Runaway Quotes

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

β€œ
The conversation of kisses. Subtle, engrossing, fearless, transforming.
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Alice Munro (Runaway: Stories)
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She was a thief, a runaway, a pirate, a magician. She was fierce, and powerful, and terrifying. She was still a mystery. And he loved her.
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Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
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Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.
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Yukio Mishima (Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2))
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Everyone gets scared at times. It's only the fools who won't admit it.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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You wouldn't want to be king of my country," I said. "Why is that?" "Well, you're rather fat. I doubt you'd fit onto my throne.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.
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Wendelin Van Draanen (Runaway)
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You can't kick me down, I'm already on the ground. No, you can't, but you couldn't catch me anyhow.Blue skies, but the sun isn't comming out, no. Today, it is like I'm under a heavy cloud." Avril Lavigne (Runaway)
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Avril Lavigne
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You're such a young king. I barely remember being your age." "Then clearly we're talking about how old you are, not how young I am.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Her eyes scanned the dark skies. "Did it rain? Why are you all wet?" "A nighttime bath." "Fully dressed?" "I'm modest.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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You should thank me for tolerating you. I had hoped that becoming a royal would cure your foul manners." "That's interesting. My father hoped that stripping me of royalty would do the same thing.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Above all else, I think that you are a compulsive liar." My laughter was tense, but sincere. "Hardly. In fact, I consider myself a compulsive truth teller. It's only that everyone else seems compelled to misunderstand me.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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(Lucy to Isabeau)" β€œCool.” She tilted her head. β€œYou don’t look crazy.” β€œYou’re like a runaway train,” Logan groaned at her. β€œCan’t you shut her up?” he asked his brother pleadingly. β€œHow?” Nicholas said somewhat helplessly. β€œKiss her, you idiot.
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Alyxandra Harvey (Blood Feud (Drake Chronicles, #2))
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Bite me, Harry Potter.
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Meg Cabot (Runaway (Airhead, #3))
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Erick: "I think I may grow to hate you before this is over." Jaron/Sage: "But you don't already and that's got to be some sort of record.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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That educated didn’t mean smart. He had a point. Nothing in my education or knowledge of the future had helped me to escape. Yet in a few years an illiterate runaway named Harriet Tubman would make nineteen trips into this country and lead three hundred fugitives to freedom.
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Octavia E. Butler (Kindred)
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I need a sword first," I said. "People here keep taking mine.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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You know your Lamborghini is on fire, right?
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Meg Cabot (Runaway (Airhead, #3))
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The pirates wanted my life, Vargen wanted my country, and my regents wanted to paint rainbows over reality and claim all was well.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Long live king Jaron. If he leads us half as well as he entertains us, then Carthya has a truly great future ahead.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Just remember that forgiveness is so much easier than regret.
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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Some folks call her a runaway. A failure in the race. But she knows where her ticket takes her. She will find her place in the sun
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Tracy Chapman
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I won't start the battle, but if it comes, I'll finish it.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself. It’s like your shadow. It follows you everywhere. -Komura
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Haruki Murakami (After the Quake)
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How is it possible that our parents lied to us?" "Lets see: Santa, the Tooth Fairy,the Easter bunny,um, God. You're the prettiest kid in school. This wont hurt a bit. Your face will freeze like that..." "Everythings going to be alright.
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Brian K. Vaughan (Runaways, Vol. 1: Pride and Joy)
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Fink had a full bowl and grinned at me as he sat back on the bench. "It would help if you used words like 'please' and 'thank you.'" "Then I'll thank you to please stay out of my business.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
(Talking about Jaron's broken leg) "How does it feel?" Fink asked. "Like butterfly kisses, what do you think?
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Make your own victories. Make your own mistakes.
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Joan Jett
β€œ
The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.
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Yukio Mishima (Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2))
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An open Facebook page is simply a psychiatric dry erase board that screams, β€œLook at me. I am insecure. I need your reaction to what I am doing, but you’re not cool enough to be my friend. Therefore, I will just pray you see this because the approval of God is not all I need.
