Sterling Quotes

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

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I recognized you instantly. All of our lives flashed through my mind in a split second. I felt a pull so strongly towards you that I almost couldn't stop it.
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J. Sterling (In Dreams (The Dream, #1))
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In a strange way, I had fallen in love with my depression. Dr. Sterling was right about that. I loved it because I thought it was all I had. I thought depression was the part of my character that made me worthwhile. I thought so little of myself, felt that I had such scant offerings to give to the world, that the one thing that justified my existence at all was my agony.
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Elizabeth Wurtzel (Prozac Nation)
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Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.
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Robert A. Heinlein (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls)
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I want a relationship I can finally sink my teeth into.
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Ellen Schreiber
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Our scars don't point us in the direction were headed, Cass, they simply remind us of where we've been
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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A prison becomes a home when you have the key.
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George Sterling
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I want a relationship I can finally sink my teeth into." -Alexander Sterling
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Ellen Schreiber (Vampire Kisses (Vampire Kisses, #1))
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It's not that I can't live without you; it's that I don't want to. There's a difference. We all make choices in life and I choose you. My heart belongs to you. And I'm not asking for it back, even if you won't want it anymore. I'm just asking for a chance to have your again. I promise I'll be more careful with it this time.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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ANYONE SEEN MY KITTEN?
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Sometimes letting go is the only way to find out who you're meant to hold on to.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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There will come a time in your life when you lose something that matters to you. You'll fight for it and you won't win. But what really matters isn't the war you're waging, it's that you don't lose the person you are in the midst of the battle.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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You're both so screwed up alone that together you're like the perfect mess.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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There are few things in life that are worth waking up to: sex, the dark spices of freshly brewed coffee and bacon.
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Dannika Dark (Sterling (Mageri, #1; Mageriverse #1))
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Welcome to the Family." - Mrs.Sterling
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Ellen Schreiber (Royal Blood (Vampire Kisses, #6))
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Sterling turned to Michael. I expected her to ask him something, but instead she just held out her hand. "Keys." "Spatula," Michael replied. She narrowed her eyes at him. "We aren't just saying random nouns?" he asked archly.
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Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Killer Instinct (The Naturals, #2))
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Letting go of someone who owns your heart is hard. Sometimes holding on to that person is even harder. I know I'm not the easiest person to love, but you are.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Watching the two of you interact, it was like watching fireworks light up the night sky. You two burn brighter when you're together.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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What four realms? (Amanda) Time, space, earth, and dreams. (Talon) Okay, now that is scary. Some of you guys walk through time? (Amanda) And space and dreams. (Talon) Ah. So Rod Sterling was a Were-Hunter? (Amanda)
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Night Pleasures (Dark-Hunter #1))
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Prove it.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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We're all scarred. That's how we know we've lived a life worth fighting for. Love is a battlefield! Thank you, Pat Benatar!
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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You know what's truly weird about any financial crisis? We made it up. Currency, money, finance, they're all social inventions. When the sun comes up in the morning it's shining on the same physical landscape, all the atoms are in place.
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Bruce Sterling
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What she really craved was a connection. That feeling you got when you knew you were supposed to be with someone.
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J. Sterling (In Dreams (The Dream, #1))
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I never arrive unannounced without something big and juicy in hand. - Simon Hunt
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Dannika Dark (Sterling (Mageri, #1; Mageriverse #1))
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Have you ever noticed how pretty and beautiful words can be? How easy it is to say the things you think someone wants to hear. How you can affect a person’s entire day with just a few measly sentences?
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Is this the life you really want? Or is it just the fantasy of it?
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Ellen Schreiber (Love Bites (Vampire Kisses, #7))
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Sometimes life gets ugly before it gets beautiful
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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No relationship can survive without trust, honesty, and communication, no matter how close you are.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Cassie's Rules for a Happy Life: #1 - Don't Lie #2 - Don't Cheat #3 - Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep #4 - Don't Say Things You Don't Mean
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Raven: So Alexander, now we know what we do all day. What do you do? Alexander: I spend it thinking about you.
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Ellen Schreiber (Love Bites (Vampire Kisses, #7))
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My head questions everything and believes nothing." "So your head wants proof and your heart wants reassurance?
