Jasper Quotes

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

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If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction-and ultimately, without a major resolution.
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Jasper Fforde (Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4))
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I know - I'll play you for it," Alice suggested. "Rock, paper, scissors." Jasper chuckled and Edward sighed. "Why don't you just tell me who wins?" Edward said wryly. Alice beamed. "I do. Excellent.
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Stephenie Meyer (Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, #4))
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Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer - perhaps more.
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Jasper Fforde (The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next, #3))
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Whereas story is processed in the mind in a straightforward manner, poetry bypasses rational thought and goes straight to the limbic system and lights it up like a brushfire. It's the crack cocaine of the literary world.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Don't ever call me mad, Mycroft. I'm not mad. I'm just ... well, differently moraled, that's all.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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You held out your hand, and I took it without stopping to make sense of what I was doing. For the first time in almost a century, I felt hope.
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Stephenie Meyer (Eclipse)
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If it weren't for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, no Van Gogh, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong.
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Jasper Fforde (The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1))
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I don't deserve you." "You're not allowed to say that." "Why not?" "It's a breakup line. Unless you're breaking up-" Jason leaned over and kissed her. The colors of the Roman afternoon suddenly seemed sharper, as it the world had switched to high definition. "No breakups," he promised. "I may have busted my head a few times, but I'm not that stupid.
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Rick Riordan (The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3))
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Do I have to talk to insane people?" "You're a librarian now. I'm afraid it's mandatory.
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Jasper Fforde (The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next, #7))
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Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head.
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Jasper Fforde (The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next, #3))
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Two minds with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Okay, this is the wisdom. First, time spent on reconnaissanse is never wasted. Second, almost anything can be improved with the addition of bacon. And finally, there is no problem on Earth that can't be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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Sorry," [Hamlet] said, rubbing his temples. "I don't know what came over me. All of a sudden I had this overwhelming desire to talk for a very long time without actually doing anything.
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Jasper Fforde (Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4))
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Her majesty is one verb short of a sentence.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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I don't understand a thing about this world: about people, and why they do the things they do. The more I find out, the more I uncover, the more I know, the less I understand.
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Craig Silvey (Jasper Jones)
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The cucumber and the tomato are both fruit; the avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians, on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people read your thoughts!
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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Dead. Never been that before. Not even once.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Growth purely for its own sake is the philosophy of cancer.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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What's the matter with her? [Jasper] asked Griffin. Griffin shook his head. 'Nothing. She's just two personas struggling for dominance in one body.' [Jasper] ... Poor little thing.
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Kady Cross (The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1))
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The safest course was actually the simplest-do nothing at all and hope everything turned out for the best. It wasn't a great plan, but it had the benefits of simplicity and a long tradition.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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I shuddered at the image in my head, at the word feed. But Jasper wasn’t worried about frightening me, not overprotective like Edward always was.
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Stephenie Meyer (Eclipse)
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Mr. McGregor's a nasty piece of work, isn't he? Quite the Darth Vader of children's literature.
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Jasper Fforde
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You'll like it here; everyone is quite mad.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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The best lies to tell are the ones people want to believe.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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Sorry. Sorry means you feel the pulse of other people's pain as well as your own, and saying it means you take a share of it. And so it binds us together, makes us trodden and sodden as one another. Sorry is a lot of things. It's a hole refilled. A debt repaid. Sorry is the wake of misdeed. It's the crippling ripple of consequence. Sorry is sadness, just as knowing is sadness. Sorry is sometimes self-pity. But Sorry, really, is not about you. It's theirs to take or leave. Sorry means you leave yourself open, to embrace or to ridicule or to revenge. Sorry is a question that begs forgiveness, because the metronome of a good heart won't settle until things are set right and true. Sorry doesn't take things back, but it pushes things forward. It bridges the gap. Sorry is a sacrament. It's an offering. A gift.
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Craig Silvey (Jasper Jones)
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Death doesn't care about personalities - he's more interested in meeting quotas.