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Shannon L. Alder
β€œ
It was a very bad idea. It was a terrible idea. It was the worst idea he had ever heard. It was irresistible.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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Runaways are romantic. The girls are waiflike with dyed ratty hair and baggy pants. They usually own a stray dog of the mutt variety and drag it along by a rope, plopping down in front of storefronts to beg for money from passersby. They're a mess. It is likely they'll charm you, make you think you're their best friend and savior only to end up using you and then they'll disappear. That's why they're romantic. They're there and then they're gone. Romance is always about people appearing in a flash out of nothing or people who are there and then suddenly are not. A magic trick.
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Bett Williams (Girl Walking Backwards)
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Well, I’ve only managed to do the drummer and the bassist so far, but I’m thinking I could get a threesome going and knock out the others. Maybe I’ll gangbang with the roadies when we stop for dinner!
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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For every tear you shed for someone else’s grief, it takes one off of their suffering.
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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Life is short..Live to the fullest..
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John Grisham (The Runaway Jury)
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Any chance we can bypass the cruelest method of death and settle this over a game of cards?
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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You’ve one mark on your record,” Tamas said. β€œYou once punched a na-baron in the face. Broke his jaw. Tell me about that.” Olem grimaced. β€œOfficially, sir, I was pushing him out of the way of a runaway carriage. Saved his life. Half my company saw it.” β€œWith your fist?” β€œAye.” β€œAnd unofficially?” β€œThe man was a git. He shot my dog because it startled his horse.” β€œAnd if I ever have cause to shoot your dog?” β€œI’ll punch you in the face.” β€œFair enough. You have the job.
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Brian McClellan (Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1))
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If you become a bird and fly away from me, I will be a tree that you come home to.
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Margaret Wise Brown (The Runaway Bunny)
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But this is inaccurate. A runaway train is an accident. Me, I'll jump in front of the tracks. I'll even tie myself down in front of the speeding engine. There's some illogical part of me hat still believes if you want Superman to show up, first there's got to be someone worth saving.
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Jodi Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper)
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like all fairy tales, theirs was filled with thickets and dark places and broken dreams, and runaway girls.
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Kristin Hannah (The Great Alone)
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Hello," Magnus said to the monkey. The monkey did not reply. "I shall call you Ragnor.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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How is it that you can see your enemies so clearly and never your friends?
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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With introductions out of the way, Erick got down to the business of having abducted me. "Why were you asking Fink about the priest?" "I have some sins to confess," I said. "For ruining the life of the last man to kidnap me.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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My life had taken a stranger turn than I could've ever imagined. What was I doing on this path? Where was I headed really? Who was I to take on a battle between powers I didn't understandβ€” armed with a runaway cat, a uniquely bad drummer, a pair of garden shears, and an Ovaltine-drinking teen Galileo? To save a girl who didn't want to be saved?
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Kami Garcia (Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles, #2))
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Do you laugh at me?" He was quiet for a moment and finally the tention drained from him. "No, Jaron," he said darkly. "I curse you with every breath I exhale, but I do not laugh.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Are you, monsieur, a man of your word?" "It really depends upon the word," Magnus said. "There are so many wonderful words...
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
β€œ
And I want you to find something in the hills for the vigils to protect, like a rock or a thornbush. I don't want them around here.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Is it true?" Devlin asked me. "You're Prince Jaron?" "KING Jaron, actually. News must travel slower amongst the illiterate." I glared at Gregor with every inch of disdain I felt. "Shouldn't you be groveling to me or bowing or something?" Gregor smiled. "I think before I have the chance, you will already be dead." "Ah. So much for all your toasts to my long life.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
Wherever our lives lead us, one thing is certain. You and I will always be connected. You might be able to deny that, but I can't. Even I am not that good a liar.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
He tried to learn seductive phrases in all languages, but the only Swedish he had ever really needed was, "Do you serve anything aside from pickled fish?" and "If you wrap me in furs, I can pretend to be your little fuzzy bear.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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You'll address me by my title," I said sharply. "And bow until your pointed chin scrapes the floor.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.