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Within its gates I heard the sound Of winds in cypress caverns caught Of huddling tress that moaned, and sought To whisper what their roots had found. (β€œA Dream of Fear”)
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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We will all, at some point in our lives, fall. Every single one of us. We shouldn't spend our time trying to avoid falling. We should spend it finding someone who will help us up!
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Nicole Williams (Lost & Found (Lost & Found, #1))
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Xav! Got you. Not letting you go. I realised I wasn't alone in mental deep space; he had always been there and could pilot me home.
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Joss Stirling (Seeking Crystal (Benedicts, #3))
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Raven: "You don't have a hot date, do you?" Alexander: "Yes. I do, as a matter of fact." Raven: "You do?" Alexander: "Yes, and it is almost ending.
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Ellen Schreiber (The Coffin Club (Vampire Kisses, #5))
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That anyone could father a child, but a real man chooses to be a dad.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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And starward drifts the stricken world, Lone in unalterable gloom Dead, with a universe for tomb, Dark, and to vaster darkness whirled. (β€œThe Testimony of the Suns”)
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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no saint goes without sinning, and no sinner goes without having some saintly qualities.Β  You can judge one for their mistakes, or you can love them for the flaws they try to correct.Β 
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C.M. Owens (Hooked on the Game (Sterling Shore, #1))
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This doesn't change anything," I stammered, my defenses fading. "It changes everything." He sounded so sure of himself as his soft lips silenced my weak protest.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Yves. You are goint to love him all over again when you meet him, believe me. You're married.' 'I'm what? But I can't be more than eighteen!' 'My son is very persuasive,' said Saul proudly.
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Joss Stirling (Seeking Crystal (Benedicts, #3))
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I think I might have to place you under arrest for trespassing. But I always go easy on pretty girls who confess.
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Ellen Schreiber (Royal Blood (Vampire Kisses, #6))
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Raven: "Don't you notice that?" Alexander: "Notice what?" Raven: "The girls?" Alexander: "What girls?" Raven: "Hello! You were worried about bringing me to a bar when all along I should have been concerned about bringing you." Alexander: "I don't know what you are talking about." Raven: "The girls are drooling all over you!" Alexander: "Well, there is only one girl I want to be with and she's right here.
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Ellen Schreiber (The Coffin Club (Vampire Kisses, #5))
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I'm not through with you yet. Are you prepared to accept your punishment?" I nodded reluctantly. I wasn't sure what a vampire's punishment might be. But I was ready to find out. "I sentence you to a thousand kisses," he said. "Can I begin now?
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Ellen Schreiber (Royal Blood (Vampire Kisses, #6))
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As a breath on glass, - As witch-fires that burn, The gods and monsters pass, Are dust, and return. (β€œThe Face of the Skies”)
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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Would've been worth it," Rhys said, and then his smile faded even as the look in his eye grew warmer. "I was mad about you, Vivienne," he said softly. Sincerely. "Utterly mad.
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Erin Sterling (The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1))
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I was one hundred percent not in control of this situation. This girl fucking owned me right now. I sat on that bed waiting for her to give me the time of day. I didn't necessarily like this feeling, but I suffered through it... for her. I convinced myself that I'd probably suffer through pretty much anything for this girl.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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I don't want to be here without you. We can fix this. But we can't fix it if you walk away. I can't make us work by myself.
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J. Sterling (The Game Changer (The Perfect Game, #2))
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I know that. But here's the thing about baseball, Kitten. There's an expiration date for every single one of us who plays and we all know it. Eventually my baseball career will come to an end, and I can live with that. But I can't live without you.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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You almost ran your ex-boyfriend over with a car, and then left him lying in the literal dirt on the side of the road. It is such a big deal, you absolute queen.
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Erin Sterling (The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1))
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I know I'm not the easiest person to love, but you are.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Oh my God, you feel incredible." He breathed heavily against my ear. "Holy shit, I may never recover from this.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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I am so fucking in love with you I can't see straight. I don't love her. I'll never love her. But I fucked up and now I have to pay for it. I'll never forgive myself for hurting you," he said. "Or losing you.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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I changed my mind. Get out of my house now. I'll set your things on fire and mail you the ashes.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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When sunset, like a crimson throat to hell, is cavernous... (β€œA Wine of Wizardry”)
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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I’m standing here, telling you how much you hurt me, and you can’t hear it.