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Jasper Fforde (Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4))
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Why did dogs make one want to cry? There was something so quiet and hopeless about their sympathy. Jasper, knowing something was wrong, as dogs always do. Trunks being packed. Cars being brought to the door. Dogs standing with drooping tails, dejected eyes. Wandering back to their baskets in the hall when the sound of the car dies away.
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Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca)
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For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.
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Jasper Fforde (One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next, #6))
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Literary detection and firearms don't really go hand in hand; pen mighter than the sword and so forth.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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I'll tell you what love is" I said, "It is blind devotion, unquestioning self humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your heart and soul to the smiter.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition.
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Jasper Fforde (The Fourth Bear (Nursery Crime, #2))
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Reality TV was to me the worst form of entertainment--the modern equivalent of paying sixpence to watch lunatics howling at the wall down at the local madhouse.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Govt. from interference in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others. [Letter to the Reverend Jasper Adams, January 1, 1832]
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James Madison (Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Volume 3)
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Edward can do everything, right?" I explained. Jasper snickered and Esme gave Edward a reproving look. "I hope you haven't been showing off-it's rude," she scolded. "Just a bit," he laughed freely. "He's been too modest actually," I corrected. "Well, play for her," Esme encouraged. "You just said showing off was rude," he objected. "There are exceptions to every rule," she replied.
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Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
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Jasper waited until the man was gone before asking, β€œYou ever get tired of folks puckerin’ up to your backside?” Griffin faced him with mock gravity. β€œYes. It is deuced tiring, people doing whatever I wish. Makes my life so very disagreeable.
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Kady Cross (The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1))
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…Tell me, has anything odd happened to you recently? What do you mean, odd?' Unusual. Deviating from the customary. Something outside the usual parameters of normalcy. An occurrence of unprecedented weird.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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Fiction wouldn't be much fun without its fair share of scoundrels, and they have to live somewhere.
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Jasper Fforde (The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next, #3))
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My point is this: the more you have to lose, the braver you are for standing up.
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Craig Silvey (Jasper Jones)
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Yes, and imagine a world where there were no hypothetical situations.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Jasper? What do vampires do for bachelor parties? You're not taking him to a strip club, are you?
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Stephenie Meyer (Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, #4))
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You see? I know where every single book used to be in the library.' She pointed to the shelf opposite. 'Over there was Catch-22, which was a hugely popular fishing book and one of a series, I believe.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good--and we all know how rare that is...
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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If you expect me to believe that a lawyer wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream, I must be dafter than I look.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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She wasn't the only one to be physically morphed by reader expectation. Miss Havisham was now elderly whether she liked it or not, and Sherlock Holmes wore a deerstalker and smoked a ridiculously large pipe. The problem wasn't just confined to the classics. Harry Potter was seriously pissed off that he'd have to spend the rest of life looking like Daniel Radcliffe.
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Jasper Fforde (One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next, #6))
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I shouldn't believe anything I say, if I were you-and that includes what I just told you.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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Okay. Ground rules,” I said, and locked gazes with Eli. β€œI pee alone and I shower alone. Some things need to remain a mystery, and those are two I firmly believe in.
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Elle Jasper (Afterlight (Dark Ink Chronicles, #1))
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Almost anything can be improved with the addition of bacon.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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Ordinary adults don't like children to speak of things that are denied them by their own gray minds.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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Have you ever wondered how nostalgia isn"t what it used to be?
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Death, I had discovered long ago, was available in varying flavors, and none of them particularly palatable.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Besides, Reyna will do what she can to slow things down. She's still on our side. I know she is." "You trust her." Piper's voice sounded hollow, even to herself. "Look Pipes. I told you, you've got nothing to be jealous about." "She's beautiful. She's powerful. Se's so...Roman." Jason put down his hammer. He took her hand, which sent a tingle up her arm. Piper's dad had once taken her to the Aquarium of the Pacific and shown her an electric eel. He told her that the eel sent out pulses that shocked and paralyzed its prey. Each time Jason looked at her or touched her hand, Piper felt like that. "You're beautiful and powerful," he said. "And I don't want you to be Roman. I want you to be Piper. Besides, we're a team, you and me.