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Alice Munro (Runaway: Stories)
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You've learned a new rule and it's simple: don't put yourself in situations you'd like to run away from. But when you run, run back to yourself, like that bunny in Runaway Bunny runs to its mother, but you are the mother, and you'll see that laer and be very, very proud.
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Lena Dunham (Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned")
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I'm still a king. My title isn't determined by my crown; it's in my blood.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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I haven't don anything wrong." At least, not for a few hours
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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As a self-respecting dude, I'd never believed in fairy tales, but in that moment, I did. I'd found my angel to live happily-ever-after with.
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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I can't do that," I said. "Who'll make sure Tobias gets back safely? He can hardly cross a road without endangering himself.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Someday," Magnus said, looking at the crumpled royal person at his feet, "I must write my memoirs.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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I thought you were from a civilized country," he said. "How have you come to look more like Carthya's whipping boy than its king?" "I have a habit of irritating some of our less civilized people," I answered. "But you seem like a civilized...pirate. I'd much prefer it if you didn't have me whipped." "And why shouldn't I?" With some effort, I forced a smile to my face. "Because it will hurt.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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What she wants to do if she can get the time to do it, is not so much to live in the past as to open it up and get one good look at it".
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Alice Munro (Runaway: Stories)
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It was a bit warm. Still. If one could look this fabulous, one had an obligation to. One should wear everything, or one should wear nothing at all.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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It really was getting difficult to be wonderful.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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Looks fade,' Mom would go on. 'But intelligence lasts forever.
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Meg Cabot (Runaway (Airhead, #3))
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Oh, the universe had outdone herself. The universe would be send flowers.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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Kerwyn pulled me aside as the last of the supplies were being loaded. "Please, Jaron, don't go." Despite his pleas, I could only shake my head. "There's no other choice now." "I thought a little sleep would change your mind." Placing my hand on Kerwyn's shoulder, I said, "I had the same concern, so I kept myself awake.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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I know all about the missionary position, Angel. In fact, I believe I was trying to acquaint you with it earlier when you cock blocked me.
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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If it turned out Brandon Stark also likes to dress up as Strwberry Shortcake while playing croquet with his miniture pony collection, I totally wouldn't be surprised anymore.
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Meg Cabot (Runaway (Airhead, #3))
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This is what happens. You put it away for a little while, and now and again you look in the closet for something else and you remember, and you think, soon. Then it becomes something that is just there, in the closet, and other things get crowded in front of it and on top of it and finally you don't think about it at all. The thing that was your bright treasure. You don't think about it. A loss you could not contemplate at one time, and now it becomes something you can barely remember. This is what happens. ... Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.
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Alice Munro (Runaway: Stories)
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You make me think things... feel things I never have before .
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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Again and again, the cicada’s untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.
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Yukio Mishima (Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2))
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I miss school. What’s wrong with me?
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Wendelin Van Draanen (Runaway)
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No matter how far you have run, no matter how long you have been lost, it is never too late to be found.
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Rene Denfeld (The Child Finder (Naomi Cottle, #1))
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Have you tried this shrimp? It's freaking amazing. Would you get away from me? I hate you. You're so moody. Just because I kidnapped you and tried to force you to be my girlfriend. I thought you would be over that by now.
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Meg Cabot (Runaway (Airhead, #3))
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You know how much I love you , Jacob? As High as the Sky , Mama! That's right, sweet boy
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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He Apologized and he's watching Tangled. I think Abby brainwashed him while we were gone,
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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I have to find a place to hide An island in the sea Surrounded by a racing tide Where I can live with me
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Laurie Matthew (Groomed)
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As they began to tie me, I wanted to yell out, to release some of my fear that way, but I held it in. Imogen wouldn't be that far from here yet, and I didn't want her to know what was about to happen. If it was possible to scream on the inside, though, I was, and the sound of it was deafening.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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He (life) got to his feet with a sudden jerk, collected his blanket and then darted away in such a great haste that till this date, I’ve not seen him again.
