John Collier Quotes & Sayings

Just behind his jaw bones a tiny movement was perceptible, like the movement of gills in a fish. — John Collier

There are some young almond tress, which ordinarily look as if drawn by a childish hand. Now, as the wind sets their weak branches gibbering, they seem like shamanistic scratches on the white bone of the brittle bright night. — John Collier

Poets can dodge. ("Evening Primrose") — John Collier

I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer. — John Collier

Their laughter was like the stridulation of the ghosts of grasshoppers. — John Collier

And she gave him a melting smile, the glutinous sweetness of which he devoured with the avidity of a diabetic who swallows a fatal spoonful of jam. — John Collier

I nipped into this sanctuary late this afternoon and soon heard the dying footfalls of closing time. From now on, my only effort will be to dodge the night watchman. Poets can dodge. — John Collier

How happy I might be, if only she was less greedy, better tempered, not addicted to raking up old grudges, more affectionate, with slightly yellower hair, slimmer, and about twenty years younger! But what is the good of expecting such a woman to reform? — John Collier

Could we make it our own, there would be an eternally inexhaustible earth and a forever lasting peace. — John Collier

Franklin Fletcher dreamed of luxury in the form of tiger-skins and beautiful women. He was prepared, at a pinch, to forgo the tiger-skins. Unfortunately the beautiful women seemed equally rare and inaccessible. At his office and at his boarding-house the girls were mere mice, or cattish, or kittenish, or had insufficiently read the advertisements. — John Collier