β
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.
β
β
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Catβs Cradle)
β
A tiger doesn't proclaim his tigritude, he pounces
β
β
Wole Soyinka
β
Sometimes I think that maybe we are just stories. Like we may as well just be words on a page, because we're only what we've done and what we are going to do.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.
β
β
Penelope Lively (Moon Tiger)
β
The fact isβ¦Iβm in love with you, and I have been for some time.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
the tigers have found me
and I do not care.
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
I dreamed I spoke in another's language,
I dreamed I lived in another's skin,
I dreamed I was my own beloved,
I dreamed I was a tiger's kin.
I dreamed that Eden lived inside me,
And when I breathed a garden came,
I dreamed I knew all of Creation,
I dreamed I knew the Creator's name.
I dreamed--and this dream was the finest--
That all I dreamed was real and true,
And we would live in joy forever,
You in me, and me in you.
β
β
Clive Barker (Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War)
β
Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.
β
β
Jorge Luis Borges (Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings)
β
Four will Become Two, Lion and Tiger will Meet in Battle, and Blood will Rule the Forest.
β
β
Erin Hunter (A Dangerous Path (Warriors, #5))
β
I saw the movie, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and was surprised because I didn't see any tigers or dragons. And then I realized why: they're crouching and hidden.
β
β
Steve Martin
β
A girl can still admire, canβt she? Even those who canβt afford to go in the store can still window-shop. Right? Knowing he wasnβt for me didnβt mean I couldnβt covet the merchandise.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
β
β
George Bernard Shaw
β
It turned out that my curiosity did not outweigh my courage after all. Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they're not what you hoped for.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
He seemed very pleased with himself for surviving a near-death experience. I could practically hear him chanting to himself: I overcame. I conquered. Iβm a man etc etc.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of?? Losing weight and looking like the poor.
β
β
Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
β
Perfect! Now we're being chased by hoards of monkeys! Perhaps you would care to name their species as we're attacked, just so I can appreciate the special traits of said monkey as it kills me!"
"At least when the monkeys are harassing you, you dont have any time to harass me!
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
To love someone was not what she had expected. It was like falling from somewhere high up and breaking in half, and only one person having the secret to the puzzle of putting her back together.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Sometimes I can't see myself when I'm with you. I can only just see you.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I'm not myself," she offered, guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish.
He smiled. "You can never say that. You're just a piece of yourself right now that you don't like.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I decided to find you, throw myself at your feet, and beg you to have mercy on me. Honestly, Iβll accept whatever you choose, Kelsey. Just donβt ask me to live apart from you again. Because...I canβt.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
For the girls with messy hair and thirsty hearts.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
That was a pygmy marmoset by the way. Just in case you were wondering."
I wheezed. "Thank you oh Walking Monkey Dictionary.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave
β
β
Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
β
His eyes drifted leisurely back up to my face and he smiled at me appreciatively, βKelsey, when a man spends time with a beautiful woman, he needs to pace himself. I quirked my eyebrow at him and laughed. βYeah, Iβm a regular marathon alright.β He kissed my fingers. βExactly. A wise man never sprintsβ¦in a marathon.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
Life is available only in the present moment.
β
β
Thich Nhat Hanh (Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions)
β
She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
How much do you love me?' Midori asked.
'Enough to melt all the tigers in the world to butter,' I said.
β
β
Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood)
β
I tiger can smile
A snake will say it loves you
Lies make us evil
β
β
Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club)
β
You have to be careful who you meet. You canβt unmeet them.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I wrapped the unyielding woman I loved in my arms & kissed her slowly, hoping that some part of her would sense my absolute devotion." #Ren
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
You know you are in love when you see the world in her eyes, and her eyes everywhere in the world.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
A tiger only needs three things to be comfortable. Lots of food, sleep, andβ¦actually, no itβs just those two things.
β
β
Colleen Houck
β
I was destined to love you, and I will belong to you forever.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
Why does everything so bad for you always taste so dreamy?
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
Thrilled with the knowledge that she loved me, it took me a moment to realize that she was angry. I found her tantrum irresistible." #Ren
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
As a man, I instantly became aware of the gold in her hair, her height measured against mine, and how easily she'd fit in my arms. ~Ren
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
You didnβt think Iβd let you go alone, did you?β
βNo, but Iβm grateful that I had you with me.β
βGrateful is all Iβm going to get, isnβt it?β
βWhat else were you hoping for?β
βAdoration, devotion, affection, infatuation, or just plain finding me irresistible.β
βSorry, Don Juan. Youβll have to live with my undying gratitude.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
No matter what happens, please remember that I love you, hridaya patni. Promise me that you'll remember."
