β
Never say 'no' to adventures. Always say 'yes,' otherwise you'll lead a very dull life.
β
β
Ian Fleming
β
You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face
β
β
Ian Fleming (You Only Live Twice (James Bond, #12))
β
I decided as long as I'm going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
β
I, the soul called Wanderer, love you, human Ian. And that will never change, no matter what I might become.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
When it's gone, you'll know what a gift love was. You'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Enduring Love)
β
I don't think we get a choice in who we fall for," Ian whispers. "I think we just do.
β
β
Jodi Picoult (Keeping Faith)
β
It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
I held you in my hands, Wanderer, and you were beautiful.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
I am a poet in deeds--not often in words.
β
β
Ian Fleming (Goldfinger (James Bond, #7))
β
It was always the view of my parents...that hot weather encouraged loose morals among young people.
β
β
Ian McEwan
β
Fine,' Jared snapped. 'But if you try cuddling up to me tonight... so help me, O'Shea."
Ian chuckled. ' Not to sound overly arrogant, but to be perfectly honest, Jared, were I so inclined, I think I could do better.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
This is how the entire course of a life can be changed: by doing nothing.
β
β
Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach)
β
Her name is Wanda, not it. You will not touch her. Any mark you leave on her, I will double on your worthless hide.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
...falling in love could be achieved in a single wordβa glance.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Find you, love you, marry you, and live without shame.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
So the two of you"-Ian tries to find his voice- "I mean, together-- you two could basically--"
"Take over the world?" Warner is looking at the wall now.
"I was going to say you could kick some serious ass, but yeah, that, too, I guess.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
And though you think the world is at your feet, it can rise up and tread on you.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?
β
β
Ian Wallace
β
Luscious, aren't I, poppet? Go on, stare. I don't mind.β
-βYou look like a Dracula porn movie rejectβ
-βLetβs not speak of him. Like the devil, Vlad might appear if we do.β
Denise & Ian
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, #1))
β
Jealous, OβShea?"
"Actually⦠I am.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.
β
β
Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1))
β
A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Was everyone else really as alive as she was?... If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably complicated, with two billion voices, and everyoneβs thoughts striving in equal importance and everyoneβs claim on life as intense, and everyone thinking they were unique, when no one was. One could drown in irrelevance.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Charles, mate, you fret too much. I'm a grown man, I am, and I can blood my handle."
"Handle your blood?" Bones offered dryly.
Ian grinned. "Exactly.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost
β
Wasn't writing a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination?
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Your mum pounced on her and started sucking away. Wouldβve been arousing if not for all the screaming.β
βIan,β Bones drew out warningly.
He grinned. βYouβre right. I was aroused anyway.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (One Grave at a Time (Night Huntress, #6))
β
I've never had a moment's doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life. Cee
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
She lay in the dark and knew everything.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
I resisted the urge to hurl my plate at him. βOf course not, Ian. Itβs just that normally at this hour, Bones and I are fucking like rabbits, so I get twitchy when I have to wait for him to climb aboard.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (At Grave's End (Night Huntress, #3))
β
People are islands,' she said. 'They don't really touch. However close they are, they're really quite separate. Even if they've been married for fifty years.
β
β
Ian Fleming (Casino Royale (James Bond, #1))
β
Eight full lives,β I whispered against his jaw, my voice breaking. βEight full lives and I never found anyone I would stay on a planet for, anyone I would follow when they left. I never found a partner. Why now? Why you? You're not of my species. How can you be my partner?β
βIt's a strange universe,β he murmured.
βIt's not fair,β I complained, echoing Sunny's words. It wasn't fair. How could I find this, find loveβnow, in this eleventh hourβand have to leave it? Was it fair that my soul and body couldn't reconcile? Was it fair that I had to love Melanie, too? Was it fair that Ian would suffer? He deserved happiness if anyone did. Itwasn't fair or right or evenβ¦sane. How could I do this to him?
βI love you,β I whispered.
βDon't say that like you're saying goodbye.β
But I had to. βI, the soul called Wanderer, love you, human Ian. And that will never change, no matter what I might become.β I worded it carefully, so that there would be no lie in my voice.
βIf I were a Dolphin or a Bear or a Flower, it wouldn't matter. I would always love you, always remember you. You will be my only partner.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
I sat down and tried to write a story.
