Crawford Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Crawford. Here they are! All 100 of them:

Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.
Joan Crawford
Fanny! You are killing me!" "No man dies of love but on the stage, Mr. Crawford.
Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)
Don't fuck with me, fellas. This ain't my first time at the rodeo.
Joan Crawford
Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.
Roger Crawford
People never like me and I never like people," she thought. "And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always talking and laughing and making noises.
Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden (Dover Children's Evergreen Classics))
I think that the most important thing a woman can have- next to talent, of course- is her hairdresser.
Joan Crawford
I find suggestion a hell of a lot more provocative than explicit detail. You didn't see Clark[Gable] and Vivien[leigh] rolling around in bed in Gone With The Wind, but you saw that shit eating grin on her face the next morning and you knew damned well she'd gotten properly laid.
Joan Crawford
My mother used to say that houses have a soul, and if that is true, the soul of Verity Crawford’s house is as dark as they come.
Colleen Hoover (Verity)
When she left, it was like someone had ripped my heart out, crumbled it up like a flimsy piece of loose leaf paper and crammed it back into my chest. It somehow managed to work, but it would never, ever feel the same.
Steph Campbell (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
You can t coast uphill.
Roger Crawford
I understand Crawford paid you a visit?" "Yes." "And was he attentive?" "Yes, very." "And has your heart changed towards him?" "Yes. Several times. I have - I find that I - I find that-" "Shh. Surely you and I are beyond speaking when words are clearly not enough.... I missed you." "And I you.
Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)
Any actress who appears in public without being well-groomed is digging her own grave.
Joan Crawford
I need sex for a clear complexion, but I'd rather do it for love.
Joan Crawford (My Way of Life)
Daylight...In my mind, the night faded. It was daytime and the neighborhood was busy. Miss Stephenie Crawford crossed the street to tell the latest to Miss Rachel. Miss Maudie bent over the azaleas. It was summertime, and two children scampered down the sidewalk toward a man approaching in the distance. The man waved, and the children raced each other to him. It was still summertime, and the children came closer. A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishingpole behind him. A man stood waiting with his hands on his hips. Summertime, and his children played in the front yeard with their friend, enacting a strange little drama of their own invention. It was fall and his children fought ont he sidewalk in front of Mrs. Dubose's. The boy helped his sister to her feet and they made their way home. Fall, and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day's woe's and triymph's on their face. They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled apprehensive. Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and show a dog. Summer, and he watched his children's heart break. Autumn again, and Boo's children needed him.
Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
I love playing bitches. There's a lot of bitch in every woman - a lot in every man.
Joan Crawford
Screw the daring tough guy image, what happened with us broke me.
Steph Campbell (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
You start out happy that you have no hips or boobs. All of a sudden you get them, and it feels sloppy. Then just when you start liking them, they start drooping.
Cindy Crawford
I was beautiful; after all, my skin was as rich and dark as wet, brown mud, a complexion that any and every pale white girl would pray for - that is, if she believed in God. My butt sat high in the air and my hips obviously gave birth to Creation. Titties like mangoes, firm, sweet, and ready. My thighs and legs were big and powerful, kicking Vanna White and Cindy Crawford to the curb.
Sister Souljah (No Disrespect)
Because brothers don’t let each other wander in the dark alone
Jolene Perry (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
Always a trade. Always a compromise. Until there wasn't anything left to bargain with, because neither one us had any clue what to do.
Steph Campbell (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
A cool breeze stirred my hair at that moment, as the night wind began to come down from the hills, but it felt like a breath from another world.
F. Marion Crawford (For the Blood is the Life and Other Stories)
If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.
Joan Crawford
knowledge without application is like a book that is never read' Christopher Crawford, Hemel Hempstead.
Christopher Crawford
It seems to me,’ said Philippa prosaically, ‘that on the whole we run more risks with Mr Crawford’s protection than without it.
Dorothy Dunnett (Pawn in Frankincense (The Lymond Chronicles, #4))
These kids are all trying so hard to be weird. I'm genuinely weird, so I can spot the effort a mile away.
Brent Crawford (Carter Finally Gets It (Carter Finally Gets It, #1))
sometimes your bff in life is all you got so hold on to the person forever.
caitlynne crawford
Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me.
Joan Crawford
To dream a garden and then to plant it is an act of independence and even defiance to the greater world.
Stanley Crawford (A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm)
love is fire. but whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house,you can never tell.
