Held Quotes

1. "Being there was like having a good cry, the clearing of the air after weight has been held."
Author: Aimee Bender

2. "But not now. Now it was gentle, and the sun was kissing him, like Joe… like Joe…. Joe swallowed. His chest swelled in that faintly familiar breath-stopping, overwhelming way, and he made a faint sound, a gasp really, as he remembered the last time he'd felt that, and knew with total assurance what it was. It was when Jeannie had held his hand in church, when he was six and love was so simple, and so uncomplicated, and God was the reason you loved until you cried. For the first time in twenty-seven years, Joe felt the existence of God. He was in Casey's smile, his eyes, the way he looked at his lover, the way he greeted the dogs. God was there, in the sunshine brushing Casey's hair, and warming his skin, and Joe…. Joe wanted to touch him."
Author: Amy Lane

3. "Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here."
Author: Anne Lamott

4. "Then he was there, turned half toward her with a guarded expression etched across his face. She didn't stop or even slow her step. When she reached him, she grabbed the front of his shirt in both fists, pulling him to her, pushing her mouth up into his. Heat swirled through her as she pulled his face even closer, tighter. His arms wound around her and their bodies melded with a rightness she didn't bother to question. Her lips filled with the sweetness of his mouth and Tamani held her against him as if he could somehow pull her inside him, make her part of him.And for a moment, she did feel like a part of him. As if their kiss bridged the gap between the two worlds, even if only for that one brief, sparkling moment.A sigh that held the weight of years shuddered out of Tamani as their faces drew apart. "Thank you," Tamani whispered, almost too quiet to be heard."
Author: Aprilynne Pike

5. "In an age of casual, cynical, indifferent routine, among people who held themselves as if they were not flesh, but meat-Dagny's bearing seemed almost indecent, because this was the way a woman would have faced a ballroom centuries ago, when the act of displaying one's half-naked body for the admiration of men was an act of daring, when it had meaning, and but one meaning, acknowledged by all as a high adventure. And this-thought Mrs. Taggart, smiling-was the girl she had believed to be devoid of sexual capacity. She felt an immense relief, and a touch of amusement at the thought that a discovery of this kind should make her feel relieved. The relief lasted only for a few hours. At the end of the evening, she saw Dagny in a corner of the ballroom, sitting on a balustrade as if it were a fence rail, her legs dangling under the chiffon skirt as if she were dressed in slacks. She was talking to a couple of helpless young men, her face contemptuously empty."
Author: Ayn Rand

6. "I was shooting a bikini promotion in Mahe in the Seychelles in 1980 when there was a military coup and I, along with a roomful of other people, ended up being kidnapped and held hostage at gunpoint in a windowless room with no ventilation for 36 hours."
Author: Brigitte Nielsen

7. "Love—the desire to love and be loved, to hold and be held, to give love even if your experience as a recipient has been compromised or incomplete—is the constant on the continuum of hunger, it's what links the anorexic to the garden-variety dieter, it's the persistent pulse of need and yearning behind the reach for food, for sex, for something."
Author: Caroline Knapp

8. "In catalepsy and a dead trance, I studiously held the quick of my nature."
Author: Charlotte Brontë

9. "We would meet outside the same wine bar we had gone to on our first date, and from there we would wander through the city for five or six hours since neither one of us had a private place that we could retreat to. Walking out in the open for so long only helped to draw us closer. There was too much space on the avenues, and the side streets were often too crowded with people and cabs hurrying to cut across town. To counter that we held each other's hands and arms, ribs and waists."
Author: Dinaw Mengestu

10. "He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows"
Author: Emily Brontë

11. "And perhaps it didn't matter to them, not always, what they read aloud; it was the breath of life flowing between them, and the words of the moment riding on it that held them in delight. Between some two people every word is beautiful, or might as well be beautiful."
Author: Eudora Welty

12. "I was popular. I wasn't the most popular. But I definitely held my own."
Author: Fran Drescher