"Ian MacArthur is a wonderful sweet fellow who wears glasses and peers out of them with delight."
That was the first sentence. The problem was that I just couldn't think of the next one. After cleaning my room three times, I decided to leave Ian alone for a while because I was starting to get mad at him.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Saturday)
β
You're shagging a woman who can turn into a dragon? Blast you, Charles, I am sick with envy!
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (One Grave at a Time (Night Huntress, #6))
β
Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action'.
β
β
Ian Fleming (Goldfinger (James Bond, #7))
β
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success
β
β
Ian Fleming
β
I send the picture in a message to Ian that says, "She's gonna have all my babies.
β
β
Colleen Hoover (Ugly Love)
β
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action
β
β
Ian Fleming (Goldfinger (James Bond, #7))
β
If you would take one step forward, darling, you could cry in my arms. And while you do, I'll tell you how sorry I am for everything I've done -" Unable to wait, Ian caught her, pulling her tightly against him. "And when I'm finished," he whispered hoarsely as she wrapped her arms around him and wept brokenly, "you can help me find a way to forgive myself."
Tortured by her tears, he clasped her tighter and rubbed his jaw against her temple, his voice a ravaged whisper: "I'm sorry," he told her. He cupped her face between his palms, tipping it up and gazing into her eyes, his thumbs moving over her wet cheeks. "I'm sorry." Slowly, he bent his head, covering her mouth with his. "I'm so damned sorry.
β
β
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))
β
Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it's okay to be a boy; for girls it's like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading.
β
β
Ian McEwan (The Cement Garden)
β
Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.
β
β
Ian Fleming (Casino Royale (James Bond, #1))
β
Never regret trusting someone. It proves you have a heart. But if he turns out to be a lying worm ... I'm not going to waste my time crying. Because I am way too fabulous for that.
β
β
Jude Watson (Beyond the Grave (The 39 Clues, #4))
β
All she had needed was the certainty of his love, and his reassurance that there was no hurry when a lifetime lay ahead of them.
β
β
Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach)
β
Little Bird, our love has been hard-earned from the very beginning. It is more precious to me than anything on earth. I can't just let go of it. And I won't stop fighting for it." ~ Ian
β
β
Willow Aster (True Love Story)
β
I, the soul named Wanderer, love you, human Ian and that will never change no matter what I might become. If I were a Dolphin or a Bear or a Flower, it wouldn't matter. I would always love you, always remember you. You will be my only partner.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
It was not generally realized that what children mostly wanted was to be left alone.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
No one knows anything, really. It's all rented, or borrowed.
β
β
Ian McEwan
β
And what are you doing with a bloody cat, Charles? Some sort of mascot four our dear Reaper here?"
"Not another word," Spade snapped, getting into the car and seating the carrier on his lap.
"Ian, trust me--don't," Crispin said
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, #1))
β
come back, come back to me
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
You know, at times like this one feels, well, perhaps extinct animals should be left extinct.
β
β
Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1))
β
In my dreams I kiss your cunt, your sweet wet cunt. In my thoughts I make love to you all day long.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be so simple that we couldn't.
β
β
Ian Stewart (The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World)
β
How unhappy does one have to be before living seems worse than dying?
β
β
Deborah Curtis (Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division)
β
The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation--it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Because,β he said quietly as she stood up, βuntil you walked into it, this was an ordinary garden.β
Puzzled, Elizabeth tipped her head. βWhat is it now?β
βHeaven.
β
β
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))
β
Wanderer: You don't really feel that way about me you know. It's this body... she's pretty isn't she?
Ian: She is. Melanie is a very pretty girl. Even beautiful. But pretty as she is, she is a stranger to me. She's not the one I... care about.
Wanderer: It's this body.
Ian: That's not true at all. It's not the face, but the expressions on it. It's not the voice, but what they say. It's not how you look like in that body, it's what you do with it. You are beautiful.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
But what really happened? The answer is simple: the lovers survive and flourish.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
I wanted the monster back and that was plainly wrong.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
He knew these last lines by heart and mouthed them now in the darkness. My reason for life. Not living, but life. That was the touch. And she was his reason for life, and why he must survive.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
I've hurt you terribly my love, and I'll hunt you again during the next fifty years. And you are going to hurt me, Ian-never I hope as much as you are hurting me now. But if that's the way it has to be, then I'll endure it, because the only alternative is to live without you, and that is no life at all. And the difference is that I know it, and you don't... not yet...
