“
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
”
”
Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
“
You eat like a caveman."
"No, I don't," he says angrily. And then, a moment later: "Do I?"
Warner to Kenji
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Defy Me (Shatter Me, #5))
“
My domineering lover made no apologies for his caveman tendencies.
”
”
Sylvia Day (Entwined with You (Crossfire, #3))
“
Are you upset that you can’t stomp around like a caveman and pee on my leg?” I poked his shoulder. “I’m not a tree, Your Highness.
”
”
Nichole Chase (Suddenly Royal (The Royals, #1))
“
On the other hand, when you grow up you will discover that some of the people in this world never passed beyond the stage of the cave-man.
”
”
Hendrik Willem van Loon (The Story of Mankind)
“
Kaidan leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his bare chest. His father looked up at him and chuckled low.
“Look at my boy standing there,” he said to me. “Such a caveman. Son, find a shirt and join us.
”
”
Wendy Higgins (Sweet Evil (Sweet, #1))
“
We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new worlds with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing. We take it for granted so simply that in a sense, by the very act of brutish routine acceptance, we undo the work of the ages, the history of the gradual elaboration of poetical description and construction, from the treeman to Browning, from the caveman to Keats. What if we awake one day, all of us, and find ourselves utterly unable to read? I wish you to gasp not only at what you read but at the miracle of its being readable.
”
”
Vladimir Nabokov (Pale Fire)
“
Well, let me tell you something, Caveman. You are here on account of one person. If it wasn't for that person, you wouldn't be here digging holes in the hot sun. You know who that person is?"
"My no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.
”
”
Louis Sachar (Holes (Holes, #1))
“
This is just shit. It's happening. No blame. Happening and on the rise it would appear. What can we do to delay it? Probably zilch. To stop it? Likely less. But to survive it? Now that sounds more promising. There is evidence of bad shit having been survived before. Ancient Advice Left in cave by Wise French Caveman: "When Bigbad Shit come, no run scream hide. Try paint picture of it on wall. Drum to it. Sing to it. Dance to it. This give you handle on it." So Twister is my try.
Ken Kesey in a letter to Allen Ginsberg (August 1993)
”
”
Ken Kesey
“
Of course, now I had the problem of communicating what I needed. Marlen was still beating on the door, and Dimitri would be up in a couple of minutes. I glared at the human, hoping I looked terrifying. From his expression, I did. I attempted the caveman talk I had with Inna...only this time the message was a little harder.
"Stick," I said in Russian. I had no clue what the word for stake was. I pointed at the silver ring I wore and made a slashing motion. "Stick. Where?"
He stared at me in utter confusion and then asked, in perfect English, "Why are you talking like that?"
"Oh for God's sake," I exclaimed. "Where is the vault?"
"Vault?"
"A place they keep weapons?"
He continued staring.
"Oh," he said. "That." Uneasily, he cast his eyes in the direction of the pounding.
”
”
Richelle Mead (Blood Promise (Vampire Academy, #4))
“
I didn't know you were such a caveman."
"I'm a damn contractor. Of course I'm a fucking caveman.
”
”
Madeleine Beckett (Color of Loneliness (Color, #1))
“
And then you came into my life, and you just blindsided me. I am so fucking wrapped up in you I can’t see straight, and you tell me I’m a caveman for wanting to protect you and that our relationship is bullshit.
”
”
Kristen Proby (Fight with Me (With Me in Seattle, #2))
“
It's just one thing after another. Cars that won't run. Planes that will never fly again. Computer systems we can barely use, let alone re-create. It's like...time is flowing backward. We're caveman archeologists in the ruins of the future.
”
”
Dan Wells (Fragments (Partials Sequence, #2))
“
You. Naked. In the shower. Now."
"You. Caveman. Go screw yourself.
”
”
Emily Snow (Savor You (Savor Us, #1))
“
Adjusting to Beau being a caveman over a girl had been almost as hard as seeing him with Ash. Beau didn't do jealous, not until Ashton had become his. Now he was a freaking lunatic.
”
”
Abbi Glines (The Vincent Brothers (The Vincent Boys, #2))
“
Why do you have an unconscious female in your arms? I’m trying not to judge but she smells of fear. Did you scare her enough that she fainted and now you’re pulling a caveman stunt to carry her off to your room to kiss it all better
”
”
Laurann Dohner (True (New Species, #11))
“
You have a habit of carrying me up stairs". I laughed nervously as he effortlessly ascended.
"I'm part caveman, you know, I can't help it. Something about you brings it out in me.
”
”
Natasha Boyd (Eversea (Butler Cove, #1))
“
I am honestly starting to question evolution. We went from cavemen, to homo sapiens, to this incredible society of great minds—Alexander Graham Bell inventing telephones, Steve Jobs inventing…everything. And now we’re devolving. We’ve travelled back to cavemen, only nowadays we call them fuckboys.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Risk (Briar U, #2))
“
I'm so in love with you, caveman."
"You can't take that back.
”
”
RuNyx (The Reaper (Dark Verse, #2))
“
She thought she heard a faint growl. She listened harder. The warrior with all the gorgeous black hair was growling. Because she's said the other man was good-looking and muscular? Uh-huh. A clear case of caveman possessiveness...and it kind of got to her.