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Isabel Sterling (These Witches Don't Burn (These Witches Don't Burn, #1))
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Never mix vodka and witchcraft
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Erin Sterling (The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1))
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Because once you give your body to a guy, there's no taking it back. And once you've done that it opens up feelings, emotions and vulnerabilities you never knew you were capable of having. I'm not ready to give him my heart. What if he breaks it?
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Kitten, I’d break my fucking pitching arm if it meant keeping you safe.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Sometimes other hearts have to break in order to keep your intact.
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J. Sterling (Chance Encounters)
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I clung to each word that fell from his lips like a spider to a web.
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Dannika Dark (Twist (Mageri, #2; Mageriverse #2))
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Where did you meet?” he pressed on. I shrugged and considered a little rephrasing. β€œI was out for a run.” β€œFrom who?” I leaned back to take a long, very long, slow sip of that beer. Knox leaned forward. β€œI think we’re both bullsh*tting here, you ever play that card game?” β€œWith my grandma, every Sunday after church.
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Dannika Dark (Sterling (Mageri, #1; Mageriverse #1))
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I don't know how to get over you
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Where got she her sullen mouth And where her swaying form? Would she live on eggs and apples When the blood of men is warm? (β€œThe Young Witch”)
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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As it so happens, I like your mouth." "It doesn't -- " "Challenge me?" He set the bottle down and moved to the end of the bed. "An outspoken woman makes the world a livable place. You have fire in you, and I would never put that out.
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Dannika Dark (Twist (Mageri, #2; Mageriverse #2))
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If I want reality, I’ll walk outside and breathe in the toxic air, dammit. I’ll take a look at my own miserable life. If I read or watch a movie, I’d better get a fucking happily-ever-after.
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C.M. Owens (Loving War (Sterling Shore, #4))
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Forget trying to pass for normal. Follow your geekdom. Embrace nerditude. In the immortal words of Lafcadio Hearn, a geek of incredible obscurity whose work is still in print after a hundred years, β€œWoo the muse of the odd.” You may be a geek. You may have geek written all over you. You should aim to be one geek they'll never forget. Don't aim to be civilized. Don’t hope that straight people will keep you on as some sort of pet. To hell with them. You should fully realize what society has made of you and take a terrible revenge. Get weird. Get way weird. Get dangerously weird. Get sophisticatedly, thoroughly weird, and don't do it halfway. Put every ounce of horsepower you have behind it. Don't become a well-rounded person. Well-rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish.
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Bruce Sterling
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Jack: I’m going to kiss you. Cassie: This doesn’t change anything Jack: It changes everything. Cassie: Prove it.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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And fragile is thy tenure of this world Still haunted by the monstrous ghost of God. ("To Science")
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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They say stress is the silent killer. But poison darts are also pretty damn quiet.
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Sterling Archer (How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written)
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the best cure for anything was candles and a bath,
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Erin Sterling (The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1))
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Kitten, Letting go of someone who owns your heart is hard. Sometimes holding on to that person is even harder. I know I'm not the easiest person to love, but you are. I'ts not that I can't live without you; it's that I don't want to. There's a difference. We all make choices in life and I choose you. My heart belongs to you. And I'm not asking for it back, even if you don't want it anymore. I'm just asking for the chance to have yours again. I promise I'll be more careful with it this time. Love Always, Jack
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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He wouldn’t charm her. She’d almost forgot what his kiss tasted like., felt like. She only remembered it when she drifted into dreams. Then it became so vivid, so real. To her mortification, she always felt a little thrill. Her life had been filled with gentlemen of the finest quality. James Sterling was like none of them, he was unpolished. A diamond in the rough. A scoundrel. A pirate.