"It's a pet name our father used to call our mother. It means...wife of my heart.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done.
β
β
Julius Evola (Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul)
β
Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when theyβre not what you hoped for them.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Now turn around and go to sleep. I'm warning you that I plan to sleep with you in my arms all night long.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you've ever heard. The boy and the girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn't win.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.
β
β
Amelia Earhart
β
Stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like you're hunting me. I'm not an antelope.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
You're forgetting something iadala. Love is not a consequence. Love is not a choice. Love is a thirst --- a need as vital to the soul as water is to the body.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
I was looking for the key for years
But the door was always open
β
β
Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
β
You are my pearl without a price."
-Ren, Tiger's Curse
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
β
β
Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi)
β
There was no twinkle in his eyes.
"Maybe I just love some of you. Maybe not enough."
Tiger Lily blinked at him, and she didn't understand how anyone could only love a part. Her greedy heart didn't work that way.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.
β
β
Angela Carter
β
Vampire sea horse monkeys? Are you serious?
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
There was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped down a cliff, with man-eating tigers above him and a lethal fall below him, who managed to stop his fall halfway down the side of the cliff, holding on for dear life. There was a clump of strawberries beside him, and certain death above him and below. What should he do? went the question.
And the reply was, Eat the strawberries.
The story had never made sense to him as a boy. It did now.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (American Gods (American Gods, #1))
β
I once told Ren our story wasn't over.
And it's not.
Not yet.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
What is real and what is not is for your heart to decide and for your heart to know.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
I was just slipping my pajama top over my head when I heard Ren bellow, βYOU ate ALL of my peanut . . . butter . . . COOKIES?
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
Just so you know, I hate camping. I'm not so much appreciating the fact that there's no bathroom out here. 'Nature calls' while walking in nature is on my list of least favorite things. You tigers, and men in general, have it so much easier than us girls.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
How poor are they that have no patients! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?'"
"Shakespeare isn't going to save you this time, Superman. Your time's run out."
He scowled. "Perhaps I should have been studying The Taming of the Shrew!
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
He then put both hands on the door on either side of my head and leaned in close, pinning me against it. I trembled like a downy rabbit caught in the clutches of a wolf. The wolf came closer. He bent his head and began nuzzling my cheek. The problem wasβ¦I wanted the wolf to devour me.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
Still, the longer I was around her, the more I could see the colors of her mind and the recesses of her heart. There was a beast in there. But there was also a girl who was afraid of being a beast, and who wondered if other people had beasts in their hearts too. There was strength, and there was also just the determination to look strong. She guarded herself like a secret.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
She answered with a passion I didnβt expect & I was lost. In that moment our hearts beat as one. In that moment I knew she loved me." #Ren
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you -- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
β
β
Edward Abbey
β
Shhh Kelsey. I'm here. I'm not leaving you priya. Hush now. Mein aapka raksha karunga. I will watch over you priyatama.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
A quiet but indomitable voice behind me said, βI believe this is my dance.β It was him. I could feel his presence. The warmth of him seeped into my back, and I quivered all over like spring leaves in a warm breeze.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
One's enemy is often the best teacher of tolerance.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
He looks like a runway model. How in the world am I going to be able to reject that? The world is so unfair. Seriously, it's like turning Brad Pitt down for a date. The girl who could actually do it should win an award for idiot of the century.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
If there was a true moment that Tiger Lily fell so in love with Peter she could never turn back, it was that night, when he shivered and walked and told her he was warm, and told her he loved her so much. She was fierce, to be sure, but she had a girl's heart, after all. As she walked home that night, she was shaking from the largeness of it.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Your heart knows. Your soul remembers.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
There are many different types of kisses. Thereβs a passionate kiss of farewellβlike the kind Rhett gave Scarlett when he went off to war. The kiss of I-canβt-really-be-with-you-but-I-want-to-beβlike with Superman and Lois Lane. Thereβs the first kissβone that is gentle and hesitant, warm and vulnerable. And then thereβs the kiss of possessionβwhich was how Ren kissed me now.
It went beyond passion, beyond desire. His kiss was full of longing, need, and love, like all those other kisses. But, it was also filled with promises and pledges, some of which seemed sweet and tender while others seemed dangerous and exciting. He was taking me over. Staking a claim.