Joan Crawford
[The moon] ... is an example of practiced stability … it wanes when it must, and reliably returns to full strength … it is a humble model of reasonable potential that I can emulate, and follow.
Terry Crawford Palardy
That's the point of working with one's hands, you see. It gives the mind something else to do besides worry.
Charles Todd (A Duty to the Dead (Bess Crawford, #1))
When a real battle starts, you’ll always find that there is no bravest man.
Jackson Crawford (The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes)
1. Find your own style and have the courage to stick to it. 2. Choose your clothes for your way of life. 3. Make your wardrobe as versatile as an actress. It should be able to play many roles. 4. Find your happiest colours - the ones that make you feel good. 5. Care for your clothes, like the good friends they are!
Joan Crawford
When the point of education becomes the production of credentials rather than the cultivation of knowledge, it forfeits the motive recognized by Aristotle: "All human beings by nature desire to know.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
My heart for yours," he offers. "Deal.
Jolene Perry (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
It’s a long and crooked walk to a bad friend, even if he lives nearby. But it’s an easy road to a good friend, no matter how long the journey.
Jackson Crawford (The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes)
I must apologize for these damned entrances,’ said Francis Crawford of Lymond. ‘I feel Tom here never knows if he should send for a bishop or start a round of applause.
Dorothy Dunnett (Queens' Play (The Lymond Chronicles, #2))
Crawford was home for a month from the hospital, the chest pains came again in the night. Instead of calling an ambulance and going through it all again, he chose simply to roll over to the solace of his late wife’s side of the bed.
Thomas Harris (Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter, #3))
Simple is good," he said. "I've lived through complicated. Complicated hurts. Simple sustains you. Complicated makes you hungry for simple.
Amy Lane (The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters (Granby Knitting, #1))
I have seen an evil thing this night,' he said; 'I have seen how the dead drink the blood of the living. And the blood is the life.
F. Marion Crawford (For the Blood is the Life and Other Stories)
Miss Gates is a nice lady, ain't she?" Why sure," said Jem. "I liked her when I was in her room." She hates Hitler a lot . . ." What's wrong with that?" Well, she went on today about how bad it was him treating the Jews like that. Jem, it's not right to persecute anybody, is it? I mean have mean thoughts about anybody, even, is it?" Gracious no, Scout. What's eatin' you?" Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was--- she was going' down the steps in front of us, you musta not seen her--- she was talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say it's time somebody time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themelves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home---
Harper Lee
If you expect me to read your mind you're going to have to think more clearly.
Spuds Crawford
Will Graham, the keenest hound ever to run in Crawford’s pack, was a legend at the Academy; he was also a drunk in Florida now with a face that was hard to look at, they said.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
To save our friends’ nerves, I suggest we meet on a plane of brutal courtesy. It need not interfere with our mutual distrust.” -Francis Crawford of Lymond
Dorothy Dunnett (The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3))
Crawford saw that in this place Starling was heir to the granny women, to the wise women, the herb healers, the stalwart country women who have always done the needful, who keep the watch and when the watch is over, wash and dress the country dead.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
A kiss for a kiss. Your shirt for mine. Break my heart, I’ll break yours.
Jolene Perry (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
You didn't know that... that my whole world stopped when I first saw you smile.
Amy Lane (The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters (Granby Knitting, #1))
Well, you have magic, and I have my own superpower. It’s called anxiety.
C.N. Crawford (City of Thorns (The Demon Queen Trials, #1))
We still carry within us, in a small warm spot, the idea of home. Home as a safe place, a loving place and a creative place. Place of comfort and privacy. Place where we can explore our inner life. -Isla Crawford
Louisa Thomsen Brits (The Book of Hygge: The Danish Art of Living Well)
The problem with passion is it goes both ways. Love/Hate. The line between those two is a lot thinner than I thought.
Steph Campbell (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
You look closely enough, you'll find that everything has a weak spot where it can break, sooner or later.
Anthony Hopkins
Everything, it seems to me, has to be purchased by self-sacrifice. Our race has marked every step of its painful ascent with blood. And now torrents of it must flow again. No, Mrs. Crawford, I don't think the war has been sent as a punishment for sin. I think it is the price humanity must pay for some blessing - some advance great enough to be worth the price - which we may not live to see but which our children's children will inherit.
L.M. Montgomery (Rilla of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, #8))
They had me taking the fall for the raid, Mr. Crawford. For Evelda Drumgo’s death, all of it. They were like hyenas and then suddenly it stopped and they slunk away. Something drove them off.” “Maybe you have an angel, Starling.” “Maybe I do. What did it cost you, Mr. Crawford?