13. "An anxiety with no object or purpose in the present, and in the future nothing but endless sacrifice, by means of which he would attain nothing - that was what his days on earth held in store for him... What good was life to him? What prospects did he have? What did he have to strive for? Was he to live merely in order to exist? But a thousand times before he had been ready to give up his existence for an idea, for a hope, even for an imagining. Existence on its own had never been enough for him; he had always wanted more than that. Perhaps it was merely the strength of his own desires that made him believe he was a person to whom more was allowed than others."
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

14. "She stopped at the desk and held up a can for his view. "This looks like an ordinary hairspray can, right?""Of course." he said though he had no idea what hairspray was."
Author: Gena Showalter

15. "If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad."
Author: Hans Eysenck

16. "The simultaneous scream sounded from teh twins. Borth clasped their hands over their mouths, their eyes wide with horror. Azalea followed their gaze.There, in patches of light, scratched-up Fairweller held a weeping clover in his arms, cradling her head against his shoulder. He murmured into her ear.Delphinium screamed."Oh, Clover, how could you?" said Eve."Is he a good kisser?" said Hollyhock.The King had no words as he strode to them. In an instant he had torn Fairweller away from Clover, wound up, and boxed Fairweller straight in the face.Fairweller stumbled backward and fell to the floor, glass crunching beneath him."You may fill out your resignation paperwork tomorrow," said the King. "ExPrime Minister Fairweller!"
Author: Heather Dixon

17. "Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education--noisy-throated frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until, forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their reedy note, little downy chickens and wildflowers, the dogwood blossoms, meadow-violets and budding fruit trees. I felt the bursting cotton-bolls and fingered their soft fiber and fuzzy seeds; I felt the low soughing of the wind through the cornstalks, the silky rustling of the long leaves, and the indignant snort of my pony..."
Author: Helen Keller

18. "Du hattest ein Bild vom Leben in dir, einen Glauben, eine Forderung, du warst zu Taten, Leiden und Opfern bereit – und dann merktest du allmählich, daß die Welt gar keine Taten und Opfer und dergleichen von dir verlangt, daß das Leben keine heroische Dichtung ist, mit Heldenrollen und dergleichen, sondern eine bürgerliche gute Stube, wo man mit Essen und Trinken, Kaffee und Strickstrumpf, Tarockspiel und Radiomusik vollkommen zufrieden ist. Und wer das andere will und in sich hat, das Heldenhafte und Schöne, die Verehrung der großen Dichter oder die Verehrung der Heiligen, der ist ein Narr und ein Ritter Don Quichotte."
Author: Hermann Hesse

19. "So you'll teach me?" Val asked.Ravus nodded agin. "I will make you as terrible as you desire.""I don't want to be - ," she started, but he held up his hand."I know you're very brave," he said."Or stupid.""And stupid. Brave and Stupid." Ravus smiled, but then his smile sagged. "But nothing can stop you from being terrible once you've learned how."
Author: Holly Black

20. "I think she's afraid to even hug me now. It's my fault, but I miss it, Andrew. I miss it so much it aches sometimes, you know?'I do know. I do know, I want to tell him, but I let him talk. And he does, with a gut-wrenching honesty that tears at my heart.'I want to be held. Is that so wrong? I want to be held, and stroked. I want to know that someone loves me. I want to feel it on my skin.' He looks at the ceiling and exhales, then meets my eyes again. 'But nobody touches me anymore. Not even when I have a fever. Mom just hands me a thermometer now.' He drops his eyes and his ears redden. 'Even when you kiss me, you don't touch me. It's like I'm a leper or something. I can hardly keep my hands off of you, but it's not the same for you, is it?"
Author: J.H. Trumble

21. "For Isildur would not surrender it to Elrond and Círdan who stood by. They counselled him to cast it into the fire of Orodruin night at hand... But Isildur refused this counsel, saying: 'This I will have as weregild for my father's death, and my brother's. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?' And the Ring that he held seemed to him exceedingly fair to look on; and he would not suffer it to be destroyed."
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