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Suman Pokhrel
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My hands folded into fists. "As king, that is my order." "Forgive me, but the king's order is the most reckless thing he's ever said, which we both know is quite an accomplishment. If you want to stop me from dragging you back to Drylliad, then you'll have to kill me here." "I can't do that," I said. "Who'll make sure Tobias gets back safely? He can hardly cross a road without endangering himself." "I can too," Tobias said.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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If one could look this fabulous, one had an obligation to.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
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After all, mirrors are only as truthful as the eyes that are looking into them.
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Cherie Currie (Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway)
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Why does anyone commit murder?' he asked in a low voice. 'I-'I blinked.'How should I know?' 'Three reasons,' Christopher said. He held up one finger. 'Love.' Another finger. 'Revenge.' And finally, a third finger. 'Profit...
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Meg Cabot (Runaway (Airhead, #3))
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I firmly believe in small gestures: pay for their coffee, hold the door for strangers, over tip, smile or try to be kind even when you don’t feel like it, pay compliments, chase the kid’s runaway ball down the sidewalk and throw it back to him, try to be larger than you areβ€” particularly when it’s difficult. People do notice, people appreciate. I appreciate it when it’s done to (for) me. Small gestures can be an effort, or actually go against our grain (β€œI’m not a big one for paying compliments…”), but the irony is that almost every time you make them, you feel better about yourself. For a moment life suddenly feels lighter, a bit more Gene Kelly dancing in the rain.
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Jonathan Carroll
β€œ
If we look on idly, heaven and earth will never be joined. To join heaven and earth, some decisive deed of purity is necessary. To accomplish so resolute an action, you have to stake your life, giving no thought to personal gain or loss. You have to turn into a dragon and stir up a whirlwind, tear the dark, brooding clouds asunder and soar up into the azure-blue sky.
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Yukio Mishima (Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2))
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The field was empty now. The grasses had been laid flat by more than one game played there, but in the center of it all, a single wildflower caught my attention. I was bright purple and stood erect where a hundred others around it had been smashed. I wondered if it had somehow escaped harm, or if it had been stepped on before but refused to lie down.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk. I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags. I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to your nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place, search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you.
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Walt Whitman
β€œ
Let's begin with an easy agreement. Before his death, your father and I were negotiating for a small area of land on our borders, near Libeth. The Carthyan land has a spring that my farmers need for their crops. Carthya has other spings nearby, so you won't miss it." "My father wouldn't have missed it, but I would," I said, with no actual idea of what spring he meant. "It happens to be my favourite water source in all of Carthya, and I won't part with it.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
By now, Gregor had recovered. "Sage? Devlin, forgive my accusation, but you are a fool. Don't you know who this is?" Devlin didn't appear to forgive the accusation. With a sneer on his face, he folded his arms and said, "Enlighten me." Gregor looked at me and frowned. "He can perform the Avenian accent as well as his own Carthyan tongue. And although he has a reputation for being able to steal the white off snow if he chooses to, this boy is far from being a mere thief. Devlin, you are facing the boy who has haunted the pirates for the past four years. This is Jaron, the lost prince of Carthya.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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I'll need you to get a leash for my monkey, Claude, and also a hat." "Of course, monsieur" "Do you think he needs a little coat as well?" "Perhaps not in this weather, monsieur." "You are right," Magnus said with a sight. "Make it a simple dressing gown, just like mine." "Which one, monsieur?" "The one in rose and silver." "Excellent choice, monsieur.
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Cassandra Clare (The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles, #2))
β€œ
Erick had underestimated the distance, both to the ground and the cliff above me, yet the texture of the cliff wall was better than I'd hoped for. Vines and plants grew dense and well rooted, and there were many rocks and missing chunks of earth. I didn't know whether I could make it to the top on one leg or not, but I thought it was a great day to try.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
Finally I grinned and said, "I won't eat meat if it's been overcooked." She (Amarinda) glanced up at me, confused, and I added, "I thought you should know that, since we're going to be friends now." Amarinda's smile widened. "I think it's unfair that women aren't allowed to wear trousers. They seem far more comfortable than dresses." I chuckled. "They're not. Every year I think fashion invents one more piece I have to add to my wardrobe." "And one more layer to my skirts." She thought for a moment, then said, "I think it's funny when you're rude to the cook. I shouldn't admit that, but his face turns all sorts of colors when you are and there's nothing he can do about it." "He can overcook my meat.