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Rick Riordan (The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3))
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History has rewritten itself so many times I'm not really sure how it was to begin with -- it's a bit like trying to guess the original color of a wall when it's been repainted eight times.
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Jasper Fforde (Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4))
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What is there to forgive?. . .Ignore forgive and concentrate on living. Life for you is short; far too short to allow small jealousies to infringe on the happiness which can be yours only for the briefest of times.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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Fanfiction isn't copying - it's a celebration. One long party, from the first capital letter to the last full stop!
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Jasper Fforde (One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next, #6))
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The one thing in me more powerful than a general misanthropy is an inescapable compassion for individuals.
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Jasper Sole
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Sometimes I don't know whether I'm thening or nowing.
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Jasper Fforde (Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4))
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You many have noticed I have a temper ... but when I calmed down, I realized that this world, blighted and imperfect as it is, would be better with you in it.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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Ill-fitting grammar are like ill-fitting shoes. You can get used to it for a bit, but then one day your toes fall off and you can't walk to the bathroom.
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Jasper Fforde (One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next, #6))
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Dad calls you other names starting with J, but never your real name.” β€œWhat?” He looks alarmed. β€œYou’ve told your dad about me?” β€œHe’s mad at you for being so mean. Julian and Jasper and John. One time, he called you Jebediah and I nearly peed myself. You’d have to grovel to my dad, that’s for sure.” Josh looks so disturbed I decide to cut him a break and change the subject.
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Sally Thorne (The Hating Game)
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I didn't set out to discover a truth. I was actually sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the truth inevitably found me, as important truths often do, like a lost thought in need of a mind.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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The cleanest souls are the easiest to soil.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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I have the death sentence in seven genres.
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Jasper Fforde (The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next, #3))
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To decide to become a philosopher seemed as foolish to me as to decide to become a poet.
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Karl Jaspers
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Failure concentrates the mind wonderfully. If you don't make mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.
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Jasper Fforde (The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next, #3))
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Apparently, she already stabbed him once,” Jasper informed the Guardian. β€œIn the heart.” Nova looked at me. β€œAnd she cut me earlier tonight. Threw a knife right at my face another time,” Casteel ticked off his fingers. β€œThen this one time, in the woods, she—” β€œNo one wants to hear about how many times I’ve made you bleed,” I snapped. β€œI do,” Jasper remarked. Emil raised his hand. β€œSo do I.
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Jennifer L. Armentrout (A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash, #2))
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I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life.
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Jasper Johns
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Life might be easier if you give in a little, but it's better if you hold onto something so hard you can't give it up.
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Craig Silvey (Jasper Jones)
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Cats aren't really friendly, they're just cozying up to the dominant life-form as a hedge against extinction.
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Jasper Fforde (The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1))
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How many people want to read about three disreputable pigs and a dopey wolf with a disposition towards house demolition?
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Jasper Fforde (The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1))
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Somebody once said that the library is actually the dominant life form on the planet. Humans simply exist as the reproductive means to achieve more libraries.
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Jasper Fforde (The Constant Rabbit)
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Don't let anyone tell you the future is already written. The best any prophet can do is to give you the most likely version of future events. It is up to us to accept the future for what it is, or change it. It is easy to go with the flow; it takes a person of singular courage to go against it.
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Jasper Fforde (The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1))
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Humpty had always sat on walls, it was his way.
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Jasper Fforde (The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1))
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All democracies demand common public education because nothing makes people so much alike as the same education.