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Jade Parker (To Catch a Pirate)
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Love is life. If you miss out on love, you miss out on life -Gramps
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J. Sterling (The Game Changer (The Perfect Game, #2))
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But when you don't follow them up with any action, they're completely pointless. They're just sounds and syllables. But they mean absolutely nothing.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Women were gravitating towards him from all directions like a planetary orbit. (Zoe on meeting Justus)
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Dannika Dark (Sterling (Mageri, #1; Mageriverse #1))
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The future is unwritten. there are best case scenarios. There are worst-case scenarios. both of them are great fun to write about if you' re a science fiction novelist, but neither of them ever happens in the real world. What happens in the real world is always a sideways-case scenario. World-changing marvels to us, are only wallpaper to our children.
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Bruce Sterling
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Sasha told me you were looking for engagement rings. Do you have a specific style in mind?" Yeah the kind that fits on her hand and makes her say yes when I propose
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J. Sterling (The Game Changer (The Perfect Game, #2))
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Half of me wanted to punch his gorgeous face, and the other half wanted to make out with it.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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She smiled and her whole face lit up. Or maybe it was mine. All I know for certain is that smile lit up even my darkest days.
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J. Sterling
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She seriously looked like a fucking angel. And I wanted to be her devil.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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O Space and Time and stars at strife, How dreadful your infinity! Shrined by your termless trinity, How strange, how terrible, is life! (β€œThe Testimony of the Suns”)
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George Sterling (The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror)
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I’m yours. There will never come a time when I don’t belong to you. It’s you for me, or no one. You hear me? Only you. Only yours. Forever.
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J. Sterling (The Sweetest Game (The Perfect Game, #3))
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In the worship of security we fling ourselves beneath the wheels of routine-and before we know it our lives are gone.
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Sterling Hayden (Wanderer)
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He[Crystal's father] had found my height amusing, referring to me as his "little girl" at every opportunity even though I could see the bald patch on top of his head fringed by curls when we stood side by side.
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Joss Stirling (Seeking Crystal (Benedicts, #3))
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And I know that the past version of me is someone you would never trust. But who I am when I’m with you” he paused, β€œisn’t who I used to be. I don’t think I’ve been that guy since the night of our first date, so it’s not fair that you judge me like I’m still him.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, science fiction writers are its court jesters. We are Wise Fools who can leap, caper, utter prophecies, and scratch ourselves in public. We can play with Big Ideas because the garish motley of our pulp origins make us seem harmless.
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Bruce Sterling (Burning Chrome (Sprawl, #0))
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(He) mourned mankind, and the blindness of men, who thought that the Kosmos had rules and limits that would shelter them from their own freedom. There were no shelters. There were no final purposes. Futility, and freedom, were Absolute
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Bruce Sterling (Schismatrix)
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I promise to stand by you, to hold you up when you’re about to fall, and to always keep you safe. I never believed there was a girl out there for me. Until I met you. You changed everything. And I never want to live without you. I love you more than I ever thought possible.
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J. Sterling (The Game Changer (The Perfect Game, #2))
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Love was everyone's to experience if they opened their hearts, but true love was a rare and sterling thing, damn if it wasn't, a sterling thing that required the intervention of destiny: two hearts fated to be as one, finding each other among the billions of the world. True love, by God, was the Excalibur of emotions, and if you recognized it when you saw it, if you drew that noble, shining blade from the stone, your life would be a grand adventure even if you lived it entirely in one small town.
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Dean Koontz (The Dead Town (Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, #5))
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I love the smell of the ice... And the cold. The sound the puck makes when it's sliding across the ice or when hits the net for a goal... as long as it's our goal. I love the sound of sticks crashing against one another. The sound my skates make when I come to a hard stop. The roar of the crowd. The way I feel when i'm playing. I can do things on this ice that I can't do anywhere else.
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J. Sterling (In Dreams (The Dream, #1))
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So, what can I do?” I asked. β€œAnnoy?” I gave him a hurt look. Justus pulled the tip of his hoodie over his eye and lowered his voice. β€œIt remains to be seen; sometimes it takes years to uncover abilities.” β€œMaybe I can’t do anything.” His blue eyes flashed up to mine. β€œLearner, we are all gifted.
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Dannika Dark (Sterling (Mageri, #1; Mageriverse #1))
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Love is the one thing in this world worth taking a risk for. When you're older and you look back on the life you lived, you won't regret the fact that you took the chance to love someone. But you will regret the chances on love you didn't take. Especially the ones rooted in fear. They're only scary because you have the most to lose. You feel the most for them. Don't let the fear of losing love stop you from having the experience altogether.