”
”
Caris Roane (Ascension (Guardians of Ascension, #1))
“
You, caveman, are the best surprise I've had in…my entire life.
”
”
Georgia Cates (Beauty from Surrender (Beauty, #2))
“
Her lips taste like mint from toothpaste or gum, or sometimes like cherries or grapes from her lip gloss. She's soft when I hold her, with curves where my hands rest, and when I touch her I think stupid caveman things like, mine and totally mine—oh yeah, and all mine.
”
”
Susan Vaught (Going Underground)
“
We're not hunter-gatherers anymore. We're all living like patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. What keeps us alive isn't bravery, or athleticism, or any of those other skills that were valuable in a caveman society. It's our ability to master complex technological skills. It is our ability to be nerds. We need to breed nerds.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Seveneves)
“
The caveman in me was pretty proud of myself as I did the metaphorical Tarzan beat-on-the-ole-chest routine. Good thing I was smart enough to keep my trap shut about it.
”
”
Raine Miller (Eyes Wide Open (The Blackstone Affair, #3))
Gail McHugh (Pulse (Collide, #2))
“
Kissing meant he had to touch. Touching meant he wanted to crush her under him. Getting her under him meant he had to be inside her, and when he got there the only thing that kept him from losing it and going all caveman on her was the knowledge that he’d scare her to death if he did.
”
”
Anne Calhoun (Liberating Lacey)
“
It fascinated me how depression and anxiety overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder. Had we been through some trauma we didn't know about? Was the noise and speed of modern life the trauma for our caveman brains? Was I that soft? Or was life a kind of war most people didn't see?
”
”
Matt Haig (Reasons to Stay Alive)
Kristen Ashley (Knight (Unfinished Hero, #1))
“
But I’m definitely pulling the alpha caveman card on your pretty little ass during our sexcapade.
”
”
Gail McHugh (Pulse (Collide, #2))
“
I saw more than a few guys checking her out. I couldn't help putting my arm around her, and bringing her into me. Because it's the stone age and I'm a caveman.
”
”
Jay McLean (More Than This (More Than, #1))
“
Anxiety has a purpose. Originally the purpose was to protect the existence of the caveman from wild beasts and savage neighbors. Nowadays the ocassions for anxiety are very different - we are afraid of losing out in the competition, feeling unwanted, isolated, and ostracized. But the purpose of anxiety is still to protect us from dangers that threaten the same things: our existence or values that we identify with our existence. This normal anxiety of life cannot be avoided except at the price of apathy or the numbing of one's sensibilities and imagination.
”
”
Rollo May (The Meaning of Anxiety)
“
He was an animal. He was terrifying. And he was beautiful. I realized that I was biting my lip, that my hand was wound into the ruffled fabric at my chest. Something in me was drawn to the carnage. Like so many women before me, I was a slave to the caveman brain, that deep old part of my DNA that whispered that ferocity would keep me safe and fed and alive and that I should most definitely find the fiercest creature around and hump it.
”
”
Delilah S. Dawson (Wicked as They Come (Blud, #1))
“
Christ. Women. I don't get you. I protect you, you get pissy. I don't protect you, you get pissy. I open doors, I'm patronizing. I don't open doors, I'm a caveman, wich by the way, I am. What the bipolar fuck? Beginning to think you babes don't have any clue what you want, or change your mind constantly just to dick with us.
”
”
Karen Marie Moning (High Voltage (Fever, #10))
“
My chest expanded and I suddenly wanted to beat on it with my fist. The girl was making me go all caveman." -Marcus Hardy
”
”
Abbi Glines (Breathe (Sea Breeze, #1))
“
She smiled then, an adorable, sweet smile that took his breath away. He forgot all about trying to maintain an air of civility. His inner caveman came barreling out, grunting and pounding his chest and muttering unintelligible words.
”
”
Maya Banks (Tempted (Pregnancy & Passion, #3))
“
I’m going to make you come shopping with me for maternity clothes."
"I can handle it. In fact, I’m rather looking forward to you having a bump."
He smoothed a hand across my stomach, something he’d taken to doing a lot. "My bump? Why?"
"It’s a caveman thing," he joked.
"Elaborate." I repeated his word back at him.
[...]
"When every man sees our bump, they’ll know I was the one you let inside you, they’ll know you’re mine and I’m yours, and that growing inside you is our kid.
”
”
Samantha Young (Castle Hill (On Dublin Street, #3.5))
“
And that would make you – (Geary)
A Cro-Mag, so yeah, when you call me a barbaric caveman, I am. Literally. Hell, I even knew a couple Neanderthals who once kicked my ass all over what is now Toledo, Spain. But here’s the fun part. Your boyfriend over there is even older than I am and he’s considered a baby by his family. (ZT)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (The Dream-Hunter (Dark-Hunter, #10; Dream-Hunter, #1))
“
My inner caveman demands she knows I’m a good provider. I’ll get her the best booth, order any food she wants, kill potential predators, and buy her the best cave on the block. I’ll do whatever it takes to make Daisy smile at me.
”
”
Bijou Hunter (Bourbon Blues (Serrated Brotherhood MC, #1))
“
Ever since the first caveman discovered fire and decided that the ones still living in darkness were benighted, it's been civilization against barbarism . . . with every age having its own barbarians.