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
β€œ
Can I spoon you?” My eyebrows shot up. β€œCan you what?” The shadow of a smile fluttered on Jake’s lips. β€œYou really don’t know what that is, do you?” An embarrassed flush filled my cheeks as I ducked my head. β€œNo,” I murmured. Jake’s finger came under my chin and tipped my head up to look at him. β€œIt’s okay. I’ll show you.
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
β€œ
There were days when I still put on make up in case you’d come back, but I wear the same clothes and shower in the rain and eat when I can and sleep when I can, which is rare and not often, so if you’d see me now on these streets where I once imagined walking with you you’d have a hard time recognising me. I takes a lot to run away.
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Charlotte Eriksson (Another Vagabond Lost To Love: Berlin Stories on Leaving & Arriving)
β€œ
She could not explain or quite understand that it wasn't altogether jealousy she felt, it was rage. And not because she couldn't shop like that or dress like that. It was because that was what girls were supposed to be like. That was what men - people, everybody - thought they should be like. Beautiful, treasured, spoiled, selfish, pea-brained. That was what a girl should be, to be fallen in love with. Then she would become a mother and she'd be all mushily devoted to her babies. Not selfish anymore, but just as pea-brained. Forever.
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Alice Munro (Runaway: Stories)
β€œ
When I started to my roost, Jake grabbed my arm, pulling me against him. β€œSleep with me,” he whispered in my ear. I jerked away, ready to launch into a tirade for him playing on my emotions to put the moves on me when the tormented expression on his face stopped me cold. He stared pleadingly into my eyes. β€œI’m still so fucking scared, Angel. I need someone just to hold tonight so I won’t be alone.
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Katie Ashley (Music of the Heart (Runaway Train, #1))
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Teachers dread nothing so much as unusual characteristics in precocious boys during the initial stages of their adolescence. A certain streak of genius makes an ominous impression on them, for there exists a deep gulf between genius and the teaching profession. Anyone with a touch of genius seems to his teachers a freak from the very first. As far as teachers are concerned, they define young geniuses as those who are bad, disrespectful, smoke at fourteen, fall in love at fifteen, can be found at sixteen hanging out in bars, read forbidden books, write scandalous essays, occasionally stare down a teacher in class, are marked in the attendance book as rebels, and are budding candidates for room-arrest. A schoolmaster will prefer to have a couple of dumbheads in his class than a single genius, and if you regard it objectively, he is of course right. His task is not to produce extravagant intellects but good Latinists, arithmeticians and sober decent folk. The question of who suffers more acutely at the other's hands - the teacher at the boy's, or vice versa - who is more of a tyrant, more of a tormentor, and who profanes parts of the other's soul, student or teacher, is something you cannot examine without remembering your own youth in anger and shame. yet that's not what concerns us here. We have the consolation that among true geniuses the wounds almost always heal. As their personalities develop, they create their art in spite of school. Once dead, and enveloped by the comfortable nimbus of remoteness, they are paraded by the schoolmasters before other generations of students as showpieces and noble examples. Thus the struggle between rule and spirit repeats itself year after year from school to school. The authorities go to infinite pains to nip the few profound or more valuable intellects in the bud. And time and again the ones who are detested by their teachers are frequently punished, the runaways and those expelled, are the ones who afterwards add to society's treasure. But some - and who knows how many? - waste away quiet obstinacy and finally go under.
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Hermann Hesse (Beneath the Wheel)
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It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie--I found that out. So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter--and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN. I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking--thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the ONLY one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right, then, I'll GO to hell"--and tore it up.