Thomas Harris (Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter, #3))
The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on. Boasting is what a boy does, because he has no real effect in the world. But the tradesman must reckon with the infallible judgment of reality, where one’s failures or shortcomings cannot be interpreted away. His well-founded pride is far from the gratuitous “self-esteem” that educators would impart to students, as though by magic.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
Talent is nothing without persistence.
Dean Crawford
I think the most important thing a woman can have - next to talent, of course, - is her hairdresser.
Joan Crawford
When you want to encourage a greater sense of responsibility in others (and yourself), emphasize the anticipation of accomplishment, not the penalties for failure.
Roger Crawford
I never tolerate disrespect or betrayal
S.R. Crawford (Bloodstained Betrayal)
Someday you’re gonna realize that no one on this earth will ever love you the way I do. You’ll wish you’d said the words, wish you’d had this moment back. The truth is whether you say them or not I’ll still go on loving you. Even when it hurts, even when I feel it cut me up inside and I bleed…I’ll still love you, but someday…probably sooner than either of us want it to be….someday…I’ll hate you for it.” Raylan’s words are cruel and wonderful at the same time.
Ashley Jeffery
No wire hangers!
Joan Crawford
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland
Charles River Editors (Hollywood’s 10 Greatest Actresses: Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, and Joan Crawford)
Craftsmanship means dwelling on a task for a long time and going deeply into it, because you want to get it right.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work)
Learn to breathe, learn to speak , but first ..learn to feel
Joan Crawford
You don’t even know me, or what I am capable of, boy.
S.R. Crawford (No Secrets: Remastered)
A man approaching retirement called the retirement office to inquire about his pension. Afterward, he was asked if his wife worked. “She’s worked all her life making me happy”, he replied. “Yes sir, but has she earned money to receive her pension?” “When we got married we agreed on an arrangement”, he said. “I would earn the living, and she would make the living worthwhile”. “Make the living worthwhile”…have we forgotten the very essence of that? Have we forgotten to live for someone else, that doing so IS what makes a living worthwhile?
Kelly Crawford
In times of stress and danger such as come about as the result of an epidemic, many tragic and cruel phases of human nature are brought out, as well as many brave and unselfish ones.
William Crawford Gorgas (Sanitation in Panama (Classic Reprint))
Psychologists have suggested that attention may be categorized by whether it is goal-driven or stimulus-driven, corresponding to whether it is in the service of one’s own will or not.
Matthew B. Crawford (The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction)
I used to try to hypnotize myself into a Zen-like state of resignation at the outset. It doesn't work, not for this grasshopper. I have my own process, as they say. I call it the motherfucker process.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
My knitting is simple", he said again. Ï can make anything you want with it, but it will always be simple.
Amy Lane (The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters (Granby Knitting, #1))
To make you hate me The impossible task Wasn't as hard As I'd hoped
Jolene Perry (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
Tell your secret to one person, never to two— everyone knows, if three people know.
Jackson Crawford (The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes)
Well, you know, I might try out for the musical," I say real quick. [...] She nods and says, "You should. We need guys." [...] She smiles and says, "Break a leg" as I walk out. That was uncalled for. "Bitch," I say under my breath as the door closes.
Brent Crawford (Carter Finally Gets It (Carter Finally Gets It, #1))
Ohhh, OH no you didn't!" he screams. "Nobody touches the TERRY!" Then he starts punching himself in he face. This kid really is crazy! I may not even have to fight him. He's doing it for me, and I'm winning!
Brent Crawford (Carter Finally Gets It (Carter Finally Gets It, #1))
Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was-she goin' down the steps in front of us, you musta not seen her- she was talking with Miss Stephen Crawford. I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home-
Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
We both breathe in at the same time. I don’t know if we’re breathing one another in, or if we’re both trying not to cry.
Jolene Perry (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
The girl might have an unsettling crying problem, but she was pure steel.
Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Lexicon)
... my heart skips a beat. Seriously, like a CD from the public library, it goes ZZebbTTT and skips.
Brent Crawford (Carter Finally Gets It (Carter Finally Gets It, #1))
What has life given me? The beginning is fire, the end is a heap of ashes, and between the end and the beginning lies all the pain in the world.