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J. Sterling (The Sweetest Game (The Perfect Game, #3))
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She'll never understand. The realization washes all the fight out of me, leaving behind only heartache. I gently pull my wrist from her grip. "Because," I say, my voice so soft it's nearly swallowed up by the trees, "I'm standing here, telling you how much you hurt me, and you can't hear it." Tears fill my eyes. I've lost the strength to hide them. "You broke my heart, and you didn't even notice. How can I ..." My throat closes up, I look away. "How could I ever trust you to put the pieces back together?
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Isabel Sterling (These Witches Don't Burn (These Witches Don't Burn, #1))
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I looked into his eyes and then down at his mouth before continuing. β€œHave you ever noticed how pretty and beautiful words can be? How easy it is to say the things you think someone wants to hear. How you can affect a person’s entire day with just a few measly sentences?”My slight smile dropped. β€œBut when you don’t follow them up with any action, they’re completely pointless. They’re just sounds and syllables. But they mean absolutely nothing.” My gaze glossed over as my mind wandered.
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. "I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
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Sterling Hayden (Wanderer)
β€œ
What more do they want? She asks this seriously, as if there's a real conversion factor between information and lives. Well, strange to say, there is. Written down in the Manual, on file at the War Department. Don't forget the real business of the War is buying and selling. The murdering and violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as a spectacle, as a diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimulus to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets. Organic markets, carefully styled "black" by the professionals, spring up everywhere. Scrip, Sterling, Reichsmarks, continue to move, severe as classical ballet, inside their antiseptic marble chambers. But out here, down here among the people, the truer currencies come into being. So, Jews are negotiable. Every bit as negotiable as cigarettes, cunt, or Hersey bars.
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Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow)
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If Los Angeles is a woman reclining billboard model and the San Fernando Valley is her teenybopper sister, then New York is their cousin. Her hair is dyed autumn red or aubergine or Egyptian henna, depending on her mood. Her skin is pale as frost and she wears beautiful Jil Sander suits and Prada pumps on which she walks faster than a speeding taxi (when it is caught in rush hour, that is). Her lips are some unlikely shade of copper or violet, courtesy of her local MAC drag queen makeup consultant. She is always carrying bags of clothes, bouquets of roses, take-out Chinese containers, or bagels. Museum tags fill her pockets and purses, along with perfume samples and invitations to art gallery openings. When she is walking to work, to ward off bums or psychos, her face resembles the Statue of Liberty, but at home in her candlelit, dove-colored apartment, the stony look fades away and she smiles like the sterling roses she has brought for herself to make up for the fact that she is single and her feet are sore.
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Francesca Lia Block (I Was a Teenage Fairy)
β€œ
America hadn't really been suited for its long and tiresome role as the Last Superpower, the World's Policeman. As a patriotic American, Oscar was quite content to watch other people's military coming home in boxes for a while. The American national character wasn't suited for global police duties. It never had been. Tidy and meticulous people such as the Swiss and the Swedes were the types who made good cops. America was far better suited to be the World's Movie Star. The world's tequila-addled pro-league bowler. The world's acerbic, bipolar stand-up comedian. Anything but a somber and tedious nation of socially responsible centurions.
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Bruce Sterling (Distraction)
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There's no use in denying it: this has been a bad week. I've started drinking my own urine. I laugh spontaneously at nothing. Sometimes I sleep under my futon. I'm flossing my teeth constantly until my gums are aching and my mouth tastes like blood. Before dinner last night at 1500 with Reed Goodrich and Jason Rust I was almost caught at a Federal Express in Times Square trying to send the mother of one of the girls I killed last week what might be a dried-up, brown heart. And to Evelyn I successfully Federal Expressed, through the office, a small box of flies along with a note, typed by Jean, saying that I never, ever wanted to see her face again and, though she doesn't really need one, to go on a fucking diet. But there are also things that the average person would think are nice that I've done to celebrate the holiday, items I've bought Jean and had delivered to her apartment this morning: Castellini cotton napkins from Bendel's, a wicker chair from Jenny B. Goode, a taffeta table throw from Barney's, a vintage chain-mail-vent purse and a vintage sterling silver dresser set from Macy's, a white pine whatnot from Conran's, an Edwardian nine-carat-gold "gate" bracelet from Bergdorfs and hundreds upon hundreds of pink and white roses.