”
”
Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1))
“
My woman. She had a momentary image of a caveman, hanging on to his woman by the hair with one hand while in the other he wielded a club to beat back caveman number two. Perhaps she would sketch it one day.
”
”
Mary Balogh (The Arrangement (The Survivors' Club, #2))
“
Hemorrhoids. Cockroaches. Anal warts. Lonely nights. Smoking's ravages. AIDS. All the ads promised relief from these things, but where was the relief from these ads?
”
”
George Dawes Green (The Caveman's Valentine)
“
Her smile was lighter fluid to his testosterone. He was full caveman for a few heartbeats.
”
”
Debra Anastasia (Saving Poughkeepsie (Poughkeepsie Brotherhood, #3))
“
She looks very engaged wearing that rock, and it has the caveman inside of me beating his proverbial chest. Someone should tell him this is fake.
”
”
Elsie Silver (Hopeless (Chestnut Springs, #5))
“
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
”
”
Henry Wotton
“
If the caveman had known how to laugh, history would have been different.
”
”
Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray (Everyman S))
“
It’s like . . . time is flowing backward. We’re caveman archeologists in the ruins of the future.
”
”
Dan Wells (Fragments (Partials, #2))
“
This caveman just made your panties wet with a kiss, and you’re the only item on the menu that I want to dine on.” A delicious shiver crept down my spine. “I'm not food.” “You’re right, Syn. You are so much more…and I wouldn’t want word getting out that I like to play with my food.” I pulled away. “It's not funny, and I'm not a fucking Fairy happy meal, Ryder!
”
”
Amelia Hutchins (Taunting Destiny (The Fae Chronicles, #2))
“
I’ve no time to wait on your feminine games. We leave now.” In true caveman style, he upended her over his shoulder despite her squealed, “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh, stuff it. A deal is a deal. I told you I needed your help. You agreed so long as we escaped. Congratulations. We’re escaping. Now, make it good for the cameras, would you? I’ve got a reputation to create.
”
”
Eve Langlais (Mercenary Abduction (Alien Abduction, #4))
“
You have to understand, before now, I hadn’t been entirely certain Reece even realized I was female. Yet here he was, edging toward me as if I was territory to be protected. Something Mal didn’t intend to allow if his side-stepping maneuver meant anything. It was like some strange animalistic caveman dance, the two of them slowly hemming me in. Amusing in a way.
The first male to pee on me, however, would pay with his balls.
”
”
Kylie Scott (Play (Stage Dive, #2))
“
She looked at Connor. “How old are you?”
His jaw shifted. “I doona discuss my private life.”
“I can translate that for you,” Phineas offered. “It means he’s embarrassed he was a caveman and ate brontosaurus burgers for lunch.”
Connor arched an eyebrow at him. “The correct translation is ‘sod off.’
”
”
Kerrelyn Sparks (Vampire Mine (Love at Stake, #10))
“
Chelsea’s arms flail out to her sides and she yells, “Who are you?”
“I’m your husband.”
“Really? I don’t remember exchanging rings with a fucking caveman!”
I lean down over her, almost nose to nose. “Then you weren’t paying close enough attention.”
...
Brent would say this is healthy – getting it all out in the open. That theory can go suck a dick.
”
”
Emma Chase (Sidebarred (The Legal Briefs, #3.5))
“
I giggle. It's fun to watch him go all caveman "me take care of my woman.
”
”
Kaylee Ryan (Tempting Tatum)
“
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, history would have been different.
”
”
Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
“
Feeling like a caveman tonight? Or do you still insist you’re immune to such primitive impulses?
”
”
Claire Kent (Escorted (Escorted, #1))
“
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
”
”
Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
“
I dunno, I don't speak caveman
”
”
Svetlana Chmakova (Awkward (Berrybrook Middle School, #1))
“
Well, for her hormones, apparently all it took was saving her life, an unexpected kiss, and hauling her off like some sort of wolf caveman, to turn her into an adventurous vixen.
”
”
Kait Ballenger (Cowboy Wolf Trouble (Seven Range Shifters, #1))
“
The more closely we could associate a diet with cavemen, the more we loved it. Cavemen were not famous for living a long time, but they were famous for being exactly what the fuck they were supposed to be, something we could no longer say about ourselves. A caveman knew what he was; the adjective was a sheltering stone curve over his head. A man alone under the sky had no idea.
”
”
Patricia Lockwood (No One Is Talking About This)
“
The lack of a clear set of values and beliefs, along with the weak culture that resulted, created the conditions for an every-man-for-himself environment, the long-term impact of which could yield little else than disaster. This is caveman stuff.
”
”
Simon Sinek (Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action)
“
No, they would not be happy to take my place at your side, cara mia, because I would promptly end their lives in a most unhappy way.’
‘You are such a caveman, Julian. You look tall and elegant and princely, yet you have not matured beyond the cave.’
…’I have no intention of riding above caveman mentality,’ he growled in her ear, his breath teasing tendrils of hair and sending little flames dancing through her bloodstream. ‘There are so many benefits for the caveman.
”
”
Christine Feehan (Dark Challenge (Dark, #5))
“
I can see what a shock and how lonely it must have been when she went to the United States—from being surrounded by all these people who look like you, talk like you, accept your existence inherently, to living permanently in a place where all the opposites are true.