F. Marion Crawford
Did I ever tell you,’ said Lymond pausing on the afterthought, on his way to the flap, ‘that that aunt of mine once hatched an egg?’ He paused, deep in thought, and walked slowly to the door before turning again. His lordship of Aubigny, staring after the vanishing form of his brother, received the full splendour of Lymond’s smile. ‘It was a cuckoo,’ said Francis Crawford prosaically, and followed Lennox out.
Dorothy Dunnett (Queens' Play (The Lymond Chronicles, #2))
We're not as free and independent as we thought. Street-level work that disrupts the infrastructure (the sewer system below or the electrical grid above) brings our shared dependence into view. People may inhabit very different worlds even in the same city, according to their wealth or poverty. Yet we all live in the same physical reality, ultimately, and owe a common debt to the world.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
We had it drilled into us time and time again: 'If someone above you falls, grip tightly to the vertical rope and cradle that person in your arms until help can get to you.'...If someone fell down on me I swear I would have bitten him on the ass and would keep on biting until he got off onhis own.
C.S. Crawford (The Four Deuces: A Korean War Story)
I purposefully abstain from dates on this occasion,that very one may be liberty to fix their own,aware that the cure of unconquerable passions,and the transfer of unchanging attachments,must vary much as to time in different people.---I only entreat every body to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier,Edmund did cease to care about Miss Crawford, and become anxious to marry Fanny,as Fanny herself could desire.
Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)
There are only three options for black sheep: live authentically and get kicked out of the community, have the courage to move out on your own and rebuild from scratch, or hide your true self and desperately try to fit in (which you never will).
Ben Crawford (2,000 Miles Together: The Story of the Largest Family to Hike the Appalachian Trail)
Lymond said quietly, ‘You had good reason to hate me. I always understood that. I don’t know why you should think differently now, but take care. Don’t build up another false image. I may be the picturesque sufferer now, but when I have the whip-hold, I shall behave quite as crudely, or worse. I have no pretty faults. Only, sometimes, a purpose.’ He paused, and said, ‘Est conformis precedenti. I owe the Somervilles rather a lot already.’ Philippa’s unwinking brown gaze flickered shiftily at the Latin and then steadied. 'I should have told you before. You don’t mind?’ ‘If you had told me before, you might not have decided to have me for a friend. I don’t mind,’ said Francis Crawford and told, for once, the bare truth.
Dorothy Dunnett (The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3))
I teach my sons that there are really only three rules to being a good man. The first rule is to fish often. And by fish, I mean find the quiet times to fish around in your minds for what is most important. The second rule is to protect everyone smaller than them. This means physically smaller, and in all other ways... protect the more vulnerable. The third rule states that if something is truly important to you, then you should prove it. You say you would lay your life down for someone, but will you give them the busiest five minutes of your day, if they need it?
Spuds Crawford
Kate slid to her knees, pulling the child’s head to her breast, her mouth in its hair. “Pippa. Pippa, we’re awful fools. What Father means is that truly nothing we have ever done can harm us, and Mr. Crawford has mixed us up with someone else. But you know what unstable-looking parents you have. He doesn’t believe us, but he says he’ll believe you. It’s not very flattering,” said Kate, looking at her daughter with bright eyes, “but you seem to be the one in the family with an honest sort of face, and your father and I must just be thankful for it. Go over to him, darling. I’ll be behind you. And just speak,” she said with an edge like a razor. “Just speak as you would to the dog.
Dorothy Dunnett (The Game of Kings (The Lymond Chronicles, #1))
He is blinded and nothing will open his eyes,nothing can,after having had truths so long before him in vain.--He will marry her and poor and miserable.God grant that her influence do not make him cease to be respectable!"---She looked over the letter again."So very fond of me!tis"nonsense all.She loves nobody but herself and her brother.Her friends leading her astray for years!She is quite as likely to have led them astray. They have all,perhaps, been corrupting one another;but if they are so much fonder of her than she is of them,she is the less likely to have been hurt except by their flattery.The only woman in the world,whom he could ever think of as a wife.....I firmly believe it.It is an attachment to govern his whole life. Accepted or refused,his heart is wedded to her for ever.The loss of Mary,I must consider as comprehending the loss of Crawford and Fanny.Edmund you do not know me.The families would never be connected,if you did not connected them. Oh!write,write.Finish it at once.Let there be an end of this suspense.Fix, commit,condemn yourself."-Fanny Price
Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)
The idea of autonomy denies that we are born into a world that existed prior to us. It posits an essential aloneness; an autonomous being is free in the sense that a being severed from all others is free. To regard oneself this way is to betray the natural debts we owe to the world, and commit the moral error of ingratitude. For in fact we are basically dependent beings: one upon another, and each on a world that is of our making.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
WHAT IS SAFE? Is safe the hands that hold you no matter what? Or is safe someone hurting enough to fight? Is safe the one who is strong as a pillar? Or is safe who wants to use the strength of two, not one? Is love safe? Or is it better to find comfort? Can there be comfort without love? Can passion come from warmth? Or does it need to come from fire?
