Monday, September 28, 2009

Grab-A-Line Monday


Here are the quotes from last week's Grab-A-Line Monday:

MG Higgins offered this: (and it's in gold because that's the color of the pen she used to jot this down specifically for this post.)

From When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead:


"Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop feeling mean."


Tanita Davis introduced me to a new sleuth from Georgette Heyer's They Found Him Dead. So this was longer than one line: but who cares? Great quotes, people, that's what I want!

"Well, I wanted to know. Besides, you're wasting your time, anyway. I told you the gat wasn't here, only you wouldn't listen. I looked for it myself, ages ago, because I thought probably the murderer would be pretty likely to hide it amongst the bushes. Well, he didn't, and I don't think it's in the bushes on the other side of the drive either. I haven't actually combed them, but I've got a theory about it. I'll tell you what it is, if you like."


Turns out Georgette Heyer is a fav author of Nandini, who shared this from Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh.

"The vision of a tall-masted ship, at sail on the ocean, came to Deeti on an otherwise ordinary day, but she knew instantly that the apparition was a sign of destiny, for she had never seen such a vessel before, not even in a dream: how could she have, living as she did in northern Bihar, four hundred miles from the coast?"

Davin Malasarn said he's reading Olive Kitteridge, the book I took my quote from, and I am waiting to hear what he has to say after he finishes.

It seems appropriate to end with another colorful quote, contributed by Coco, this time from Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Truman Capote

'Certain shades of limelight wreck a girl's complexion.'

So, what caught you this week? (Color references optional.)

16 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

I never went very far from home until two years ago when I moved, sight unseen, to first a hotel room and then a little efficiency flat in the UK. Sarla's reaction to just getting on the plane from London to go to India reminded me of me:

Deep down I'm not all that cynical, or hard or mean-- more soft-centered and especially vulnerable (or gullible, if you like) to first impressions; so I was a bit overwhelmed when I stepped into that Air India plane and was immediately transported to another planet. - Indian Summer, Pratima Mitchell

I feel that way just flying Lufthansa -- all those tall, solid looking women with cool expressions and gentle accents. I just know the Netherlands are full of them. I think the color of this quote is kind of a saffron shade...

Yat-Yee said...

Nothing like a huge move without smaller, practice-runs!

I get that transported to a different planet just stepping off a plane when I first moved to Australia. The air smelled different.

Saffron...hmmmm.

Sherrie Petersen said...

I was listening to the Gin Blossoms last week and one of the lines from a song has stuck with me: "She had nothing left to say, so she said she loved me. And I stood there grateful for the lie."

I know, it's not from a book, but isn't that a great line?

storyqueen said...

"Kidnapping children is not a good idea. All the same, sometimes it has to be done."

Eva Ibottson, ISLAND OF THE AUNTS

Yat-Yee said...

This line definitely captures that feeling of knowing that you beloved doesn't love you back, yet he/she is still so supremely awesome and sigh...

Yat-Yee said...

Shelly: Oh that is a great line!

Annie Louden said...

"He only loved his love for me and the pictures he was drawing. He loved those two. He loved the feeling he was having. I was a mere accessory to the feeling.

-Charles Baxter, THE FEAST OF LOVE

Annie Louden said...

Oops, I forgot the end quotes.

Yat-Yee said...

Oh, another quote that has to do with the realization that the one you love doesn't really love you. Made me sad. Thanks for the great line.

MG Higgins said...

I'm still laughing at Shelley's quote!

I didn't think I'd have one this week, but last night I read this in UMBRELLA SUMMER by Lisa Graff. (Thanks to you and your daughter for the recommendation, BTW. It's excellent.):

"I wished there was a way to keep that in a bottle, that one moment of wonderful perfect, so I could open it up whenever I needed to get a good whiff."

Nandini said...

Here's one, from YOUNGUNCLE COMES TO TOWN by Vandana Singh, that always makes me laugh, though it has to be read in context for it to make sense.

"Greetings, Ancient Uncle," he panted, "you have a very fast bullock."

Humor is so hard to do well, I love it when it really works.

Yat-Yee said...

Melissa: I remember liking that line when I read Umbrella Summer too.

Nandini: I don't think fast buttocks need any context to be funny!

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Since I posted about The Handmaid's Tale for Banned Book Week, I'd like to repeat one of the lines:

We lived in the gaps between the stories.

Oh, and my word verification is "redream." So is that a recurring dream, you think?

Nandini said...

Yat-Yee,
That was "bullock", not "buttock" ... whew(!), for a moment I thought I got it wrong. That's the equivalent of a steer, as in bullock cart (to which Bira the bullock was harnessed in that scene). OK this exchange is cracking me up as much as the original line ... :-)!!!

Yat-Yee said...

Tricia: that's a great line. I will have to check out this book.

Nandini: I'll never live this down, will I? :) That tells me not to trust my eyes after spending an hour in darkness with my children in their bedrooms. All right, so that's an excuse.

You may call me fat buttocks for a week.

Yat-Yee said...

Tricia: meant to say how much I like "redream" as a verification word. Maybe it's a recurring dream, or maybe it's a dream that has been given up but resurrected. Keep your dreams!