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Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
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I replied with an Avenian accent. "Is the priest of this church still here?" "No." He squinted at me. "Never seen you before. You from out of town?" "I've never seen you before either," I said. "So maybe you're the one from out of town." That amused him. "My name is Fink. Well, that's not really m name, but it's what everyone calls me." "What's your name, then." "Dunno. Everyone just calls me Fink." "Don't you have anywhere else to go?" "Not really. Why d'you want the priest?" "A doctrinal question. What punishment does the Book of Faith recommend for a kid who's being too nosy?
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Jennifer A. Nielsen (The Runaway King (Ascendance, #2))
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Running away was not like it was in stories. People did not try and stop you. They did not give chase. The thing people didn't understand was that you had to decide what you were running away from. Most of the time it wasn't mothers or fathers or monsters or villains; most of the time you were running away from that little voice inside your head, the one telling you to stay where you are, that everything will turn out all right.
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Robert Dinsdale (The Toymakers)
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Now, I can tell you about some women writers who truly are fantastic. One is Anna Kavan. She writes stories like I approach "Land of a Thousand Dances": she's caught in a haze and then a light, a little teeny light, come through. It could be a leopard, that light, or it could be a spot of blood. It could be anything. But she hooks onto that and spirals out. And she does it within the accessible rhythms of plot, and that's really exciting. She's not hung up with being a woman, she just keeps extending herself, keeps telescoping language and plot. Another great woman writer is Iris Sarazan, who wrote The Runaway. She considered herself a mare, a wild runaway. She was a really intelligent girl stuck in all these convents with a hungry mind. I identify with her 'cause of her hunger to go beyond herself. She wound up in prison, but she escaped and wrote some great books before kicking off. Her books aren't page after page of her beating her breast about how shitty she's been treated, they're books about her exciting telescoping plans of escape. Rhythm, great wild rhythm.... The French poet, Rimbaud, predicted that the next great crop of writers would be women. He was the first guy who ever made a big women's liberation statement, saying that when women release themselves from the long servitude of men they're really gonna gush. New rhythms, new poetries, new horrors, new beauties. And I believe in that completely. (1976 Penthouse interview)
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Patti Smith
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Eddie saw great things and near misses. Albert Einstein as a child, not quite struck by a run-away milk-wagon as he crossed a street. A teenage boy named Albert Schweitzer getting out of a bathtub and not quite stepping on the cake of soap lying beside the pulled plug. A Nazi Oberleutnant burning a piece of paper with the date and place of the D-Day Invasion written on it. He saw a man who intended to poison the entire water supply of Denver die of a heart attack in a roadside rest-stop on I-80 in Iowa with a bag of McDonald’s French fries on his lap. He saw a terrorist wired up with explosives suddenly turn away from a crowded restaurant in a city that might have been Jerusalem. The terrorist had been transfixed by nothing more than the sky, and the thought that it arced above the just and unjust alike. He saw four men rescue a little boy from a monster whose entire head seemed to consist of a single eye. But more important than any of these was the vast, accretive weight of small things, from planes which hadn’t crashed to men and women who had come to the correct place at the perfect time and thus founded generations. He saw kisses exchanged in doorways and wallets returned and men who had come to a splitting of the way and chosen the right fork. He saw a thousand random meetings that weren’t random, ten thousand right decisions, a hundred thousand right answers, a million acts of unacknowledged kindness. He saw the old people of River Crossing and Roland kneeling in the dust for Aunt Talitha’s blessing; again heard her giving it freely and gladly. Heard her telling him to lay the cross she had given him at the foot of the Dark Tower and speak the name of Talitha Unwin at the far end of the earth. He saw the Tower itself in the burning folds of the rose and for a moment understood its purpose: how it distributed its lines of force to all the worlds that were and held them steady in time’s great helix. For every brick that landed on the ground instead of some little kid’s head, for every tornado that missed the trailer park, for every missile that didn’t fly, for every hand stayed from violence, there was the Tower. And the quiet, singing voice of the rose. The song that promised all might be well, all might be well, that all manner of things might be well.
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Stephen King (Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5))