β
β
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))
β
Dearest Cecilia, Youβd be forgiven for thinking me mad, the way I acted this afternoon. The truth is I feel rather light headed and foolish in your presence, Cee, and I donβt think I can blame the heat.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Every once in a while, people need to be in the presence of things that are really far away.
β
β
Ian Frazier
β
Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can every quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same slight emphasis on the second word, as though she were the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew; that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
All right, you got that out of your system. Can I get back in the boat without you striking me again? Or should I stay out here enjoying the marine life?"
"Why don't you swim around until you find a shark? Then you can discuss how much the two of you have in common
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, #1))
β
That love which does not build a foundation on good sense is doomed.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Ian stood above me, his chest heaving with exertion and fury. For a second he turned away and put the door back in place with one swift wrench. And then he was glowering again.
I took a deep breath and rolled up onto my knees, holding my hands out, palms up, wishing that some magic would appear in them. Something I could give him, something I could say. But my hands were empty.
"You. Are. Not. Leaving. Me." His eyes blazed - burning brighter than I had ever seen them, blue fires.
"Ian," I whispered. "You have to see that... that I can't stay. You must se that."
"No!" he shouted at me.
I cringed back, and, abruptly, Ian crumpled forward, falling to his knees, falling into me. He buried his head in my stomach, and his arms locked around my waist. He was shaking, shaking hard, and loud, desperate sobs were breaking out of his chest.
"No, Ian, no," I begged. This was so much worse than his anger. "Don't, please. Please, don't."
"Wanda," he moaned.
"Ian, please. Don't feel this way. Don't. I'm so sorry. Please."
I was crying too, shaking too, though that might have been him shaking me.
"You can't leave."
"I have to, I have to," I sobbed.
And then we cried wordlessly for a long time.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
At that moment, the urge to be writing was stronger than any notion she had of what she might write.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Existence is.. well.. what does it matter? I exist on the best terms I can. The past is now part of my future. The present is well out of hand.
β
β
Ian Thomas Curtis
β
We don't fit in, you and me," he said. "We're both oddities no one knows what to do with. But we fit together." He took her hand, pressed her palm to his, then laced their fingers through each other's. "We fit.
β
β
Jennifer Ashley (The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1))
β
If we donβt make out of this alive, Sophie Price, I want you to know that Iβve never loved anyone as much as I love you. Youβre it for me.
β
β
Fisher Amelie (Vain (The Seven Deadly, #1))
β
If you're going to be bad, be bad with a purpose or else you're not worth forgiving.
β
β
L.J. Smith
β
These were everyday sounds magnified by darkness. And darkness was nothing - it was not a substance, it was not a presence, it was no more than an absence of light.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Can we move this along?" a bored voice stated. "I have places to be and people to shag."
"Ian, I'm not going to hug you," I stated as I approached him. "I know you like this better."
With that, I slapped him hard enough to rock his head to the side. When he'd straightened, he flashed me a wicked grin.
"Finally, you give me what I want. Knew you loved me, Reaper.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (Up from the Grave (Night Huntress, #7))
β
Nothing that can be, can come between me and the full prospect of my hopes.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Not everything people did could be in a correct, logical order, especially when they were alone.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
A woman can put up with almost anything; anything but indifference.
β
β
Ian Fleming
β
Now and then, an inch below the water's surface, the muscles of his stomach tightened involuntarily as he recalled another detail. A drop of water on her upper arm. Wet. An embroidered flower, a simple daisy, sewn between the cups of her bra. Her breasts wide apart and small. On her back, a mole half covered by a strap. When she climbed out of the pond a glimpse of the triangular darkness her knickers were supposed to conceal. Wet. He saw it, he made himself see it again. The way her pelvic bones stretched the material clear of the skin, the deep curve of her waist, her startling whiteness. When she reached for her skirt, a carelessly raised foot revealed a patch of soil on each pad of her sweetly diminished toes. Another mole the size of a farthing on her thigh and something purplish on her calf--a strawberry mark, a scar. Not blemishes. Adornments.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
And I started to cry again, realizing that it must be changing him, too, this man who was kind enough to be a soul but strong as only a human could be.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
There did not have to be a moral. She need only show separate minds, as alive as her own, struggling with the idea that other minds were equally alive. It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding, above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you. And only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had an equal value. That was the only moral a story need have.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
There's a taste in the air, sweet and vaguely antiseptic, that reminds him of his teenage years in these streets, and of a general state of longing, a hunger for life to begin that from this distance seems like happiness.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Saturday)
β
What if he just bombs everyone again?" Ian asks, breaking the silence. "Just like he did with Omega Point?"