He seized me as boldly as the tiger captured his prey. There was no escape. And I didnβt want to. I would have happily died in his clutches. I was his. And he made sure I knew it. My heart burst with a thousand beautiful blooms, all tiger lilies. And I knew with a certainty more powerful than anything Iβd ever felt before that we belonged together.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry weβll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.
β
β
Pema ChΓΆdrΓΆn (The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World)
β
First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.
May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for itβs the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coachβs eye, not the Beauty.
When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.
Guide her, protect her
When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called βHell Drop,β βTower of Torture,β or βThe Death Spiral Rock βN Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,β and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.
Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.
What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? Iβm asking You, because if I knew, Iβd be doing it, Youdammit.
May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.
Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short β a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day β And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.
O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.
And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.
And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.
βMy mother did this for me once,β she will realize as she cleans feces off her babyβs neck. βMy mother did this for me.β And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But Iβll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.
β
β
Tina Fey (Bossypants)
β
It's amazing. The moment you show cash, everyone knows your language.
β
β
Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
β
Did you know I always thought you were braver than me? Did you ever guess that that was why I was so afraid? It wasn't that I only loved some of you. But I wondered if you could ever love more than some of me.
I knew I'd miss you. But the surprising thing is, you never leave me. I never forget a thing. Every kind of love, it seems, is the only one. It doesn't happen twice. And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all. I know young people look at me and think my youth seems so far away, but it's all around me, and you're all around me. Tiger Lily, do you think magic exists if it can be explained? I can explain why I loved you, I can explain the theory of evolution that tells me why mermaids live in Neverland and nowhere else. But it still feels magic.
The lost boys all stood at our wedding. Does it seem odd to you that they could have stood at a wedding that wasn't yours and mine? It does to me. and I'm sorry for it, and for a lot, and I also wouldn't change it.
It is so quiet here. Even with all the trains and the streets and the people. It's nothing like the jungle. The boys have grown. Everything has grown. Do you think you will ever grow? I hope not. I like to think that even if I change and fade away, some other people won't.
I like to think that one day after I die, at least one small particle of me - of all the particles that will spread everywhere - will float all the way to Neverland, and be part of a flower or something like that, like that poet said, the one that your Tik Tok loved. I like to think that nothing's final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don't, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else, that you and I are always young in the woods, and that I'll see you sometime again, even if it's not with any kind of eyes I know of or understand. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the way things go after all - that all things end happy. Even for you and Tik Tok. and for you and me.
Always,
Your Peter
P.S. Please give my love to Tink. She was always such a funny little bug.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Tarzan-like men are my weakness, apparently.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
He was like a drug and what did you do with drugs You pushed them as far away as possible.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
(...)normalcy is an illusion. Each person is utterly unique. A standard of normalcy is something that most people of the world simply will never access.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
A faerie heart is different from a human heart. Human hearts are elastic. They have room for all sorts of passions, and they can break and heal and love again and again. Faerie hearts are evolutionarily less sophisticated. They are small and hard, like tiny grains of sand. Our hearts are too small to love more than one person in a lifetime.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
The Genius Of The Crowd
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.
β
β
Judy Blume (Tiger Eyes)
β
If you have reasons for not coming back, I donβt want to know them. I just want you to come back anyway. Ignorance, see?
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
This is something you can't deny. You belong with me. You're mine.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
Regrets are only felt by those who do not understand life's purpose.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Voyage (The Tiger Saga, #3))
β
How can I describe Peter's face, the pieces of him that stick to my heart? Peter sometimes looked aloof and distant; sometimes his face was open and soft as a bruise. Sometimes he looked completely at Tiger Lily, as if she were the point on which all the universe revolved, as if she were the biggest mystery of life, or as if she were a flame and he couldn't not look even though he was scared. And sometimes it would all disappear into carelessness, confidence, amusement, as if he didn't need anyone or anything on this earth to feel happy and alive.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
He seized me as boldly as a tiger captures his prey. There was no escape. And I didn't want to. I would have happily died in his clutches. I was his, and he made sure I knew it. My heart burst with a thousand beautiful blooms, all tiger lilies. And I knew with a certainty more powerful than anything I'd ever felt before that we belonged together.
He finally lifted his head and murmured against my lips, "It's about bloody time, woman.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
β
I like to think that nothing's final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don't, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else, that you and I are always young in the woods, and that I'll see you sometime again, even if it's not with any kind of eyes I know of or understand. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the way things go after all - that all things end happy.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.
