 19:14

Well mine is very low brow compared to the others Grin but both from Stephen King novels:

"If you don't control your temper, your temper will control you."
From Under the Dome

And

"Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto."
From Dolores Claiborne

There's another one, Stephen King again, but I can't remember what book "Get busy living or get busy dying."

wetsand · 02/05/2013 19:13

Both from Nicole Krauss, The History Of Love

grumpyinthemorning · 02/05/2013 19:13

I didn't say I was powerful, I said I was a wizard.

Rincewind, one of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett.

wetsand · 02/05/2013 19:13

'Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering'

And

'Then he almost but didn't say the two sentences he'd been meaning to say for years: part of me is made of glass, and also, I love you'

BreasticlesNTesticles · 02/05/2013 19:11

Pen is envy - Handmaid's Tale

missmapp · 02/05/2013 19:08

"Don't forget to feed the parrot"

Cold comfort Farm - a goodbye as the train was leaving to distract the teary departee- always used in our house!!

textbook · 02/05/2013 19:08

"The wines were too various. It was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault; it was the mixture."

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

thegreylady · 02/05/2013 19:05

Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again [Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier] it always gives me goose bumps.

tumbletumble · 02/05/2013 19:05

'There were three thousand six hundred and fifty three days like that on his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail. The three extra days were for leap years.'

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

mice · 02/05/2013 19:03

"And if Eeyore's back snapped suddenly, then we could all laugh"

WeAreNinjaNotGeisha · 02/05/2013 19:03

"Poetry in motion - it's the only way to travel!" Mr. Toad, The Wind in the Willows

IvorHughJarse · 02/05/2013 19:02

'Facts? Take a drop more grog, Mr Franklin, and you'll soon get over believing in facts!' The wonderful Gabriel Betteridge, The Moonstone.

WipsGlitter · 02/05/2013 19:01

He knew that when he kissed her that his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her, at his lips touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.
The Great Gatsby

What can I say? That I loved you? Love is only a form and mine is already disintegrating. Better let me say, how lovely you are."
The Brothers Karamazoff

DuchessofMalfi · 02/05/2013 19:01

I have another one - "Thus it lightens into Action: I am come to kill thee". Chilling stuff - John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi :o

BalloonSlayer · 02/05/2013 18:59

". . . one of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welterweight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging over a tin bridge. "

Bertie Wooster on Honoria Glossop. PG Wodehouse.

Badvoc · 02/05/2013 18:55

"Marley was dead, to begin with"
A Christmas carol - Charles dickens.

RubySparks · 02/05/2013 18:49

'Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut?' Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick

Hullygully · 02/05/2013 18:48

Happiness is but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain

DuchessofMalfi · 02/05/2013 18:45

"My Dear, I don't give a damn". Rhett Butler, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

So many people I'd like to say that to :o

Flootshoot - I listened to 1984 on audio book recently. Even though I knew that line was coming, it still made me leap out of my skin. Terrifying.

Yjossarian · 02/05/2013 18:35

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Morgause · 02/05/2013 17:58

He upped her smock and in he throng.

Chaucer - The Merchant's Tale

rubyslippers · 02/05/2013 17:55

Reader, I married him

Jane Eyre

HadALittleFaithBaby · 02/05/2013 17:54

'Atticus, come quick, the world's ending!'

Scout to Atticus when she discovers its snowing.
To Kill a Mockingbird

Also:
'Miranda, 16, and never before more than kissed, was getting pregnant on the beach'.
Opening line to Just for the summer by Judy Astley

frostyfingers · 02/05/2013 17:29

I can't remember the exact context but from Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald :-

young woman patient (Rosemary I think) to her analyst(Dick, main character): "Take me" (sexually)

him: "take you - take you where?"

or something along those lines - it was an O'level text so a very very long time ago!

magimedi · 02/05/2013 17:29

"Only connect".

The quote at the start of Howards End by E. M. Forster.

If only more people did...............

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