"He won't," Warner says to him. "He's too arrogant, and this war has become personal. He'll want to toy with us. He'll want to draw this out as long as possible. He is a man who has always been fascinated by the idea of torture. This is going to be fun for him."
"Yeah, that's making me feel real good," Kenji says. "Thanks for the pep talk."
"Anytime," Warner says.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
Because secrets do not increase in value if kept in a gore-ian lockbox, because one's past is either made useful or else mutates and becomes cancerous. We share things for the obvious reasons: it makes us feel un-alone, it spreads the weight over a larger area, it holds the possibility of making our share lighter. And it can work either way - not simply as a pain-relief device, but, in the case of not bad news but good, as a share-the-happy-things-I've-seen/lessons-I've-learned vehicle. Or as a tool for simple connectivity for its own sake, a testing of waters, a stab at engagement with a mass of strangers.
β
β
Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)
β
Contrary to what you may have heard from Henry Rollins or/and Ian MacKaye and/or anyone else who joined a band after working in an ice cream shop, you can't really learn much about a person based on what kind of music they happen to like. As a personality test, it doesn't work even half the time. However, there is at least one thing you can learn: The most wretched people in the word are those who tell you they like every kind of music 'except country.' People who say that are boorish and pretentious at the same time.
β
β
Chuck Klosterman (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto)
β
Today we are fighting Communism. Okay. If I'd been alive fifty years ago, the brand of Conservatism we have today would have been damn near called Communism and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.
β
β
Ian Fleming (Casino Royale (James Bond, #1))
β
And now she was back in the world, not one she could make, but the one that had made her, and she felt herself shrinking under the early evening sky. She was weary of being outdoors, but she was not ready to go in. Was that really all there was in life, indoors or out? Wasn't there somewhere else for people to go?
β
β
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
β
Shame on you, Crispin. Married how long, and you haven't spanked your wife with a metal spatula yet?"
I'd gotten used to Ian's assumption that everyone was as perverted as he was, so I didn't miss a beat.
"We prefer blender beaters for our kitchen utensil kink," I said with a straight face.
Bones hid his smile behind his hand, but Ian looked intrigued.
"I haven't tried that ... oh, you're lying, aren't you?"
"Ya think?" I asked with a snort.
Ian gave a sigh of exaggerated patience and glanced at Bones.
"Being related to her through you is a real trial.
β
β
Jeaniene Frost (Up from the Grave (Night Huntress, #7))
β
Smoking I find the most ridiculous of all the varieties of human behavior and practically the only one that is entirely against nature. Can you imagine a cow or any animal taking a mouthful of smoldering straw then breathing in the smoke and blowing it out through its nostrils?
β
β
Ian Fleming (Goldfinger (James Bond, #7))
β
With his current mood, Elizabeth realized, she was going to have to make her own opening. Lifting her eyes to his enigmatic golden ones, she said quietly, βIan, have you ever wanted something very badly-something that
was within your grasp-and yet you were afraid to reach out for it?β
Surprised by her grave question and her use of his name, Ian tried to ignore the jealousy that had been eating at him all night. βNo,β he said, scrupulously keeping the curtness from his voice as he gazed down at her alluring face. βWhy do you ask? Is there something you want?β
Her gaze fell from his, and she nodded at his frilled white shirtfront.
βWhat is it you want?β
βYou.
β
β
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))
β
It is photography itself that creates the illusion of innocence. Its ironies of frozen narrative lend to its subjects an apparent unawareness that they will change or die. It is the future they are innocent of. Fifty years on we look at them with the godly knowledge of how they turne dout after all - who they married, the date of their death - with no thought for who will one day be holding photographs of us.
β
β
Ian McEwan (Black Dogs)
β
Ian closed his eyes. Beth watched emotions flicker across his face, the uncertainty, the stubbornness, the raw pain heβd lived with for so long. He didnβt always know how to express his emotions, but that didnβt mean he didnβt feel them deeply.