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Karl Jaspers (The Idea of the University)
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Lesson one in time travel, Thursday. First of all, we are all time travellers. The vast majority of us manage only one day per day.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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Individual words, sounds, squiggles on paper with no meanings other than those with which our imagination can clothe them.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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I could almost see common sense and denial fighting away at each other within her. In the end, denial won, as it so often does.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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I was on HPD--Heathcliff Protection Duty--in Wuthering Heights for two years, and believe me, the ProCaths tried everything. I personally saved him from assassination eight times.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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How fishy on the fishiness scale? Ten is a stickleback and one is a whale shark." "A whale isn't a fish, Thursday." "A whale shark is--sort of." "All right, it's as fishy as a crayfish." "A crayfish isn't a fish." "A starfish, then." "Still not a fish." "This is a very odd conversation, Thursday.
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Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next, #2))
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Do not bend," Nina snapped. "Do not leap. Do not move abruptly. If you don't promise to take it easy, I'll slow your heart and keep you in a coma until I can be sure you've recovered fully." "Nina Zenik, as soon as I figure out where you've put my knifes, we're going to have words." "The first ones had better be 'Thank you, oh great Nina, for dedicating every waking moment of this miserable journey to saving my sorry life'" Jasper expected Inej to laugh and was startled when she took Nina's face between her hands and said, "Thank you for keeping me in this world when fate seemed determined to drag me to the next. I owe you a life debt." Nina blushed deeply. "I was teasing, Inej." She paused. "I think we've both had enough of debts." "This is one I'm glad to bear.
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Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
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the Real-World was a sprawling mess of a book in need of a good editor.
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Jasper Fforde (One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next, #6))
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Maybe those sorts of yes-or-no life-and-death decisions are easier to make because they are so black and white. I can cope with them because it's easier. Human emotions, well. . .they're just a fathomless collection of grays and I don't do so well on the midtones.
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Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
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That's the thing about destiny: It can't be predicted, and it's usually pretty odd.
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Jasper Fforde (The Last Dragonslayer (The Last Dragonslayer, #1))
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Are you going to teach me about make-up sex?" He shook his head. "I'm going to show you what it means to be mine, with nothing held back.
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Kit Rocha (Beyond Shame (Beyond, #1))
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To espresso or to latte, that is the question...whether 'tis tastier on the palate to choose white mocha over plain...or to take a cup to go. Or a mug to stay, or extra cream, or have nothing, and by opposing the endless choice, end one's heartache...
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Jasper Fforde (Something Rotten (Thursday Next, #4))
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What is meaningful cannot in fact be isolated…. We achieve understanding within a circular movement from particular facts to the whole that includes them and back again from the whole thus reached to the particular significant facts.
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Karl Jaspers (General Psychopathology, Vol. 1)
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Mr. Pewter led them through to a library, filled with thousands of antiquarian books. 'Impressive, eh?' 'Very,' said Jack. 'How did you amass all these?' 'Well,' said Pewter, 'You know the person who always borrows books and never gives them back?' 'Yes...?' 'I'm that person.
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Jasper Fforde (The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1))
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How anybody can compose a story by word of mouth face to face with a bored-looking secretary with a notebook is more than I can imagine. Yet many authors think nothing of saying, 'Ready, Miss Spelvin? Take dictation. Quote no comma Sir Jasper Murgatroyd comma close quotes comma said no better make it hissed Evangeline comma quote I would not marry you if you were the last person on earth period close quotes Quote well comma I'm not so the point does not arise comma close quotes replied Sir Jasper twirling his moustache cynically period And so the long day wore on period End of chapter.' If I had to do that sort of thing I should be feeling all the time that the girl was saying to herself as she took it down, 'Well comma this beats me period How comma with homes for the feebleminded touting for custom on every side comma has a man like this succeeded in remaining at large mark of interrogation.