Jolene Perry (My Heart for Yours (Crawford, #1))
...if we follow the traces of our own actions to their source, they intimate some understanding of the good life. This understanding may be hard to articulate; bringing it more fully into view is the task of moral inquiry. Such inquiry may be helped along by practical activities in company with others, a sort of conversation in deed. In this conversation lies the potential of work to bring some measure of coherence to our lives.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
Philippa Somerville was annoyed. To her friends the Nixons, who owned Liddel Keep, and with whom Kate had deposited her for one night, she had given an accurate description of Sir William Scott of Kincurd, his height, his skill, his status, and his general suitability as an escort for Philippa Somerville from Liddesdale to Midculter Castle. And the said William Scott had not turned up. She fumed all the morning of that fine first day of May, and by afternoon was driven to revealing her general dissatisfaction with Scotland, the boring nature of Joleta, her extreme dislike of one of the Crawfords and the variable and unreliable nature of the said William Scott. She agreed that the Dowager Lady Culter was adorable, and Mariotta nice, and that she liked the baby.
Dorothy Dunnett (The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3))
It’s so simple, what happened at St. Paul’s. It happens all the time. First, they refused to believe me. Then they shamed me. Then they silenced me. On balance, if this is a girl’s trajectory from dignity to disappearance, I say it is better to be a slut than to be silent. I believe, in fact, that the slur slut carries within it, Trojan-horse style, silence as its true intent. That the opposite of slut is not virtue but voice.
Lacy Crawford (Notes on a Silencing)
Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Saboteur, The Big Clock . . . We lived in monochrome those nights. For me, it was a chance to revisit old friends; for Ed, it was an opportunity to make new ones. And we’d make lists. The Thin Man franchise, ranked from best (the original) to worst (Song of the Thin Man). Top movies from the bumper crop of 1944. Joseph Cotten’s finest moments. I can do lists on my own, of course. For instance: best Hitchcock films not made by Hitchcock. Here we go: Le Boucher, the early Claude Chabrol that Hitch, according to lore, wished he’d directed. Dark Passage, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall—a San Francisco valentine, all velveteen with fog, and antecedent to any movie in which a character goes under the knife to disguise himself. Niagara, starring Marilyn Monroe; Charade, starring Audrey Hepburn; Sudden Fear!, starring Joan Crawford’s eyebrows. Wait Until Dark: Hepburn again, a blind woman stranded in her basement apartment. I’d go berserk in a basement apartment.
A.J. Finn (The Woman in the Window)
There is a classic psychology experiment that seems to confirm Brewer's point. Children who enjoy drawing were given marker pens and allowed to go at it. Some were rewarded for drawing (they were given a certificate with a gold seal and a ribbon, and told ahead of time about this arrangement, whereas for others the issue of rewards was never raised. Weeks later, those who had been rewarded took less interest in drawing, and their drawings were judged to be lower in quality, whereas those who had not been rewarded continued to enjoy the activity and produced higher-quality drawings. The hypothesis is that the child begins to attribute his interest, which previously needed no justification, to the external reward, and this has the effect of reducing his intrinsic interest in it. That is, an external reward can affect one's interpretation of one's own motivation, an interpretation that comes to be self-fulfilling.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
Lately she can read a novel in two hours. She has always been an avid reader, but these days she can read much faster. The colors, the conversations, everything is much more vibrant and inclusive, as if opening a book releases genies trapped inside. The scenes and people between their covers sometimes seem more vivid than real life, with their sunny, pearl-toothed characters, the witty conversation, the handsome stranger squeezed into a subway car or knocking about on the street. Sometimes, when she finishes a book at record speed, Dana feels a slight letdown, as if a good friend has hung up the phone in the middle of a conversation.