When Ian slowly opened his eyes, he guided his gaze directly to Bethβs. His golden eyes shimmered and sparkled, pupils ringed with green. He held her gaze steadily, not blinking, or shifting away.
βI love you,β he said.
Beth caught her breath, and sudden tears blurred her vision.
βLove you,β Ian repeated. His gaze bore into hers harder than Hartβs ever could hope to. βLove you, love you, love you, love you, love you, love youβ¦
β
β
Jennifer Ashley (The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1))
β
Ian saw the tears shimmering in her magnificent eyes and one of them traced unheeded down her smooth cheek.
With a raw ache in his voice he said, "If you would take one step forward, darling, you could cry in my arms. And while you do, I'll tell you how sorry I am for everything I've done - " Unable to wait, Ian caught her, pulling her tightly against him. "And when I'm finished," he whispered hoarsely as she wrapped her arms around him and wept brokenly, "you can help me find a way to forgive myself."
Tortured by her tears, he clasped her tighter and rubbed his jaw against her temple, his voice a ravaged whisper: "I'm sorry," he told her. He cupped her face between his palms, tipping it up and gazing into her eyes, his thumbs moving over her wet cheeks. "I'm sorry." Slowly, he bent his head, covering her mouth with his. "I'm so damned sorry.
β
β
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))
β
And then we jerked to a stop. Jared was blocking the exit. "Have you lost your mind, Ian?" he asked, shocked and outraged. "What are you doing to her?"
"Did you know about this?" Ian shouted back, shoving me toward Jared and shaking me at him.
"You're going to hurt her!"
"Do you know what she's planning?" Ian roared.
Jared stared at Ian, his face suddenly closed off. He didn't answer. That was answer enough for Ian.
Ian's fist struck Jared so fast that I missed the blow - I just felt the lurch in his body and saw Jared reel back into the dark hall.
"Ian, stop," I begged.
"You stop," he growled back at me.
He yanked me through the arch into the tunnel, then pulled me north. I had to almost run to keep up with his longer stride.
"OΒ΄Shea!" Jared shouted after us.
"I'm going to hurt her?" Ian roared back over his shoulder, not breaking pace. "I am? You hypocritical swine!"
There was nothing but silence and blackness behind us now. I stumbled in the dark, trying to keep up.
He jerked me along faster, and my breath caught in a moan, almost like a cry of pain.
The sound made Ian stumble to a stop. His breathing was hoarse in the darkness.
"Ian, Ian, I..." I chocked, unable to finish. I didn't know what to say, picturing his furious face.
His arms caught me abruptly, yanking my feet out from under me and then catching my shoulders before I could fall. He started running forward again, carrying me now. His hands were not rough and angry like before; he cradled me against his chest.
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Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
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Frodo: 'It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill Gollum when he had the chance.'
Gandalf: 'Pity? It's a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.' Frodo: 'I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.'
Gandalf: 'So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.
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J.R.R. Tolkien
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I was not staring at you,β he told his plate.
I leaned over. βDid you hear that, Dinganeβs lunch? He was not staring at you.β
He looked up at me crossly. βI was not staring at you.β
βI never said you were.β
βI was merely explaining that Henry was exaggerating. I did not stare at you.β
βOkay,β I stated, implying in my tone that he had done just that.
βI didnβt. I-I wasnβt.β
βI believe you,β I told him
βI may have looked at you a few times to make sure you were doing your job.β
βOh, I see then.β
βBut I certainly wasnβt staring.β
βWeβve established that you were not staring.β
He breathed deeply a few times, his eyes burning into mine. βGood.β
Heβd definitely been staring.
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Fisher Amelie (Vain (The Seven Deadly, #1))
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This is how the entire course of life can be changed β by doing nothing. On Chesil beach he could have called out to Florence, he could have gone after her. He did not know, or would not have cared to know, that as she ran away from him, certain in her distress that she was about to lose him, she had never loved him more, or more hopelessly, and that the sound of his voice would have been a deliverance, and she would have turned back. Instead, he stood in cold and righteous silence in the summerβs dusk, watching her hurry along the shore, the sound of her difficult progress lost to the breaking of small waves, until she was blurred, receding against the immense straight road of shingle gleaming in the pallid light.
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Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach)