Short Stories Quotes

I live in different worlds. One world where I perform my duty as a part of society. My favorite is my world. The writing's world.

~ Ria Tumimomor

You can't kill an idea the way they try to. You can keep it down awhile, but sooner or later it'll come out. Now what you've got to understand is that the wheel's not evil. Never mind what the scared men all tell you. no discovery is good or evil until men make it that way. -The Wheel, John Wtndham

~ John Wyndham

Becky was a weed.  Nobody ever wanted them taking over the bigger, prettier plants.  People went to all extremes to make them go away.  They sprayed poison, pulled until the roots gave way. They felt only like their garden was complete when every tendril was extirpated.  This was how she felt from birth.

~ Ruth Mcleod-Kearns

She had come to understand that American parenting was a juggling of anxieties, and that it came with having too much food: a sated belly gave Americans time to worry that their child might have a rare disease that they had just read about, made them think they had the right to protect their child from disappointment and want and failure. A sated belly gave Americans the luxury of praising themselves for being good parents, as if caring for one's child was the exception rather than the rule.

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Death, is a beautiful conclusion to these short stories, that which we have so interestingly entitled, lives.

~ Kiar

Once when I asked you if you still loved your wife, you said, Love leaves the back door open. Later, you said, Love like a hospital gown opens at the back. And you slipped out.

~ Joan Connor

You know, the world is all about balance. You lose something here... maybe somebody else picks it up over there.

~ Natasha Larry

I hate that I got dealt shitty parents! I hate how you make me feel like scum! I hate that you’re always running away from me! And I hate that I ever fucking gave you the power to destroy me!

~ Adriana Law

So many people can now write competent stories that the short story is in danger of dying of competence.

~ Flannery O'connor

All stories are the sin of their weaver.

~ Miyuki Miyabe

I hated seeing these spasmodic upside-down chicken heads stretching to puncture my flesh. I imagined once that they reached my groin and pecked out my penis and my huevos and kept pecking until they got to my gut and my eyes and my brain, until I was just a pecked-out piece of human meat surrounded by thousands of nervous, dirty white chickens. I think that was about the time I fucked up a pair of chicken heads against a warehouse wall when no one was looking. Well, almost no one. Rueben was right behind me, and that's when he grinned his stupid grin. Maybe he hated the chickens as much as I did. Maybe he just knew que ya me iba también a la chingada. Maybe I was going on my first joy ride to hell and back, and it was fun to watch.

~ Sergio Troncoso

A year earlier my parents had moved us out of the city to a split-level on Long Island, their idea of the American dream, which meant it as now an hour-and-a-half commute via the 7:06 Hicksville to Penn Station every morning. (Dark City Lights)

~ Jonathan Santlofer

I am content when writing short stories.

~ Sarah Mazucci

Though this child came in with nothing but excess baby fat, chemical brain waves, and mother and son bodily toxins on his legs, he had a fate fit for a modern day demigod.

~ David Scheier

I am a dash man and not a miler, and it is probable that I will never write a novel. So far the novels of this war have had too much of the strength, maturity and craftsmanship critics are looking for, and too little of the glorious imperfections which teeter and fall off the best minds. The men who have been in this war deserve some sort of trembling melody rendered without embarrassment or regret. I’ll watch for that book.

~ J.d. Salinger

A novel is just a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.

~ George Saunders

If we're lucky, writer and reader alike, we'll finish the last line or two of a short story and then just sit for a minute, quietly. Ideally, we'll ponder what we've just written or read; maybe our hearts or intellects will have been moved off the peg just a little from where they were before. Our body temperature will have gone up, or down, by a degree. Then, breathing evenly and steadily once more, we'll collect ourselves, writers and readers alike, get up, created of warm blood and nerves as a Chekhov character puts it, and go on to the next thing: Life. Always life.

~ Raymond Carver

You can take the barbarian out of the tavern, but he can take the blood out of your body.