When she first got here, a dentist took one look at her teeth and said she had "the mouth of a caveman." I used to think it was funny, like you might when you read that, but the truth is that American society, while being so rife with opportunity and so incredible in so many ways, also generally made her feel primitive.
”
”
Ali Wong (Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life)
“
He wrapped her hair around his fist, tilted her head back, and kissed her. Hard. She moaned into him, and he pulled away.
"Possessive much?" she asked on a laugh.
"Just making sure these hooligans know you're mine."
Her brow rose. "Really? Yours? Talk about caveman."
"I'm a Gallagher, baby, I'm as caveman as they come.
”
”
Carrie Ann Ryan (Love Restored (Gallagher Brothers, #1))
“
Understand this,” Callum says quietly. “You’re coming to that dinner tonight, even if I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you like a caveman. You can be wearing the dress when I do that, or I swear to god, Aida, I will haul you there naked and make you sit in your seat in front of everyone. Don’t fucking test me.
”
”
Sophie Lark (Brutal Prince (Brutal Birthright, #1))
“
He comes over to pick me up and help me into the truck. “Yeah no homeboy, I’ll walk. I don’t want to hurt you.” He stops and looks down to me, “Vicky, don’t be stubborn and let me help you into the truck.” I pull myself up into my seat. “See, no help. Save the caveman bullshit for Barbie sluts that need it. I’m a strong independent woma—“he cuts me off by slamming the door. “Well, that was rude,” I mumble to myself as he gets back into the truck.
”
”
Amo Jones (Intricate Love (Sinful Souls MC #2))
“
My inner caveman decided it didn’t matter. Fuck safety, and fuck picket fences. London Armstrong obviously couldn’t take care of herself, which meant someone needed to step in and fix this shit. If that meant claiming her, so be it.
”
”
Joanna Wylde (Reaper's Stand (Reapers MC, #4))
“
Caveman post therapy was still caveman.
”
”
R.K. Lilley (Lovely Trigger (Tristan & Danika, #3))
“
As long as I can throw you on the bed like a caveman and pummel you to orgasm with my love-club, I’m good.
”
”
Nalini Singh (Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2))
“
I know I don't own you and shit. I'm not a caveman. But nobody fucks with you. You're mine, and I'm not going to fucking apologize for it, so you can just deal.
”
”
Sabrina Paige (Elias (West Bend Saints, #1))
“
The bulky caveman boot certainly has a modern heir: Uggs. I feel they are aptly named and don't belong in this millennium, but I realize I'm in the minority on that.
”
”
Tim Gunn (Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible)
“
My brain goes caveman on me. Summer scream. Summer danger. Save Summer.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Chase (Briar U, #1))
“
A sprinkle of the caveman mentality and a dash of gentleman.
”
”
Shanora Williams (Wanting Mr. Cane (Cane, #1))
“
A sweetheart in the streets, but a caveman in the sheets.
”
”
Natalie Rios (Player)
“
Maybe men who still have the cave-man expectations of women should be sent back into caves. A lot of women will readily volunteer to build such caves free of charge.
”
”
Dauglas Dauglas (Roses in the Rainbow)
“
I got out of the truck, half-hoping she would be too sleepy to walk. I wanted to carry her. She brought out the caveman in me.
”
”
Debra Anastasia (Mercy (Mercy #1))
“
I do not belong to you, or to anyone else. I will talk to whomever I want, whenever I want.”
“Not if it’s some ass who thinks he can put his hands on you!”
Erica couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Ethan had never acted like this before and the fact that there were so many people to witness it made it that much more horrifying.
“What if it’s some ass who’s acting like a Neanderthal and thinks I am his property?” She spoke through teeth clenched tight.
“You didn’t have a problem with me acting like a caveman last night.
”
”
Melissa Hale (Morning After (Reynolds Security, #1))
“
I don't know if I wanna eat cheese made from sheep. I feel like we need to talk about dairy in general. Who is the first guy who decided to squeeze the thing hanging off an animal and drink whatever came out? Because you KNOW it was a guy - a woman would never be that dumb. Do you think he was dared to do it by his caveman friends? Like, they started with cattle, and then worked their way to a sabertooth...
”
”
T.J. Klune (The Extraordinaries)
“
What the hell is going on?” Bricker asked with amazement as they watched Victor carry Elvi out. “First Basil’s carrying Sherry away, and then Marcus is carting a blubbering Basha off, and now Elvi’s sobbing to beat the band and Victor is playing he-man too. Have the women gone crazy or is this an immortal caveman convention?”
Lucian reached out and biffed the younger man in the back of the head.
“Ow,” Bricker complained, rubbing the spot.
”
”
Lynsay Sands (The Immortal Who Loved Me (Argeneau, #21))
“
Everyone thinks that it was the big strong caveman who got the girl, and for the most part, that may have been true, but physical strength doesn't explain how our species created civilization. I think there was always some scrawny dreamer sitting at the edge of the firelight, who had the ability to imagine dangers, to look into the future in his imagination and see possibilities, and therefore survived to pass his genes on to the next generation. When the big ape men ended up running off the cliff or getting killed while trying to beat a mastodon into submission with a stick, the dreamer was standing back thinking 'Hey, that might work, but you need to run the mastodon off the cliff.' And, then he'd mate with the women left over after the go-getters got killed.
”
”
Christopher Moore (The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (Pine Cove, #2))
“
Like so many women before me, I was a slave to the caveman brain, that deep old part of my DNA that whispered that ferocity would keep me safe and fed and alive and that I should most definitely find the fiercest creature around and hump it.
Dawson, Delilah S. (2012-03-27). Wicked as They Come (Blud) (p. 309). Pocket Books. Kindle Edition.
”
”
Delilah S. Dawson (Wicked as They Come (Blud, #1))
“
Every bride and groom in the history of civilization has gained weight after their wedding day. It is only a matter of time until archaeologists unearth a married caveman who's wearing a pair of old tux pants that were so tight he couldn't get the zipper closed.
”
”
Peter Scott (There's a Spouse in My House: A Humorous Journey Through the First Years of Marriage)
“
If a man loves a girl who is in the first place young and inexperienced; who in the second place is educated with a background of caveman tradition, a middle-ground of poetry and romance, and a foreground of unspoken hope and interest all centering upon the one Event; and who has, furthermore, absolutely no other hope or interest worthy of the name - why, it is a comparatively easy manner to sweep her off her feet with a dashing attack.
”
”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Herland (The Herland Trilogy, #2))
“
Impossible to believe we are truly in God's image. Something of the reptile in us yet, the caveman's allegiance to the spear. A vestige of our time in the swamps. And yet there are those wish to return. Be more like the reptile, they say. Be more like the snake, lying in wait. Of course they do not say snake, they say lion, but there is little difference in character between the two, only in appearance.
”
”
Philipp Meyer (The Son)
“
The rich ruling class has used tribalism, a primitive caveman instinct, to their advantage since the beginning of time. They use it to divide and conquer us. They drive wedges between us peasants and make us fight each other, so we won’t rise up against our rulers and fight them.
You can observe the same old trick everywhere in America today: Red states and blue states are fighting. Christians and Muslims are fighting. Men and women are fighting. Baby Boomers and Millennials are fighting. Black people and white people are fighting.
That doesn’t just happen all by itself. There are always voices instigating these fights.
”
”
Oliver Markus Malloy (How to Defeat the Trump Cult: Want to Save Democracy? Share This Book)
“
You were screaming. I wanted you to stop, I wanted … I wanted you. I wanted you like a caveman wants a wildfire … or the sun. I thought you were going to take me, somehow. Purge me. Use me as an instrument. But you didn’t say anything … I was babbling, Show me. Come on. I’m ready. You kept screaming and screaming … like a baby in pain. So I tried to hurt you—I did hurt you. I reached out for you, and it hurt you … but I wasn’t strong enough. The caveman. The wildfire. The Neolithic priest staggering in front of the falling star.
”
”
Tamsyn Muir (Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3))
“
There's a reason caveman started to develop sophisticated tools before the meteor wiped them all out: It's so they could fucking shave. Do you know how frustrating it must have been to be hunched over all night trying to start a fire only to finally succeed just to have your beard go up in flames? No aloe vera back then.
”
”
Ari Gold (The Gold Standard: Rules to Rule By)
“
Speech therapy is an art that deserves to be more widely known. You cannot imagine the acrobatics your tongue mechanically performs in order to produce all the sounds of a language. Just now I am struggling with the letter l, a pitiful admission for an editor in chief who cannot even pronounce the name of his own magazine! On good days, between coughing fits, I muster enough energy and wind to be able to puff out one or two phonemes. On my birthday, Sandrine managed to get me to pronounce the whole alphabet more or less intelligibly. I could not have had a better present. It was as if those twenty-six letters and been wrenched from the void; my own hoarse voice seemed to emanate from a far-off country. The exhausting exercise left me feeling like a caveman discovering language for the first time. Sometimes the phone interrupts our work, and I take advantage of Sandrine's presence to be in touch with loved ones, to intercept and catch passing fragments of life, the way you catch a butterfly. My daughter, Celeste, tells me of her adventures with her pony. In five months she will be nine. My father tells me how hard it is to stay on his feet. He is fighting undaunted through his ninety-third year. These two are the outer links of the chain of love that surrounds and protects me. I often wonder about the effect of these one-way conversations on those at the other end of the line. I am overwhelmed by them. How dearly I would love to be able to respond with something other than silence to these tender calls. I know that some of them find it unbearable. Sweet Florence refuses to speak to me unless I first breathe noisily into the receiver that Sandrine holds glued to my ear. "Are you there, Jean-Do?" she asks anxiously over the air.
And I have to admit that at times I do not know anymore.
”
”
Jean-Dominique Bauby (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
“
Julian’s not at the house in Bel Air, but there’s a note on the door saying that he might be at some house on King’s Road. Julian’s not at the house on King’s Road either, but some guy with braces and short platinum-blond hair and a bathing suit on lifting weights is in the backyard. He puts one of the weights down and lights a cigarette and asks me if I want a Quaalude. I ask him where Julian is. There’s a girl lying by the pool on a chaise longue, blond, drunk, and she says in a really tired voice, ‘Oh, Julian could be anywhere. Does he owe you money?’ The girl has brought a television outside and is watching some movie about cavemen. ‘No,’ I tell her. ‘Well, that’s good. He promised to pay for a gram of coke I got him.’ She shakes her head. ‘Nope. He never did.’ She shakes her head again, slowly, her voice thick, a bottle of gin, half-empty, by her side. The weightlifter with the braces on asks me if I want to buy a Temple of Doom bootleg cassette. I tell him no and then ask him to tell Julian that I stopped by. The weight-lifter nods his head like he doesn’t understand and the girl asks him if he got the backstage passes to the Missing Persons concert. He says, ‘Yeah, baby,’ and she jumps in the pool. Some caveman gets thrown off a cliff and I split.
”
”
Bret Easton Ellis (Less Than Zero)
“
Another thing I've been trying to do on my walks is to know what I'm looking at, when I'm looking at it. I want to be smart. When I walk down the sidewalk I see about a hundred different kinds of bugs and all I do is point at them like a caveman and say 'Ugh, look, a bug,' but I know each one of them must have a different name and a different reason why and how it came to be on the planet, and I don't know any of that stuff.
”
”
Jack Gantos (What Would Joey Do? (Joey Pigza, #3))
“
To-day all our novels and newspapers will be found to be swarming with numberless allusions to the popular character called a Cave-Man. He seems to be quite familiar to us, not only as a public character but as a private character. His psychology is seriously taken into account in psychological fiction and psychological medicine. So far as I can understand, his chief occupation in life was knocking his wife about, or treating women in general with what is, I believe, known in the world of the film as 'rough stuff.' I have never happeend to come upon the evidence for this idea; and I do not know on what primitive diaries or prehistoric divorce-reports it is founded. Nor, as I have explained elsewhere, have I ever been able to see the probability of it, even considered a priori. We are always told without any explanation or authority that primitive man waved a club and knocked the woman down before he carried her off. But on every animal analogy, it would seem an almost morbid modesty and reluctance, on the part of the lady, always to insist on being knocked down before consenting to be carried off. And I repeat that I can never comprehend why, when the male was so very rude, the female should have been so very refined. The cave-man may have been a brute, but there is no reason why he should have been more brutal than the brutes. And the loves of the giraffes and the river romances of the hippopotami are affected without any of this preliminary fracas or shindy.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton (The Everlasting Man)
“
We men have always fought to protect others... since the ancient times. Even though we were naked, and only had sticks and stones to defend ourselves... we still had the elderly, the young, our wives, friends, family, and homes... and to protect all of that we braved any danger, no matter what... and fought! And even among those cavemen there were useless failures! Just like how we are today! But in the end, even they gathered their courage, and fought! And, not surprisingly, being incompetent... they were killed! Even thought it was the death of an idiot... it was also... the death of a selfless hero!
”
”
Nobuyuki Fukumoto (Saikyō Densetsu Kurosawa 10)
“
See, boys?” Moundshroud’s face flickered with the fire. “The days of the Long Cold are done. Because of this one brave, new-thinking man, summer lives in the winter cave.” “But?” said Tom. “What’s that got to do with Halloween?” “Do? Why, blast my bones, everything. When you and your friends die every day, there’s no time to think of Death, is there? Only time to run. But when you stop running at long last—” He touched the walls. The apemen froze in mid-flight. “—now you have time to think of where you came from, where you’re going. And fire lights the way, boys. Fire and lightning. Morning stars to gaze at. Fire in your own cave to protect you. Only by night fires was the caveman, beastman, able at last to turn his thoughts on a spit and baste them with wonder. The sun died in the sky. Winter came on like a great white beast shaking its fur, burying him. Would spring ever come back to the world? Would the sun be reborn next year or stay murdered? Egyptians asked it. Cavemen asked it a million years before. Will the sun rise tomorrow morning?” “And that’s how Halloween began?” “With such long thoughts at night, boys. And always at the center of it, fire. The sun. The sun dying down the cold sky forever. How that must have scared early man, eh? That was the Big Death. If the sun went away forever, then what?
”
”
Ray Bradbury (The Halloween Tree: A Halloween Classic)
“
This was before the importance of set and setting was understood. I was brought to a basement room, given an injection, and left alone.” A recipe for a bad trip, surely, but Richards had precisely the opposite experience. “I felt immersed in this incredibly detailed imagery that looked like Islamic architecture, with Arabic script, about which I knew nothing. And then I somehow became these exquisitely intricate patterns, losing my usual identity. And all I can say is that the eternal brilliance of mystical consciousness manifested itself. My awareness was flooded with love, beauty, and peace beyond anything I ever had known or imagined to be possible. ‘Awe,’ ‘glory,’ and ‘gratitude’ were the only words that remained relevant.” Descriptions of such experiences always sound a little thin, at least when compared with the emotional impact people are trying to convey; for a life-transforming event, the words can seem paltry. When I mentioned this to Richards, he smiled. “You have to imagine a caveman transported into the middle of Manhattan. He sees buses, cell phones, skyscrapers, airplanes. Then zap him back to his cave. What does he say about the experience? ‘It was big, it was impressive, it was loud.’ He doesn’t have the vocabulary for ‘skyscraper,’ ‘elevator,’ ‘cell phone.’ Maybe he has an intuitive sense there was some sort of significance or order to the scene. But there are words we need that don’t yet exist. We’ve got five crayons when we need fifty thousand different shades.” In
”
”
Michael Pollan (How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence)
“
Sudden loud noise triggers a cluster of split-second protective reflexes known as the startle pattern. You blink to protect your eyes, while your upper body swivels toward the sound to assess the threat. The arms bend and retract to the chest, the shoulders hunch, and the knees bend, all of which combine to make you a smaller, less noticeable target. Snapping the limbs in tight to the torso may also serve to protect your vital innards.‡ You are your own human shield. Siddle says hunching may have evolved to protect the neck: a holdover from caveman days. “A big cat stalking prey will jump the last twenty feet and come down on the back and shoulders and bite through the neck.
”
”
Mary Roach (Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War)
“
Objects and Objectives
To contemplate LEGO. Many colours. Many shapes. Many inventive and useful shapes. Plastic. A versatile and practical substance. Symbolic of the resourcefulness of man. Oil taken from the depths of the very earth. Distillation of said raw material. Chemical processes. Pollution. Creating a product providing hours of constructive play. For children all over the world. Teaching our young. Through enjoyment. Preparing them for further resourcefulness. The progress of our kind.
A book. Many books. Proud liners of walls. Fingered. Taken out with great care. Held open. Gazed upon / into with something like awe. A medium for the recording of and communication of knowledge. From the many to the many. Down the ages. And of art. And of love. But do you hear the trees outside whispering? Do their voices haunt you? No wonder. They are calling for their brothers. Pulped. Pressed. Coated. Printed. Bound. And for their other brothers which made the shelves to hold them. And for the roof over them as well.
From the very beginning - everything at cost. A cave man, to get food, had to deal with the killing. And the bones from one death proved very useful for implementing the death of another.
”
”
Jay Woodman (SPAN)
“
Do I think it was inherent nobility that brought us out here?” He shook his head. “Maybe. I don’t call it nobility, though. I think it’s our innate human need to champion the underdog. We are constant optimists. We’re the emotional descendents of the caveman who stood defiant in the front of the wooly mammoth. We rebuild cities at the base of Vesuvius, get back on the bicycle when we fall off, whack that hornet’s nest every spring. Humans cheer for the couldn’t be, believe in the shouldn’t be. We love causes; the harder, the more lost they are, the more we love them. Is that nobility?Maybe. Maybe it’s a pernicious genetic defect that makes our species susceptible to shared delusion. Whatever it is, it keeps life interesting.
”
”
Cassandra Davis (Dremiks)
“
But it was enough if, in my own bed, my sleep was deep and allowed my mind to relax entirely; then it would let go of the map of the place where I had fallen asleep and, when I woke in the middle of the night, since I did not know where I was, I did not even understand in the first moment who I was; all I had, in its original simplicity, was the sense of existence as it may quiver in the depths of an animal; I was more bereft than a caveman; but then the memory - not yet of the place where I was, but of several of those where I had lived and where I might have been - would come to me like help from on high to pull me out of the void from which I could not have got out on my own; I passed over centuries of civilization in one second, and the image confusedly glimpsed of oil lamps, then of wing-collar shirts, gradually recomposed my self's original features.
”
”
Marcel Proust (Du côté de chez Swann (À la recherche du temps perdu, #1))
“
Her slender arms instantly circled his neck so that she could press her body against his hard frame. "I am a superstar,lifemate,yet you wish to leave me along at every opportunity. There are men everywhere who would be happy to take your place by my side."
He bent his head, his teeth scraping a provocative rythm over her pulse. Desari went liquid, boneless, her stomach clenching in anticipation. "No, they would not be happy to take my place at your side,cara mia, because I would promptly end their lives in a most unhappy way."
"You are such a caveman, Julian. You look tall and elegant and princely, yet you have not matured beyond the cave." Desari allowed her tongue a brief inspection of the taste of his skin. She closed her eyes to savor the moment.
"I have no intention of rising above caveman mentality," he growled in her ear, his breath teasing tendrils of hair and sending little flames dancing through her bloodstream. "There are so many benefits for the caveman."
"You like playing the part of the dominant male,no doubt," she whispered, her voice so husky with need that his body tightened in urgent, painful response. Her mouth moved over his throat, her hands seeking skin beneath his shirt. "I have a need of you, lifemate, and you are deliberately ignoring your sworn duties to me."
"Little minx.
”
”
Christine Feehan (Dark Challenge (Dark, #5))
“
With her hands still fisted in his shirt, she gave a gentle tug until he bent enough that she could kiss him softly. And then not so softly.
“What was that for?” he asked when she pulled free, his voice sexy low and gruff now.
“For being the kind of guy who can admit he has emotions.”
He cupped her face. “We don’t have to tell anyone, right?”
She smiled. “It’ll be our secret.” But then her smile faded because she wasn’t good at secrets.
Or maybe she was too good at them . . . “I’m not helpless,” she said. “I want you to know that.”
“I do know it.” He paused, looking a little irritated again. “Mostly.”
“Good,” she said. “Now that’s settled, you should know, the caveman thing you just pulled . . . it turned me on a little bit.”
He slid her a look. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Looking a little less like he was spoiling for a fight, his hands went to her hips and he pulled her in tighter.
What the hell was she doing? Clearly, she wasn’t equipped to stay strong, and who could? The guy was just too damn potent. Too visceral. Testosterone and pheromones leaked off of him. She dropped her head to his chest. “Ugh. You’re being . . . you.”