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P.G. Wodehouse
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. . . my obsession with gratefulness. I can't stop. Just now, I press the elevator button and am thankful that it arrives quickly. I get onto the elevator and am thankful that the elevator cable didn't snap and plummet me to the basement. I go to the fifth floor and am thankful that I didn't have to stop on the second or third or fourth floor. I get out and am thankful that Julie left the door unlocked so I don't have to rummage for my King Kong key ring. I walk in, and am thankful that Jasper is home and healthy and stuffing his face with pineapple wedges. And on and on. I'm actually muttering to myself, 'Thank you. . .thank you. . . thank you.' It's an odd way to live. But also kind of great and powerful. I've never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day.
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A.J. Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible)
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Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its formsβ€”of life, of love, of knowledgeβ€”has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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Poe, you wiener, get your ass over here!" "Shut Up! I ain't a wiener!" Broken, adolescent male laughter echoed through the night air, and if I hadn't been so damned mad, I'd have laughed too. Something about hearing a group of idiotic pubescent fifteen-year-old boys say wiener just cracked me up.
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Elle Jasper (Afterlight (Dark Ink Chronicles, #1))
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Given that you probably used to wear . . . velvet bloomers, lace, high heels, and a ponytail, yeahβ€”I guess you have changed a little,” I said, and gave a slight smile in hopes of easing the depressing mood.Eli actually grinned. β€œThat look was hot back then.” He held his arms out. β€œVelvet coat with tails to match. Yeah, ruffles, too. I was badass.
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Elle Jasper (Afterlight (Dark Ink Chronicles, #1))
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If you enjoyed laughing in the face of death, you might like to have a crack at High Saffron. One hundred merits, and all you have to do is take a look.' 'I understand there's a one hundred percent fatality rate?' 'True. But up until the moment of death there was a one hundred percent survival rate. Really, I shouldn't let anything as meaningless as statistics put you off.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren’t you working on this?’ Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. β€˜Indeed. The uses of had had and that that have to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the imaginotransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.’ β€˜Go on.’ β€˜It’s mostly an unlicensed-usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim’s Progress may also be a problem due to its had had/that that ratio.’ β€˜So what’s the problem in Progress?’ β€˜That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked, but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.’ β€˜Hmm,’ said the Bellman, β€˜I thought had had had had TGC’s approval for use in Dickens? What’s the problem?’ β€˜Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,’ said Lady Cavendish. β€˜You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.’ β€˜So the problem with that other that that was that…?’ β€˜That that other-other that that had had approval.’ β€˜Okay’ said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, β€˜let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC’s approval?’ There was a very long pause. β€˜Right,’ said the Bellman with a sigh, β€˜that’s it for the moment. I’ll be giving out assignments in ten minutes. Session’s over – and let’s be careful out there.
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Jasper Fforde (The Well of Lost Plots (Thursday Next, #3))
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It's simple. If you go to see 'Saturday Night Fever' expecting it to be good, it's a corker. However, if you go expecting it to be a crock of shit, it's that, too. Thus 'Saturday Night Fever' can exist in two mutually opposing states at the very same time, yet only by the weight of our expectations. From this principle we can deduce that any opposing states can be governed by human expectation - even, as in the case of retro-deficit-engineering, the present use of a future technology." "I think I understand that. Does it work with any John Travolta movie?" "Only the artistically ambiguous ones such as 'Pulp Fiction' or 'Face/Off.' 'Battlefield Earth' doesn't work, because it's a stinker no matter how much you think you're going to like it, and 'Get Shorty' doesn't work either, because you'd be hard-pressed not to enjoy it, irrespective of any preconceived notions.
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Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
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The youthful stationmaster wore a Blue Spot on his uniform and remonstrated with the driver that the train was a minute late, and that he would have to file a report. The driver retorted that since there could be no material differene between a train that arrived at a station and a station that arrived at a train, it was equally the staionmaster's fault. The stationmaster replied that he could not be blamed, because he had no control over the speed of the station; to which the engine driver replied that the stationmaster could control its placement, and that if it were only a thousand yards closer to Vermillion, the problem would be solved. To this the stationmaster replied that if the driver didn't accept the lateness as his fault, he would move the station a thousand yards farther from Vermillion and make him not just late, but demeritably overdue.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))