~ Greg X. Graves

It was as if my sould had left my body, floated up to the ceiling, and was watching me destroy my own career with one deliberately assaultive punch. (Dark City Lights)

~ Peter Hochstein

I never sleep well when I'm on call.

~ Joshua Tuttle

But I want to assure you, if it’s your last day on earth, even after 2,000 years, I strongly suggest you go for the Versace leaf halter dress.

~ Richard Finney

The Grim Reaper isn't grim at all; he's a life-saver. He isn't grim because he isn't anything. . . . he is nothing. And nothing is a hell of a lot better than anything. So long, boys.

~ Jack Kerouac

Remove the computer chipslodged in your brain before they convince youthat you’ve gone insane…Take a bite out of realityinstead of becominga reality byte.

~ Kitty Clairmont

Only criminals and madmen walk into Central Park after midnight...or, occasionally, an actor. (Dark City Lights)

~ Jane Dentinger

This isn't where I intended to be. Killing a person has a funny way of getting your life off-track.

~ Erin Mitchell

We skipped right over Walmart on the ladder down.

~ Tyler Barton

At least a hospital stay will give him an excuse to halt the job hunt.

~ Stephanie Bramson

The train hit her with the sound of a meat-filled hefty bag smacking the pavement, and the effect was much the same, I guess. (Dark City Lights)

~ Warren Moore

He didn't give a shit if Shakespeare didn't have glitter back in his day.

~ Tiffany Ferentini

Everyone loves a goddamned trainwreck, after all.

~ Carolyn Drake

Cigarette smoke when i didn't ask for it. Never when I did.

~ Ifra Asad

I want to spank you, but also want to know you want it. I need to hear it sweetheart, tell me you deserve it…

~ Felicity Brandon

As though you read my mind, you steady my headbetween your hands and eye me intensely. Then yourmouth is on mine, hungry and aggressive. Your teethskim my lips, claiming me and I feel your tongue probinginside of my mouth. The kiss ends as dramatically as itbegan, leaving me reeling and wanting more.

~ Felicity Brandon

Turn around.”Only two words, but they deliver such a sensual threat.I do as you ask without question. You are right behind me, breathing hard into the small of my neck, where I like to be kissed.

~ Felicity Brandon

You raise one eyebrow and regardme with another intense stare. “Start by stripping pleaseJenna.”I hear what you say and yet on some level I can’t quite process it.“Strip?” I ask, as though I don’t understand your demand.“Yes, strip. Take off all of your clothes. I want to see you naked. Now please.”I feel dazed, yet I let my jacket fall to the floor, and start work on my shirt buttons. Your eyes never leave me.I can feel them mining into me whilst I tackle the third button. Why is this so weird? You’re my husband afterall. You’ve seen me undress and naked countless times.Yet this is different. I am not just undressing, I am stripping. It’s not my decision; it’s at your command. You are not just Oliver now; you’re my Husband – some dominant entity now in charge. For some strange reason, I am finding it really hot! The look in your eyes is not just appreciative; it’s carnal. Waves begin to rise in my pool of desire.

~ Felicity Brandon

That’s enough naughty girl,” you say in a mocking tone, “I am going to put you over my knee and spank you for being such a bad wife tonight. It will hurt, but you’re going to enjoy it a lot more than you’ll admit…

~ Felicity Brandon

You create your own reality.

~ Seth

I read your diary. I KNOW.

~ Mary Papas

The only man she ever loved. And hated.

~ Mary Papas

Just forget for a minute that you have spectacles on your nose and autumn in your heart. Stop being tough at your desk and stammering with timidity in the presence of people. Imagine for one second that you raise hell in public and stammer on paper. You’re a tiger, a lion, a cat. You spend a night with a Russian woman and leave her satisfied. You’re twenty five. If rings had been fastened to the earth and sky, you’d have seized them and pulled the sky down to earth

~ Isaac Babel