β
β
Judy Blume (Tiger Eyes)
β
We looked at each other for a minute, not saying anything, but I could feel the air between us shift. It became thick, sultry, and tangibleβlike when the air changes right before a storm. I could feel its power envelop me as it brushed across my skin. Even though I couldnβt see it, I knew a storm was coming.
β
β
Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
β
Tiger Lily went back into the house, from which she kept watch of the ocean. She held her arms around her stomach and stayed awake. She didn't want him to catch her sleeping.
Peter did not come that night, or the next day, and she stayed awake. She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible.
For three days, she kept on studying the horizon, even speaking to it, as if a ship that had already disappeared could hear her. "Choose me."
And Peter did choose. But he chose something else.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
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Pulling the chair out for me, he invited me to sit.
I stood there wondering if I could sprint for the nearest exit. Stupid strappy shoes, I'd never make it.
He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "I know what you're thinking, and I'm not going to let you escape again. You can either take a seat and have dinner with me like a normal date," he grinned at his word choice, "or," he paused thoughtfully then threatened, "you can sit on my lap while I force-feed you.
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Colleen Houck (Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga, #1))
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So this is what I will do. I will gather together my past and look. I will see a thing that has already happened. the pain that cut my spirit loose. I will hold that pain in my hand until it becomes hard and shiny, more clear. And then my fierceness can come back, my golden side, my black side. I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter's tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. But I will win and giver her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter.
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Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club)
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There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man
stops himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he will.
Rejection and ridicule will only strengthen him. And the longer
he is held back the stronger he will become, like a mass of rising
water against a dam. There is no losing in writing, it will make your toes laugh
as you sleep, it will make you stride like a tiger, it will fire
the eye and put you face to face with death. You will die a fighter,
you will be honored in hell. The luck of the word. Go with it, send it.
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Charles Bukowski (The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship)
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Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for one the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say? It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflexion, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come --
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Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
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Tell your daughters how you love your body.
Tell them how they must love theirs.
Tell them to be proud of every bit of themselvesβ
from their tiger stripes to the soft flesh of their thighs,
whether there is a little of them or a lot,
whether freckles cover their face or not,
whether their curves are plentiful or slim,
whether their hair is thick, curly, straight, long or short.
Tell them how they inherited
their ancestors, souls in their smiles,
that their eyes carry countries
that breathed life into history,
that the swing of their hips
does not determine their destiny.
Tell them never to listen when bodies are critiqued.
Tell them every womanβs body is beautiful
because every womanβs soul is unique.
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Nikita Gill (The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom)
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Kishan spoke intently, "Kelsey is all that a man could ask for. She's perfect for you. She loves poetry and sits endlessly content while listening to you sing and play your guitar. She waited months for you to come after her, and she has risked her life repeatedly to save your mangy white hide. She's sweet and loving and warm and beautiful and would make you immeasurably happy."
There was a pause. Then I heard Ren say incredulously, "You love her."
Kishan didn't answer right away, but then said softly, almost so I couldn't hear it, "No man in his right mind wouldn't, which proves you aren't in your right mind.
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Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
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What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell. I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. For example - I wonder - could you tell my jumbled story in exactly one hundred chapters, not one more, not one less? I'll tell you, that's one thing I have about my nickname, the way the number runs on forever. It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse. That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, "Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life. And now go where you must. You have known the confined freedom of a zoo most of your life; now you will know the free confinement of a jungle. I wish you all the best with it. Watch out for Man. He is not your friend. But I hope you will remember me as a friend. I will never forget you , that is certain. You will always be with me, in my heart. What is that hiss? Ah, our boat has touched sand. So farewell, Richard Parker, farewell. God be with you.
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Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
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There is, then, a world immune from change. But I am not composed enough, standing on tiptoe on the verge of fire, still scorched by the hot breath, afraid of the door opening and the leap of the tiger, to make even one sentence. What I say is perpetually contradicted. Each time the door opens I am interrupted. I am not yet twenty-one. I am to be broken. I am to be derided all my life. I am to be cast up and down among these men and women, with their twitching faces, with their lying tongues, like a cork on a rough sea. Like a ribbon of weed I am flung far every time the door opens. I am the foam that sweeps and fills the uttermost rims of the rocks with whiteness; I am also a girl, here in this room.
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Virginia Woolf (The Waves)
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I find that all people are fundamentally alike. We are one human family. Perhaps we have different clothes, our skin is of a different color, or we speak various languages, but that is on the surface only. We all have dreams and seek for things that will bring true happiness. To know all the world, I just need to learn about myself.