22. "Max—you have a bigger mission than finding the flock's parents. Focus on helping the whole world,not just your friends.I held my wings steady, coasting for a long, long way on a warm updraft. It was like floating on acloud, the best feeling you can imagine. I wish you could try it with me. Maybe next time.You know, Voice, I thought finally, my friends are my world."
Author: James Patterson

23. "Morals are meant to be shared." He held me away for another moment, reading, then grinned and handed me the book. "I like this one." ..."It's better to love people than wealth. I love Dad, Mom, Kendall, Sandra, Nick, baby Stetson, and especially Hudson. I wouldn't trade them for a mountain of gold." "I love the word 'especially,'" he said. "And I love the person who wrote it." Then he bent over to kiss me."
Author: Janette Rallison

24. "The world around them ceased to exist, and they stared at each other accross the tumult, communicating thoughts that could not be put into words. His eyes never strayed from her face, as if he were trying to read every line to understand what he saw there. She held her breath, almost unable to bear the intesne rush of ecstasy she felt when his eyes were upon her. "I love you." Her lips formed the words she was too overjoyed to speak."
Author: Jennifer Beckstrand

25. "No wonder that the ghost and goblin stories had a new zest. No wonder that the blood of the more timid grew chill and curdled, that their flesh crept, and their hearts beat irregularly, and the girls peeped fearfully over their shoulders, and huddled close together like frightened sheep, and half-fancied they beheld some impish and malignant face gibbering at them from the darkling corners of the old room. By degrees my high spirits died out, and I felt the childish tremors, long latent, long forgotten, coming over me. I followed each story with painful interest; I did not ask myself if I believed the dismal tales. I listened and fear grew upon me - the blind, irrational fear of our nursery days. ("Horror: A True Tale")"
Author: John Berwick Harwood

26. "Sink," I mumbled."What?" the nurse asked."I think she said ‘drink,'" Preya said."Sink!" I yelled.They hurried me to the small washing area near the rear of the clinic just in time for the stainless steel sink to catch the chicken soup that refused to stay eaten. I heaved and heaved until I had nothingleft to heave, and then some. Preya held up my hair while the nurse rubbed circles on my back. My entire body convulsed. After the trembling stopped, I lifted the tap and washed out my mouth."When did I eat carrots?"
Author: Kate Evangelista

27. "All right, then. Emergency medical situation, take two." He leaped to his feet, staggered, keeled over, then lifted his head weakly. "Chloe? Is that you?" He coughed. "Do you have my insulin?" I placed it in his outstretched hand. "You saved my life," he said. "How can I ever repay you?""Undying servitude sounds good. I like my eggs scrambled." He held up a piece of fruit. "Would you settle for a bruised apple?" I laughed."
Author: Kelley Armstrong

28. "Her eyes, walnut brown and shaded by fanned lashes, met mine. Held for a moment. Flew away."
Author: Khaled Hosseini

29. "Yeah, you lose this attitude, I can help you work that hurt out."Who was this man? He held onto his tragedy for seventeen fucking years, how could he stand there and tell mehe could help me work through mine?"Really, Joe? Like you helped me work out my grief at losing Tim?" I asked sarcastically."That's not what I was offerin', buddy, but you want it like that I'll give it to you.""You're unbelievable," I snapped."I'm yours."That socked me in the gut too, so hard it winded me and all I could do was stare up at him.Taking advantage, his face dipped close and his hands curled around both sides of my head."First fuckin' time you smiled at me in my bed, that's when it happened," he murmured."
Author: Kristen Ashley

30. "She needs time. I'm giving it to her." "This is uncharacteristic of you, cousin," Achilles remarked. Apollo held his gaze when he replied firmly, "I'm a man falling in love. We do many things that are uncharacteristic."
Author: Kristen Ashley

31. "It was as if the main screw in his head, which held his whole life together, had become stripped. The screw would not go in, would not come out, but turned in the same groove without catching hold, and it was impossible to stop turning it."
Author: Leo Tolstoy

32. "You held me down and rammed me so hard I deep-throated you from the other end."
Author: Marita A. Hansen

33. "At the Sound of the Gunshot, Leave A Message That's what my friend spokeinto his grim machine the winter he first went madas we both did in our thirties with stillno hope of revenue, gravely inkingour poems on pages held fast by gyres the color of lead. Godless, our minds did monster us, left us bobbing as in a swampuntil we sank. His eyes were burn holesin a swollen face. His breath was a venomhe drank deep of. He called his own tongue a scar, this poet who can crowbar openthe most sealed heart, make ash flower,and the cocked shotgun's double-zero mouths(whose pellets had exploded star holes into plaster and porcelainand not a few locked doors) never touched my friend's throat. PraiseHim, whose earth is green. (for Franz Wright)"
Author: Mary Karr

34. "You're not alone anymore. You have me."I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I had been alone for so long with my questions and theories and anger--and now this beautiful, fantastic girl was saying she believed me.When she closed her eyes and kissed me, I finally let go of myself. Everything I had held in before, didn't have to be hidden anymore--not from Cassie. My eyes drifted shut as she kissed me harder, her arm winding around my shoulders to pull me close.Without having to say anything more, I just knew now--maybe I always had--Cassie was the answer."
Author: Melanie Cusick Jones

35. "The desert could not be claimed or owned — it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East ... All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape."
Author: Michael Ondaatje

36. "But what made him still more fortunate, as he said himself, was having a daughter of such exceeding beauty, rare intelligence, gracefulness, and virtue, that everyone who knew her and beheld her marvelled at the extraordinary gifts with which heaven and nature had endowed her. As a child she was beautiful, she continued to grow in beauty, and at the age of sixteen she was most lovely. The fame of her beauty began to spread abroad through all the villages around—but why do I say the villages around, merely, when it spread to distant cities, and even made its way into the halls of royalty and reached the ears of people of every class, who came from all sides to see her as if to see something rare and curious, or some wonder-working image?"
Author: Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

37. "I don't like forgetting, Elías," I said with my eyes closed. A single tear slipped down my cheek and I let it. "I don't want to forget these moments that constantly remind me of who I am, who I was, and who you are. I don't want to forget my past and all the things about this world that's brought me here. With you.""So then why do you try?" he asked, his gaze searching my face. "Be here with me, T. Exist with me, because there isn't any other way I'd love you more.""I-I don't belong to you.""Bullshit. You've belonged to me since that night on the alabaster hill. I had you then, and I swore to keep you.""You-""Just stop." Eli placed a finger to my lips as he held me closely and slid a hand down my back. He palmed my shoulder and the place where a piece of him would forever harbor. "Stop making up excuses. Stop hiding. Stop running from me. You're the light at the end of my tunnel, my saving grace, and you don't even know it, Trinity."
Author: Nadège Richards

38. "He held his head, and he cried for them, and he did not melt into the sea but sat, aching, in the glowing moonlight-for in the end our bodies know only how to carry on surviving.That is our strength, and our tragedy."
Author: Nick Lake

39. "What happens if they return?" I asked, leaning forward in the metal chair, my elbow pressing into my knee. "Won't they seek punishment for all of us?""Maybe they'll return, maybe they won't," Gwen shrugged. "All I know is that as long as I hold on to that feeling of love – that feeling of pure happiness, that rush of joy – then I'll be okay because in the end, the only thing that matters is that we had the chance to love and that we held onto that feeling until the very end."
Author: Nicole Sobon

40. "You were a very confusing object for the Itineris to digest. So it held you for a bit. You're quite fortunate it eventually decided to spit you out."The words "digest" and "spit" were more than a little unsettling. "Okay," I finally said. "That's um, really awful to know. But thanks for telling me."He shrugged. "It was nothing."
Author: Rachel Hawkins

41. "I clutched at his shoulders, raising up on my tiptoes, and kissed him with everything I had in me. As the kiss deepened, we held each other tighter, so I didn't know if the pounding heartbeat I felt was mine or his."
Author: Rachel Hawkins

42. "Did you know, that one night; one moonless, clear, shining night; with the shadowy silhouettes of trees crisp against the star-filled sky – I, on the high, level terrace of my flat, stretched out my hand! Against all odds and possibilities of unbelief and grief – a life of searchings, discontent, and a nagging sense of unreality… A spider-web intuition of a spread-out, intricate illusion that wilfully withheld the truth from me."
Author: Radhika Mukherjee

43. "The first time he'd held her hand, it felt so good that it crowded out all the bad things. It felt better than anything had ever hurt."
Author: Rainbow Rowell

44. "He tilted his head to the side, still watching me in that same, disconcerting way. "Some things are true, drunk or sober. You should know that. You deal in facts all the time.""Yeah, but this isn't—" I couldn't argue with him looking at me like that. "I have to go. Wait… you didn't take the cross." I held it out to him. He shook his head. "Keep it. I think I've got something else to help center my life."
Author: Richelle Mead

45. "As I got closer to the fence, I held my shirt over my nose to block the smell. One stallion waded through the muck and whinnied angrily at me. He bared his teeth, which were pointed like a bear's.I tried to talk to him in my mind. I can do that with most horses.Hi, I told him. I'm going to clean your stables. Won't that be great?Yes! The horse said. Come inside! Eat you! Tasty half-blood!But I'm Poseidon's son, I protested. He created horses.Usually this gets me VIP treatment in the equestrian world, not this time.Yes! The horse agreed enthusiastically. Poseidon can come in, too! We will eat you both! Seafood!Seafood! The other horses chimed in as they waded through the field."
Author: Rick Riordan

46. "I was aware of his lips. Like they held the answers to every bit of knowledge in the whole wide world and suddenly I wanted to be the oracle and know it all."
Author: Sarah Alderson

47. "...if true love breaks as easily as a delusion, on what can we rely? What will people pin their hopes on?" [Nilima]"They'll have the sweet, intimate memories of a lost paradise, and beside it a sea of sorrow.... People looking on from outside think all is lost... What remains when everything is lost can be held in the palm, like a jewel. It can't be flaunted in a pageant, so the lookers-on are disappointed and jeer as they return home.." [Kamal]"...Jewels are not meant for everybody, certainly not for the rabble. People who're only happy when decked out with gold and silver from top to toe won't understand the value of your tiny diamonds and gems. Those who want a lot feel secure only after tying knot upon knot. They put a price on something only by its weight and show and bulk. But it's useless to try and show the sunrise from a western window..[Nilima]"
Author: Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay

48. "But he could not tell her he loved her. He held her hand. Happiness is this, he thought."
Author: Virginia Woolf

49. "In the warmer months of the year one or other of those nocturnal insects quite often strays indoors from the small garden behind my house. When I get up early in the morning, I find them clinging to the wall, motionless. I believe, said Austerlitz, they know they have lost their way, since if you do not put them out again carefully they will stay where they are, never moving, until the last breath is out of their bodies, and indeed they will remain in the place where they came to grief even after death, held fast by the tiny claws that stiffened in their last agony, until a draft of air detaches them and blows them into a dusty corner. Sometimes, seeing one of these moths that have met their end in my house, I wonder what kind of fear and pain they feel while they are lost."
Author: W.G. Sebald

50. "I believe, said Austerlitz, they know they have lost their way, since if you do not put them out again carefully they will stay where they are, never moving, until the last bath is out of their bodies, and indeed they will remain in the place where they came to grief even after death, held fast by the tiny claws that stiffened in their last agony,until a draft of air detaches them and blows them into a dusty corner."
Author: W.G. Sebald

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