“Was that in English?”
“This is all your fault.”
“Nope. Definitely not English.”
“You’re being all hot and sexy, dammit,” she said. She banged her head on his chest a few times. “And I can’t seem to . . . not notice said hotness and sexiness.”
He smiled. “You want me again.”
Again. Still . . . She tossed up her hands. “You wear your stupid sexiness on your sleeve and you don’t even know it.
”
”
Jill Shalvis (Sweet Little Lies (Heartbreaker Bay, #1))
“
It was astonishing how loudly one laughed at tales of gruesome things, of war’s brutality-I with the rest of them. I think at the bottom of it was a sense of the ironical contrast between the normal ways of civilian life and this hark-back to the caveman code. It made all our old philosophy of life monstrously ridiculous. It played the “hat trick” with the gentility of modern manners. Men who had been brought up to Christian virtues, who had prattled their little prayers at mothers’ knees, who had grown up to a love of poetry, painting, music, the gentle arts, over-sensitized to the subtleties of half-tones, delicate scales of emotion, fastidious in their choice of words, in their sense of beauty, found themselves compelled to live and act like ape-men; and it was abominably funny. They laughed at the most frightful episodes, which revealed this contrast between civilized ethics and the old beast law. The more revolting it was the more, sometimes, they shouted with laughter, especially in reminiscence, when the tale was told in the gilded salon of a French chateau, or at a mess-table.
It was, I think, the laughter of mortals at the trick which had been played on them by an ironical fate. They had been taught to believe that the whole object of life was to reach out to beauty and love, and that mankind, in its progress to perfection, had killed the beast instinct, cruelty, blood-lust, the primitive, savage law of survival by tooth and claw and club and ax. All poetry, all art, all religion had preached this gospel and this promise.
Now that ideal had broken like a china vase dashed to hard ground. The contrast between That and This was devastating. It was, in an enormous world-shaking way, like a highly dignified man in a silk hat, morning coat, creased trousers, spats, and patent boots suddenly slipping on a piece of orange-peel and sitting, all of a heap, with silk hat flying, in a filthy gutter. The war-time humor of the soul roared with mirth at the sight of all that dignity and elegance despoiled.
So we laughed merrily, I remember, when a military chaplain (Eton, Christ Church, and Christian service) described how an English sergeant stood round the traverse of a German trench, in a night raid, and as the Germans came his way, thinking to escape, he cleft one skull after another with a steel-studded bludgeon a weapon which he had made with loving craftsmanship on the model of Blunderbore’s club in the pictures of a fairy-tale.
So we laughed at the adventures of a young barrister (a brilliant fellow in the Oxford “Union”) whose pleasure it was to creep out o’ nights into No Man’s Land and lie doggo in a shell-hole close to the enemy’s barbed wire, until presently, after an hour’s waiting or two, a German soldier would crawl out to fetch in a corpse. The English barrister lay with his rifle ready. Where there had been one corpse there were two. Each night he made a notch on his rifle three notches one night to check the number of his victims. Then he came back to breakfast in his dugout with a hearty appetite.
”
”
Phillip Gibbs
“
Beckett watched Cole closely. This had been some next level-bullshit. And Cole had already been through some caveman-brutal violence coming up with his horrible mother. A betrayal like that cut deep and hard. He watched as Cole’s eyes filled up, and he curled his hands into fists. His breath came in gasps. His brother’s reality might possibly be caving in. Who the fuck knew. Beckett put the safety on and set down his gun. He turned in his seat and leaned over, grabbing Cole’s shirt and twisting it hard at his chest, pulling the sobbing man closer to him. It was one of the ways he scared the shit out of people, this look he would give, but not now. “Look at me. Fucking look at me!” Cole’s hazel eyes finally locked on Beckett’s. “You are never alone. You will never be alone! We’re together. Do you understand? I will murder the whole world to keep you out of that shit! It will never happen to you again. Do you hear me? Do you fucking hear me?” Cole screamed back at Beckett. Not words, just a guttural noise. Pain. Pain vocalized. Blake careened the car to the side of the road and cut the lights. After it was in park, he turned and faced Cole as well. Cole screamed again. Anger. Hot tears, rage. Pain, so much pain. Beckett panicked. Was it something I said? Shit. Was I too late? Shit. Blake crawled over the seat, sat next to Cole, and he started screaming too. Jesus Christ. The two of them were fucking insane. And if they were going crazy, he would follow. Beckett crawled over too, sloppy and kicking his brothers as he planted himself in the backseat. It took a second before he could match them, before he could go to that place in his head and heart and scream. But he did. For a few heartbeats, three teenage boys raged at their childhood. They hollered at fate. They screamed out pure need. It was the sound of Peter Pan fucking dying, the ghost of dreams that would never be—until Cole started cough-sob-laughing. It was catching, the sliding from one emotion to another. Blake was next, holding his stomach and laughing. Finally Beckett held his head and did the same. They collapsed in a heap, slapping at each other in their hysteria. When they finally caught their breath, they didn’t need words. They didn’t need anything but each other. Cole put up his arm and Blake and Beckett grabbed on. Never alone.
”
”
Debra Anastasia (Poughkeepsie Begins (Poughkeepsie Brotherhood, #0))