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Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!
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William Shakespeare (Henry V)
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The point is, the brain talks to itself, and by talking to itself changes its perceptions. To make a new version of the not-entirely-false model, imagine the first interpreter as a foreign correspondent, reporting from the world. The world in this case means everything out- or inside our bodies, including serotonin levels in the brain. The second interpreter is a news analyst, who writes op-ed pieces. They read each other's work. One needs data, the other needs an overview; they influence each other. They get dialogues going.
INTERPRETER ONE: Pain in the left foot, back of heel.
INTERPRETER TWO: I believe that's because the shoe is too tight.
INTERPRETER ONE: Checked that. Took off the shoe. Foot still hurts.
INTERPRETER TWO: Did you look at it?
INTERPRETER ONE: Looking. It's red.
INTERPRETER TWO: No blood?
INTERPRETER ONE: Nope.
INTERPRETER TWO: Forget about it.
INTERPRETER ONE: Okay.
Mental illness seems to be a communication problem between interpreters one and two.
An exemplary piece of confusion.
INTERPRETER ONE: There's a tiger in the corner.
INTERPRETER TWO: No, that's not a tiger- that's a bureau.
INTERPRETER ONE: It's a tiger, it's a tiger!
INTERPRETER TWO: Don't be ridiculous. Let's go look at it.
Then all the dendrites and neurons and serotonin levels and interpreters collect themselves and trot over to the corner.
If you are not crazy, the second interpreter's assertion, that this is a bureau, will be acceptable to the first interpreter. If you are crazy, the first interpreter's viewpoint, the tiger theory, will prevail.
The trouble here is that the first interpreter actually sees a tiger. The messages sent between neurons are incorrect somehow. The chemicals triggered are the wrong chemicals, or the impulses are going to the wrong connections. Apparently, this happens often, but the second interpreter jumps in to straighten things out.
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Susanna Kaysen (Girl, Interrupted)
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L'union libre [Freedom of Love]"
My wife with the hair of a wood fire
With the thoughts of heat lightning
With the waist of an hourglass
With the waist of an otter in the teeth of a tiger
My wife with the lips of a cockade and of a bunch of stars of the last magnitude
With the teeth of tracks of white mice on the white earth
With the tongue of rubbed amber and glass
My wife with the tongue of a stabbed host
With the tongue of a doll that opens and closes its eyes
With the tongue of an unbelievable stone
My wife with the eyelashes of strokes of a child's writing
With brows of the edge of a swallow's nest
My wife with the brow of slates of a hothouse roof
And of steam on the panes
My wife with shoulders of champagne
And of a fountain with dolphin-heads beneath the ice
My wife with wrists of matches
My wife with fingers of luck and ace of hearts
With fingers of mown hay
My wife with armpits of marten and of beechnut
And of Midsummer Night
Of privet and of an angelfish nest
With arms of seafoam and of riverlocks
And of a mingling of the wheat and the mill
My wife with legs of flares
With the movements of clockwork and despair
My wife with calves of eldertree pith
My wife with feet of initials
With feet of rings of keys and Java sparrows drinking
My wife with a neck of unpearled barley
My wife with a throat of the valley of gold
Of a tryst in the very bed of the torrent
With breasts of night
My wife with breasts of a marine molehill
My wife with breasts of the ruby's crucible
With breasts of the rose's spectre beneath the dew
My wife with the belly of an unfolding of the fan of days
With the belly of a gigantic claw
My wife with the back of a bird fleeing vertically
With a back of quicksilver
With a back of light
With a nape of rolled stone and wet chalk
And of the drop of a glass where one has just been drinking
My wife with hips of a skiff
With hips of a chandelier and of arrow-feathers
And of shafts of white peacock plumes
Of an insensible pendulum
My wife with buttocks of sandstone and asbestos
My wife with buttocks of swans' backs
My wife with buttocks of spring
With the sex of an iris
My wife with the sex of a mining-placer and of a platypus
My wife with a sex of seaweed and ancient sweetmeat
My wife with a sex of mirror
My wife with eyes full of tears
With eyes of purple panoply and of a magnetic needle
My wife with savanna eyes
My wife with eyes of water to he drunk in prison
My wife with eyes of wood always under the axe
My wife with eyes of water-level of level of air earth and fire
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AndrΓ© Breton (Poems of AndrΓ© Breton: A Bilingual Anthology)