Susan H. Crawford (The Pocket Wife)
Think of the corporate manager who gets two hundred emails per day and spends his time responding pell-mell to an incoherent press of demands. The way we experience this, often, is as a crisis of self-ownership: our attention isn’t simply ours to direct where we will, and we complain about it bitterly. Yet this same person may find himself checking his email frequently once he gets home or while on vacation. It becomes effortful for him to be fully present while giving his children a bath or taking a meal with his spouse. Our changing technological environment generates a need for ever more stimulation. The content of the stimulation almost becomes irrelevant. Our distractibility seems to indicate that we are agnostic on the question of what is worth paying attention to—that is, what to value.
Matthew B. Crawford (The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction)
Once, long ago, Francis Crawford had reduced her to terror and, the episode over, she had suffered to find that for Kate, apparently, no reason suggested itself against making that same Francis Crawford her friend. He was not Philippa’s friend. She had made that clear, and, to be fair, he had respected it. He had even, when you thought of it, curtailed his visits to Kate, although Kate’s studied lack of comment on this served only to make Philippa angrier. He had been nasty at Boghall. He had hit her at Liddel Keep. He had stopped her going anywhere for weeks. He had saved her life. That was indisputable. He had been effective over poor Trotty Luckup, while she had been pretty rude, and he hadn’t forced himself on her; and he had made her warm with his cloak. He had gone to Liddel Keep expressly to warn her, and when she had been pig-headed about leaving (Kate was right) he had done the only thing possible to make her. And then he had come to Flaw Valleys for nothing but to make sure of her safety, and he had been so tired that Kate had cried after he had gone. And then it had suddenly struck her, firmly and deeply in her shamefully flat chest, so that her heart thumped and her eyes filled with tears, that maybe she was wrong. Put together everything you knew of Francis Crawford. Put together what you had heard at Boghall and at Midculter, what you had seen at Flaw Valleys, and it all added up to one enormous, soul-crushing entity. She had been wrong. She did not understand him; she had never met anyone like him; she was only beginning to glimpse what Kate, poor maligned Kate, must have seen all these years under the talk. But the fact remained that he had gone out of his way to protect her, and she had put his life in jeopardy in return.
Dorothy Dunnett (The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3))
...an external reward can affect one's interpretation of one's own motivation, and interpretation that comes to be self-fulfilling. A similar effect may account for the familiar fact that when someone turns his hobby into a business, he often loses pleasure in it. Likewise, an intellectual who pursues an academic career gets professionalized, and this may lead him to stop thinking. This line of reasoning suggests that the kind of appreciative attention where one remains focused on what one is doing can arise only in leisure activities. Such a conclusion would put pleasurable absorption beyond the ken of any activity that is undertaken for the sake of making money, because although money is undoubtedly good, it is not intrinsically so.
Matthew B. Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work)
If I weren't so screwed up, I would've sold my soul a long time ago for a handsome man who made me feel pretty or who could at least treat me to a Millionaire's Martini. Instead I lingered over a watered down Sparkling Apple and felt sorry about what I was about to do to the blue-eyed bartender standing in front of me. Although I shouldn’t, after all, I am a bail recovery agent. It's my job to get my skip, no matter the cost.If I weren't so screwed up, I would've sold my soul a long time ago for a handsome man who made me feel pretty or who could at least treat me to a Millionaire's Martini. Instead I lingered over a watered down Sparkling Apple and felt sorry about what I was about to do to the blue-eyed bartender standing in front of me. Although I shouldn't, after all, I am a bail recovery agent. It's my job to get my skip, no matter the cost. Yet, I had been wondering lately. What was this job costing me? Yet, I had been wondering lately. What was this job costing me?
Miranda Parker (A Good Excuse to Be Bad (Angel Crawford Series, #1))
In Calvin’s time, one might have had a hereditary occupation. And as recently as the 1970s, it was possible to compose a working life centered around the steady accumulation of experience, and be valued in the workplace for that experience; for what you have become. But, as the sociologist Richard Sennett has shown in his studies of contemporary work, it has become difficult to experience the repose of any such settled identity. The ideal of being experienced has given way to the ideal of being flexible. What is demanded is an all-purpose intelligence, the kind one is certified to have by admission to an elite university, not anything in particular that you might have learned along the way. You have to be ready to reinvent yourself at any time, like a good democratic Übermensch. And while in Calvin’s time the threat of damnation might have been dismissed by some as a mere superstition, with our winner-take-all economy the risk of damnation has acquired real teeth. There is a real chance that you may get stuck at the bottom.
Matthew B. Crawford (The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction)