β
Thanks,β Toby said. βAnd if Wesley breaks your heart, I promise to . . . well, I would say Iβd kick his ass, but we both
know thatβs physically impossible.β He frowned down at his skinny arms. βSo Iβll write him a strongly worded letter.
β
β
Kody Keplinger (The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend (Hamilton High, #1))
β
Knowing someone isn't coming back
doesn't mean you ever stop waiting
β
β
Toby Barlow
β
Because maybe I don't want to leave the planet invisible. Maybe I need at least one person to remember something about me.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
Did you really believe I was Toby? Puh-lease. I would have killed myself too. I mean, honestly - ew. He totally had it coming. Karma's a bitch, and so am I - just ask Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer....
β
β
Sara Shepard (Flawless (Pretty Little Liars, #2))
β
Toby Zeigler: There's literally no one in the world I don't hate right now.
β
β
Aaron Sorkin
β
She watched you wrestle Toby Jameson, who probably weighs two hundred pounds, without even working up a sweat. And she said to herself, wow, that's a good wrestler, he must be an angel.
β
β
Cynthia Hand (Unearthly (Unearthly, #1))
β
I'll be your family now." ~ Tobis 'Four
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Toby was right. Finn was my first love. But Toby, he was my second. And the sadness in that stretched like a thin cold river down the length of my whole life.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
But maybe I am. Maybe thatβs exactly what I am. Maybe all I wanted was for Toby to hear the wolves that lived in the dark forest of my heart. And maybe thatβs what it meant. Tell the Wolves Iβm Home. Maybe Finn understood everything, as usual. You may as well tell them where you live, because theyβll find you anyway. They always do.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
Toby: All right. It couldn't have gone far, right?
Sam: No.
Toby: Somewhere in this building...is our talent.
β
β
Aaron Sorkin
β
Despite everything, it's still you.
β
β
Toby Fox
β
Mrs. Landingham, does the President have free time this morning?"
"The President has nothing but free time, Toby. Right now he's in the residence eating Cheerios and enjoying Regis and Kathie Lee. Should I get him for you?"
"Sarcasm's a disturbing thing coming from a woman of your age, Mrs. Landingham."
"What age would that be, Toby?"
"Late twenties?"
"Atta boy.
β
β
Aaron Sorkin
β
But if they loved each other so much, couldnβt they talk it out?β
Toby gave an exasperated laugh. βYou get into habits. Ways of being with certain people.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
he knows that it's impossible to tell a wolf
from a man if
he keeps his chin up
and his teeth clean.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
Why is it always such a surprise? thinks Toby. The moon. Even though we know it's coming. Every time we see it, it makes us pause, and hush.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam (MaddAddam, #3))
β
Toby, watch Jaden. I heard he had a bad night and is in the mood for annihilation. End of the worldβs not on me today, bud. Hey, Takeshi, get your fat butt off me. Youβre squishing the fox. There is no honor in sacrificing the fox, you ugly hedgehog. (Acheron)
β
β
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #14))
β
I needed to know that my mother understood that her hand was in this too. That all the jealousy and envy and shame we carried was our own kind of sickness. As much a disease as Toby and Finnβs AIDS.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
I'm doing this for Toby and Marlee, not you." The defiant words were directed at Hawke.
The alpha gave her a mock-salute. "Heaven forbid you do anything because I asked you to.
β
β
Nalini Singh (Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling, #1))
β
No walking! No standing, no bending, no moving, no accessing the Shadow Roads, nothing. You don't swim for an hour after eating, you don't swan around like an idiot for an hour after narrowly avoiding death.'
'Toby does,' said Quentin.
'Toby is genetically predisposed to swan around like an idiot,' Jin shot back. 'Now sit.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
Who would come for her?" he snarled, rallying.
Behind me, a voice shouted, "Tybalt, King of Cats. My claim precedes yours.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (An Artificial Night (October Daye, #3))
β
The bullet we're running from is almost never the one that hits us.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
Only the fearless made proceed.
Brave ones, foolish ones.
Both walk not the middle road.
β
β
Toby Fox
β
She was a creature of the deep, and there she must return, or perish. Toby understood that, but it hardly helped him. For all he had of her was his memory, where he held every moment, every single moment that she had been his. That was all he had, to keep out the loneliness.
β
β
Juliet Marillier (Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters, #1))
β
Jack Peyton is HOT!" someone from the audience yelled.
"Toby Klein is HOTTER" a male voice argued, and I almost went into an epileptic fit of disgust at both the words and the tone.
"Now, now," Jack said, raising his hands. "Don't be ridiculous. Mr. Corkin is clearly the hottest
β
β
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Killer Spirit (The Squad, #2))
β
Thatβs what it is to care for a person,β Toby said. There was not even a hint of mocking in his voice. βIf youβre not afraid, youβre not doing it right.
β
β
Jonathan Auxier (Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster)
β
Call him Judas if you want
but he did it for reasons
much older than silver.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
Thus the time passed. Toby stopped counting it. In any case, time is not a thing that passes, said Pilar: itβs a sea on which you float.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2))
β
composure, n.
You told me anyway, even though I didnβt want to know. A stupid drunken fling while you were visiting Toby in Austin. Months ago. And the thing I hate the most is knowing how much hinges on my reaction, how your unburdening can only lead to me being burdened. If I lose it now, I will lose you, too. I know that. I hate it.
You wait for my response.
β
β
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
β
Can we get out of here?"
"Your chariot awaits."
"In the form of a blue Ford ute?" I curved my brow.
"But of course," he said in an over-the-top French accent.
"Sacre blur, bad accent alert!"
"Wow," he said, "Le rude?"
"Le sorry?"
"Le hurt." Toby clutched his heart.
"What can I do to soothe your shattered ego?"
Toby drummed his chin thoughtfully, pacing around me. He stopped just near enough to whisper in my ear.
"Le kiss?
β
β
C.J. Duggan (The Boys of Summer (Summer, #1))
β
And were you cornered by her,
eye to eye,
you would see that
there are still some watchful creatures
whose essence lies unbound by words.
There is still a wilderness.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
Toby twisted around. "Boo." Emily screamed.
β
β
Sara Shepard (Flawless (Pretty Little Liars, #2))
β
Josh: So, Toby, itβs election night. What do you say about a country that goes out of its way to protect even those citizens that try to destroy it?
Toby: God bless America.
β
β
Aaron Sorkin
β
When you knock off work tonight, go looking for Toby, because, trust me, he will be looking for you.
β
β
C.J. Duggan (The Boys of Summer (Summer, #1))
β
If I had a gun with two bullets and I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, and Toby, I would shoot Toby twice.
β
β
Ricky Gervais
β
He's going to be okay," said Quentin. "He has to. He's Tybalt. You'd be all weird and irritating if he wasn't around."
"Weird and irritating?" I raised an eyebrow. "What gives you that idea?"
Quentin shrugged. "That's already how you get when he isn't around.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
Gender roles suck," says Swift Fox.
Then you should stop playing them, thinks Toby.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam (MaddAddam, #3))
β
Bailey loved both Toby and me so much - he and I almost make up her whole heart, and maybe that's it, what we were trying to do by being together, maybe we were trying to put her heart back together again.
β
β
Jandy Nelson (The Sky Is Everywhere)
β
Wait,β Toby said, talking over her as she looked around at all of us. βSo this means all you guys are off, like, rounding the bases and Iβm still in the dugout. Iβm the person selling Cracker Jack in the stands.β
βThis metaphor is getting weird,β Palmer murmured to me.
β
β
Morgan Matson (The Unexpected Everything)
β
Sometimes I feel kind of wrong here. I used to be normal, but now... I don't know. I feel like I should be one way, but I'm not." Toby stared at her. "I hear that." He sighed. "There are all these perfect people here. And... it's like, if you're not one of the,. then you're messed up. But I think, inside, the flawless-looking people are just as messed up as we are.
β
β
Sara Shepard (Flawless (Pretty Little Liars, #2))
β
How shrunk, how dwindled, in our times
Creation's mighty seed -
For Man has broke the Fellowship
With murder, lust, and greed.
β
β
Margaret Atwood
β
It is a beautiful day outside. Birds are singning, flowers are blooming.... On days like these, kids like you... should be burning in hell
β
β
Toby Fox
β
[Toby] reflected that being cruel sometimes makes you rich and powerful, but it always makes you ugly.
β
β
TimothΓ©e de Fombelle (Toby Alone)
β
Tess, will you marry me?" Toby laughed.
β
β
C.J. Duggan (The Boys of Summer (Summer, #1))
β
Fuck me,' I said to Toby. 'We're living in Isengard.
β
β
Ben Aaronovitch (Broken Homes (Peter Grant, #4))
β
...Whatβs the one superpower of June Elbus?β
I thought about myself from head to toe. It was like being forced to read the most boring part of the Sears catalog. Like leafing through the bathroom accessories pages. Boring brain. Boring face. No sex appeal. Clumsy hands.
βHeart. Hard heart,β I said, not sure where it came from. βThe hardest heart in the world.β
βHmmm,β Toby said, tapping a finger in the air. βThatβs a useful one, you know. Very handy. The question is . . .β Toby paused like he was considering this all very seriously.
βWhatβs the question?β
βThe question is, stone or ice? Crack or melt?
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
The heart is a bloody thing.
β
β
Toby Barlow
β
Toby had received, though not yet digested, one of the earliest lessons of adult life: that one is never secure. At any moment one can be removed from a state of guileless serenity and plunged into its opposite, without any intermediate condition, so high about us do the waters rise of our own and other people's imperfection.
β
β
Iris Murdoch (The Bell)
β
The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature.
(Referenced in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young)
β
β
Saul Bellow (Ravelstein)
β
Some things don't pass, the injuries don't heal they merely find a place in our guts and in our bones where they fitfully rest, tossing and turning between our knuckles and ribs waiting to wake as the shadows grow long.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
I sang to her. I sang every lullaby I could think of, and then I just started singing her Toby Keith songs. I think she really likes βI Love This Bar.β
β
β
Abbi Glines (One More Chance (Rosemary Beach, #8; Chance, #2))
β
Not at all, I just don't understand how the Arch Alchemist became mortal all of a sudden."
"Because he split his soul into seven pieces and hid them all over Justice City," Toby retorted.
"You turned our comic book into a Harry Potter rip-off?" I spluttered.
β
β
Robyn Schneider (The Beginning of Everything)
β
I think everyone in the neighborhood knows how much you like my ass! Now let go of me!" He chuckled at that little accusation, knowing that she was probably right. Over the past couple of months he may have had a problem with keeping his hands to himself when they were outside taking care of the yard or taking Toby for a walk. It was all her fault of course.
β
β
R.L. Mathewson (Perfection (Neighbor from Hell, #2))
β
Sleepovers, as far as Toby could tell, consisted of the girls in her class getting together and forming alliances and lobbing microaggressions at each other in an all-night cold war, and they did this voluntarily.
β
β
Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Fleishman Is in Trouble)
β
Little-known fact about cheerleaders: They keep schedules that would make grown marines cry.
β
β
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Killer Spirit (The Squad, #2))
β
She is about to add, "I have scars, inside me," but she stops herself. What is a scar, Oh Toby? That would be the next question. Then she'd have to explain what a scar is. A scar is like writing on your body. It tells about something that once happened to you, such as a cut on your skin where blood came out.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam (MaddAddam, #3))
β
So,β Libby said sagely, βchess.β βChess,β I repeated. βThe moveβitβs called the Queenβs Gambit. Whoeverβs playing white puts that second pawn in a position to be sacrificed, which is why itβs considered a gambit.β βWhy would you sacrifice a piece?β Libby asked. I thought about billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, about Toby, about Jameson, Grayson, Xander, and Nash. βTo take control of the board,β I said.
β
β
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3))
β
A white lie is not a lie at all. It is where you tell the truth but you do not tell all of the truth. This means that everything you say is a white lie because when someone says, for example, "What do you want to do today?" you say, "I want to do painting with Mrs. Peters," but you don't say, "I want to have my lunch and I want to go to the toilet and I want to go home after school and I want to play with Toby and I want to have my supper
β
β
Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)
β
If you think a story can be like a kind of cement, the sloppy kind that you put between bricks, the kind that looks like cake frosting before it dries hard, then maybe I thought it would be possible to use what Toby had to hold Finn together, to keep him here with me a little bit longer.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
Octoberβ
You were sleeping so peacefully that I was loath to wake you. Duke Torquill, after demanding to know what I was doing in your apartment, has requested that I inform you of his intent to visit after βtending to some business at the Queenβs Court.β I recommend wearing something clinging, as that may distract him from whatever he wishes to lecture you about this time. Hopefully, itβs your manners.
You are truly endearing when you sleep. I attribute this to the exotic nature of seeing you in a state of silence.
βTybalt
β
β
Seanan McGuire (A Local Habitation (October Daye, #2))
β
That's what love does/ It chases the dragons away/ before their claws can sink in.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
I'd sold my soul to get out of detention.
β
β
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Perfect Cover (The Squad, #1))
β
DAD!β I screamed as I barreled into the house, Toby at my heels. A second later, I realized how that sounded. βEverything is fine!β I yelled a moment later. There was no need to give my father a heart attack.
βNo, itβs not!β Toby yelled, though a little less loudly than me. βWe need help!β
βWhatβs going on?
β
β
Morgan Matson (The Unexpected Everything)
β
cause we all make mistakes sometimes, and we've all stepped across that line, but nothing's sweeter than the day we find forgiveness
β
β
TobyMac
β
The secret must stay and- according to scientists- the love will live. The heart is quite comfortable with secrets. After all, its home is a dark wet place tucked in among all the other organs who aren't talking either.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
The King did what all wise husbands do. He did as he was told.
β
β
Toby Forward (Fireborn)
β
I'll never be a non-stumbler. I'll be a forgiven stumbler, but never a non-stumbler.
β
β
TobyMac
β
Toby smiled and started to speak, but Josh adjusted his hold on Tank and reached back, covering Toby's mouth.
"Wait," Grace said. "I think he was going to actually use words."
"Yeah, but trust me, you don't want to hear them."
Toby pulled Josh's hand away. "Are you my new mommy?"
Grace's mouth fell open in shock, and Toby giggled at the sight.
"Okay, Tiger," Josh said. "You know I love the sound of your laugh, probably more than any sound in the world, but I will squash you like a grape if you say that to one more woman today.
β
β
Jill Shalvis (Forever and a Day (Lucky Harbor, #6))
β
You are covered in blood," Tybalt said again, stressing the words harder this time. "It makes me tense." There was a thud as the guard hit the floor, and Tybalt returned to my side.
"Wow. You must be tense a lot."
He sighed. "You have no idea.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Chimes at Midnight (October Daye, #7))
β
There are two things that make
the conscious world move,
decision and desire.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
Finn said art isn't about drawing or painting a perfect bowl of fruit. It's about ideas. And you, he said, have enough good ideas to last a lifetime.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
I feel like a giant Barbie."
"I do not become romantically involved with plastic people," said Tybalt dryly.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Chimes at Midnight (October Daye, #7))
β
Being a King sort of sucks," I said.
Quentin wrinkled his nose, "So does your outfit."
"Blood is in this season.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
I am so tired of this gothic crap,β I muttered. βJust once, I want to meet the villain in a cheerful, brightly lit room. Possibly one with kittens.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (An Artificial Night (October Daye, #3))
β
Don't apologize for being patriotic. Support the troops
β
β
Toby Keith
β
Government should be a place where people can come together, and no one gets left behind. No oneβ¦gets left behind. An instrument of good.
β
β
Aaron Sorkin
β
Don't tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.
β
β
Aaron Sorkin
β
You either trust or you distrust coincidence. It 's either small doses of magic pulling you to your appointed destiny or the devil trying to lead you down to the thorns.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
I was getting tired of being in an endless succession of things called "the fight of a lifetime." Just once, I'd like to have the fight of a Tuesday afternoon.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (One Salt Sea (October Daye, #5))
β
He sounded so tired and so earnest. I worried my lips between my teeth before asking, "Does this have anything to do with what you told me before?"
Tybalt blinked. Then he snorted a brief laugh, and asked, "October, in the years since your return ... has anything not been in some way related to what I told you before? You handed me a hope chest in a dark alley. You took my heart as collateral, and you've never returned it.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
When I go to the woods now, I always head out along the brook and go straight to the big maple. I run there, like Toby must have done on that stormy night, then I bend down and crawl on the earth. Because what if thereβs a clue? What if thereβs a piece of chunky strawberry bubble gum still bundled up in its waxy wrapper, or a weather-faded matchbook, or a fallen button from somebodyβs big gray coat? What if buried under all those leaves is me? Not this me, but the girl in a Gunne Sax dress with the back zipper open. The girl with the best boots in the world. What if sheβs under there? What if sheβs crying? Because she will be, if I find her. Her tears tell the story of what she knows. That the past, present, and future are just one thing. That thereβs nowhere to go from here. Home is home is home.
β
β
Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I'm Home)
β
Like so much of the trouble in the world
it ends simply with exhaustion.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
Like go for a walk, say a little prayer
Take a deep breath of mountain air
Put on my glove and play some catch
It's time that I make time for that
Wade the shore and cast a line
Look up a long lost friend of mine
Sit on the porch and give my girl a kiss
Start livin', that's the next thing on my list.
β
β
Toby Keith
β
Do you know how long Iβve been telling myself you hated me? Or how hard itβs been to keep believing it? Youβd do things, these amazing, insane things, like stealing me back from Blind Michael or breaking me out of jail, and Iβd say, βOh, he just wants to pay his debts,β or, βOh, who knows what a cat is thinking?ββ My voice broke a little on the last word. Dammit.
Tybaltβs eyes widened, hope kindling in their depths. βWhat are you saying?β
βIβm sayingβ oak and ash, Tybalt, Iβm saying Iβm in love with you, Iβve been in love with you for a while, and the only way I was dealing with it was by not dealing with it, ever.β I shook my head. βI knew Iβd never have you, so I told myself I didnβt want you, and if you donβt really want me, if you want some idea of me, or just want to chase and not catch, Iβll understand, but this has been a hard week, Tybalt, this has been such a hard week. Iβve been waiting for you to come here, because I need you to tell me. Okay? Just tell me what you want.β
βOh, October. Toby. My Toby.β He pulled one hand from mine, reaching up to tuck my hair behind my ear. His fingers were shaking. That was what I focused on, more than anything else. His fingers were shaking. βDo you think Iβm cruel enough to do that to you?β
I sniffled. βNo,β I admitted.
βThank Oberon,β he said, and pulled me close, and kissed me.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
He on his way." "Maybe he'll bring a sword." "Maybe he'll bring a tank." I shook my head. "I hate being rescued." "Then why aren't we trying to get to the car?" "Because I hate being eaten even more.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
Everyone is always looking in the wrong direction,
we worry about our lovers while losing our jobs
we stress out about cancer while our children run away
we ponder the stars while burning the earth.
Lark used to say the buller we're running from
is almost never the one that hits us.
β
β
Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
β
I love you, Tess McGee. I donβt do big funny or heartfelt speeches in front of people at birthday parties, but Iβm excellent in private alcoves in beer gardens.β He paused. βOkay, that sounded really bad, what I mean is β¦β
I kissed him into silence. I pressed my forehead against his with a sigh. βI love you, too, Toby. In fact, thatβs what I was going to tell you before we walked into the beer garden. Right before the really bad singing started.β
Toby chuckled. He let out a sigh of relief. βReady to reminisce?β
I whispered my final word before he closed the distance.
βAlways.
β
β
C.J. Duggan (The Boys of Summer (Summer, #1))
β
My dear October, we are bound by an enchanted rose made from the hair of a Duchess, and my blood is covering your hand. You can learn anything you wish to know about me merely by licking you fingers." Tybalt laughed a little. "Yes, you may ask me a question.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
The rest of my Thursday can be summarised thus:
- Nat tells me to bite her.
- I don't.
- I am forced to sit next to Toby for the entire two-and-a-half-hour return coach journey.
- He tells me that water is not blue because it reflects the sky, but actually because the molecular structure of the water itself reflects the colour blue and therefore our art teacher is wrong and the authorities should be alerted.
- I pull my jumper over my head.
- I stay under my jumper for the next two hours.
β
β
Holly Smale (Geek Girl (Geek Girl, #1))
β
And it should feel good to hear her music, it should feel right.
After all, she has gone to visit pieces of her art so many times.
But they were only pieces, stripped of context. Sculptured birds on marble plinths, and paintings behind ropes. Didactic boxes taped to whitewashed walls and glass boxes that keep the present from the past.
It is a different thing when the glass breaks.
It is her mother in the doorway, withered to bone.
It is Remy in the Paris salon.
It is Sam, inviting her to stay, every time.
It is Toby Marsh, playing their song.
The only way Addie knows how to keep going is to keep going forward. They are Orpheus, she is Eurydice, and every time they turn back, she is ruined.
β
β
Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
β
How did you find me anyway."
"For all that I must keep reminding you that I am not a bloodhound, it's true that on occasion, having a sensitive nose is a useful thing. I followed the smell of you." Tybalt sighed, looking exaggeratedly put-upon. "If you must be ferried back to your people, I suppose I can oblige. But only because you asked me so very nicely, and promised me a kiss.
β
β
Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
β
After getting dressed at warp speed, I actually managed to drive all the way to high school before I realized I'd forgotten my morning coffee. Mystery, intrigue, and naked dreams aside, that didn't bode well for my chances at making it through the morning without killing myself. Or someone else.
β
β
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Killer Spirit (The Squad, #2))
β
Nature full strength is more than we can take, Adam One used to say. It's a potent hallucinogen, a soporific, for the untrained Soul. We're no longer at home in it. We need to dilute it. We can't drink it straight. And God is the same. Too much God and you overdose. God needs to be filtered.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2))
β
A bouquet of wonderful scents met my nose, and my heart leaped when I realized who I was smelling.
'Molly!' I heard someone call.
I whipped my head around everywhere and there they were, the people I'd been smelling. Everyone I'd ever loved in my life, standing at the edge of the water, smiling and clapping. I saw Ethan and Hannah and Trent and CJ standing in front, along with Andi and Maya and Jakob and all the others.
'Bailey!' Ethan yelled waving.
My names was Toby, and Buddy, and Molly and Max and Bailey and Ellie. I was a good dog, and this was my reward. Now I would get to be with the people I loved.
I turned, whimpering with you, and swam toward those golden shores.
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W. Bruce Cameron (A Dog's Journey (A Dog's Purpose, #2))
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As she stared at the ceiling that first night
her body softly falling back into itself,
she thought of how we dream of journeying
on spaceships to other universes, other worlds,
but really, for the forever,
we're stuck here on the dirt and
the only time we will travel anywhere truly unknowable
is when we slip into the skin of another,
venturing into their mysteries,
always hoping for
a safe landing.
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Toby Barlow (Sharp Teeth)
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You can't save everyone and leave yourself lost, October. It isn't fair. Not to you and not to the people who care about you."
"I'm not lost Tybalt," I said. It was oddly hard to meet his eyes now that they registered as human. His irises were supposed to be malachite green, not muddy hazel, and his pupils were supposed to be oval, not round. "I know exactly where I am."
A smile crossed his face. "If I believed that, I would walk away and never darken your door again. I can forgive you your foolishness only because I know how lost you are. But one day, you'll have to come back home. When you do, I hope you'll find me waiting.
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Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
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You died here," I said quietly.
"October -"
"I wasn't here, and the girl I'm supposed to be finding was, and you died ." I looked up at him, glaring through the tears in my eyes. I left my fingers balanced on the floor, letting his blood sing its song of pain and longing. Longing to live; refusal to let go of the world. Maybe that's what differentiates the Kings and Queens of Cats from the rest of Faerie. They have a cat's stubbornness and the power to back it up. So when death says, "Go," they just refuse.
My heart hurt. My heart hurt so badly, and I was still trying to recover from Connor, and oh, Titania, I couldn't do this again. The thought startled me. I froze where I was, still glaring.
Tybalt sighed. "I know." he hesitated before adding, "This is not the time, and this is not the place, and my nephew needs us. But I ask you to consider this. I got better. I will always get better." He hesitated again - possibly the first time I'd ever seen him pause more than once after he'd decided he was going to say something.
Finally, he said, "Some of us, October, will not leave you.
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Seanan McGuire (Ashes of Honor (October Daye, #6))
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Between the roof of the shed and the big plant that hangs over the fence from the house next door I could see the constellation Orion. People say that Orion is called Orion because Orion was a hunter and the constellation looks like a hunter with a club and a bow and arrow, like this:
But this is really silly because it is just stars, and you could join up the dots in any way you wanted, and you could make it look like a lady with an umbrella who is waving, or the coffeemaker which Mrs. Shears has, which is from Italy, with a handle and steam coming out, or like a dinosaur.
And there aren't any lines in space, so you could join bits of Orion to bits of Lepus or Taurus or Gemini and say that they were a constellation called the Bunch of Grapes or Jesus or the Bicycle (except that they didn't have bicycles in Roman and Greek times, which was when they called Orion Orion). And anyway, Orion is not a hunter or a coffeemaker or a dinosaur. It is just Betelgeuse and Bellatrix and Alnilam and Rigel and 17 other stars I don't know the names of. And they are nuclear explosions billions of miles away. And that is the truth.
I stayed awake until 5:47. That was the last time I looked at my watch before I fell asleep. It has a luminous face and lights up if you press a button, so I could read it in the dark. I was cold and I was frightened Father might come out and find me. But I felt safer in the garden because I was hidden. I looked at the sky a lot. I like looking up at the sky in the garden at night. In summer I sometimes come outside at night with my torch and my planisphere, which is two circles of plastic with a pin through the middle. And on the bottom is a map of the sky and on top is an aperture which is an opening shaped in a parabola and you turn it round to see a map of the sky that you can see on that day of the year from the latitude 51.5Β° north, which is the latitude that Swindon is on, because the largest bit of the sky is always on the other side of the earth.
And when you look at the sky you know you are looking at stars which are hundreds and thousands of light-years away from you. And some of the stars don't even exist anymore because their light has taken so long to get to us that they are already dead, or they have exploded and collapsed into red dwarfs. And that makes you seem very small, and if you have difficult things in your life it is nice to think that they are what is called negligible, which means that they are so small you don't have to take them into account when you are calculating something.
I didn't sleep very well because of the cold and because the ground was very bumpy and pointy underneath me and because Toby was scratching in his cage a lot. But when I woke up properly it was dawn and the sky was all orange and blue and purple and I could hear birds singing, which is called the Dawn Chorus. And I stayed where I was for another 2 hours and 32 minutes, and then I heard Father come into the garden and call out, "Christopher...? Christopher...?
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Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)
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He was wearing brown leather trousers, a darker brown leather vest, and a silk shirt that matched my dress. The sleeves were almost piratical in style, and the collar was unlaced. His boots were the same shade as his vest, a few shades lighter than his hair.
"Uh," I said again, before managing. "Weren't you wearing that the last time you came to Court?"
"She always dresses me in some variation of this attire," said Tybalt. "I can't tell whether she likes the look of it, or whether she's trying to make a point. This would have been a stagehand's garb, once upon a time, and nothing suited for a King."
"Uh," I said for a third time.
Seeing my distress, Tybalt smirked, leaned in, and murmured in my ear, "I have a disturbing assortment of leather trousers, thanks to her. I'd be happy to show you, if you like.
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Seanan McGuire (Chimes at Midnight (October Daye, #7))
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While dragging herself up she had to hang onto the rail. Her twisted progress was that of a cripple. Once on the open deck she felt the solid impact of the black night, and the mobility of the accidental home she was about to leave.
Although Lucette had never died beforeβno, dived before, Violetβfrom such a height, in such a disorder of shadows and snaking reflections, she went with hardly a splash through the wave that humped to welcome her. That perfect end was spoiled by her instinctively surfacing in an immediate sweep β instead of surrendering under water to her drugged lassitude as she had planned to do on her last night ashore if it ever did come to this. The silly girl had not rehearsed the technique of suicide as, say, free-fall parachutists do every day in the element of another chapter.
Owing to the tumultuous swell and her not being sure which way to peer through the spray and the darkness and her own tentaclinging hairβt,a,c,lβshe could not make out the lights of the liner, an easily imagined many-eyed bulk mightily receding in heartless triumph. Now Iβve lost my next note.
Got it.
The sky was also heartless and dark, and her body, her head,and particularly those damned thirsty trousers, felt clogged with Oceanus Nox, n,o,x. At every slap and splash of cold wild salt, she heaved with anise-flavored nausea and there was an increasing number, okay, or numbness, in her neck and arms. As she began losing track of herself, she thought it proper to inform a series of receding Lucettesβtelling them to pass it on and on in a trick-crystal regressionβthat what death amounted to was only a more complete assortment of the infinite fractions of solitude.
She did not see her whole life flash before her as we all were afraid she might have done; the red rubber of a favorite doll remained safely decomposed among the myosotes of an un-analyzable brook; but she did see a few odds and ends as she swam like a dilettante Tobakoff in a circle of brief panic and merciful torpor. She saw a pair of new vairfurred bedroom slippers, which Brigitte had forgotten to pack; she saw Van wiping his mouth before answering, and then, still withholding the answer, throwing his napkin on the table as they both got up; and she saw a girl with long black hair quickly bend in passing to clap her hands over a dackel in a half-tom wreath.
A brilliantly illumined motorboat was launched from the not-too-distant ship with Van and the swimming coach and the oilskin-hooded Toby among the would-be saviors; but by that time a lot of sea had rolled by and Lucette was too tired to wait. Then the night was filled with the rattle of an old but still strong helicopter. Its diligent beam could spot only the dark head of Van, who, having been propelled out of the boat when it shied from its own sudden shadow, kept bobbing and bawling the drowned girlβs name in the black, foam-veined, complicated waters.
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Vladimir Nabokov (Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle)
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Sentencing enhancements won't get police to investigate crimes they don't take seriously to begin with. They won't stop police from harassing trans women on the street because they assume all trans women are sex workers. They won't have any effect against police officers who believe they won't be held accountable. They won't sway the minds of jurors who think 'I killed her because she was trans' is an adequate excuse. Sentencing enhancements will allow them to dole out harsher punishments against the people they think are more deserving. And we already know that the legal system sees people of color, women, sex workers, immigrants, and the homeless as more deserving of punishment. (Tobi Hill-Meyer of COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere), "Disposable People," November 11, 2008, http://nodesignation.com)
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Kay Whitlock (Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States (Queer Ideas/Queer Action))