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Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)
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F*ck, Cassie. What do you want to hear? How much I hate myself for getting drunk that night and losing the only girl in my life I've ever trusted and truly loved? How I called Dean fifty times a day for weeks begging him to tell me how I could get you back? Do you want to hear how fucking weak and pathetic I think I am for not being able to tell her no that night, when I knew what was at stake? His eyebrows pinched together and his jaw tensed as his emotions spilled out into the night air. "Do you want to hear how I tried to talk her out of keeping this baby so that it wouldn't fuck everything up? How I begged her not to keep it, told her I'd pay for everything, I'd drive her there and give her money after it was all over, just to please not to this to me. And then how much of an asshole I felt after that too? Who tells someone that?
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J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
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Ultimately, the roast turkey must be regarded as a monument to Boomer's love. Look at it now, plump and glossy, floating across Idaho as if it were a mammoth, mutated seed pod. Hear how it backfires as it passes the silver mines, perhaps in tribute to the origin of the knives and forks of splendid sterling that a roast turkey and a roast turkey alone possesses the charisma to draw forth into festivity from dark cupboards. See how it glides through the potato fields, familiarly at home among potatoes but with an air of expectation, as if waiting for the flood of gravy. The roast turkey carries with it, in its chubby hold, a sizable portion of our primitive and pagan luggage. Primitive and pagan? Us? We of the laser, we of the microchip, we of the Union Theological Seminary and Time magazine? Of course. At least twice a year, do not millions upon millions of us cybernetic Christians and fax machine Jews participate in a ritual, a highly stylized ceremony that takes place around a large dead bird? And is not this animal sacrificed, as in days of yore, to catch the attention of a divine spirit, to show gratitude for blessings bestowed, and to petition for blessings coveted? The turkey, slain, slowly cooked over our gas or electric fires, is the central figure at our holy feast. It is the totem animal that brings our tribe together. And because it is an awkward, intractable creature, the serving of it establishes and reinforces the tribal hierarchy. There are but two legs, two wings, a certain amount of white meat, a given quantity of dark. Who gets which piece; who, in fact, slices the bird and distributes its limbs and organs, underscores quite emphatically the rank of each member in the gathering. Consider that the legs of this bird are called 'drumsticks,' after the ritual objects employed to extract the music from the most aboriginal and sacred of instruments. Our ancestors, kept their drums in public, but the sticks, being more actively magical, usually were stored in places known only to the shaman, the medicine man, the high priest, of the Wise Old Woman. The wing of the fowl gives symbolic flight to the soul, but with the drumstick is evoked the best of the pulse of the heart of the universe. Few of us nowadays participate in the actual hunting and killing of the turkey, but almost all of us watch, frequently with deep emotion, the reenactment of those events. We watch it on TV sets immediately before the communal meal. For what are footballs if not metaphorical turkeys, flying up and down a meadow? And what is a touchdown if not a kill, achieved by one or the other of two opposing tribes? To our applause, great young hungers from Alabama or Notre Dame slay the bird. Then, the Wise Old Woman, in the guise of Grandma, calls us to the table, where we, pretending to be no longer primitive, systematically rip the bird asunder. Was Boomer Petaway aware of the totemic implications when, to impress his beloved, he fabricated an outsize Thanksgiving centerpiece? No, not consciously. If and when the last veil dropped, he might comprehend what he had wrought. For the present, however, he was as ignorant as Can o' Beans, Spoon, and Dirty Sock were, before Painted Stick and Conch Shell drew their attention to similar affairs. Nevertheless, it was Boomer who piloted the gobble-stilled butterball across Idaho, who negotiated it through the natural carving knives of the Sawtooth Mountains, who once or twice parked it in wilderness rest stops, causing adjacent flora to assume the appearance of parsley.
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Tom Robbins (Skinny Legs and All)