Adult Novel Quotes & Sayings

The Sun Dagger appeared on the rock face directly above the Shaman's shadowed head. It dazzled within the shade as the sunlight slipped through a gap in the overhead slabs. The dagger cut slowly down the rock, slicing through the very center of the etched spiral.
"The middle of time," Chaco whispered to himself. — P.J. Parker

Being with Demetri wasn't the absence of pain, it was the added presence of peace, making it easier and easier for that little part of my heart to heal again.
From Pull: A Seaside Novel — Rachel Van Dyken

Will you have any regrets once she's dead?
Brooklyn's question and her voice echoed in my head as I watched her walking to her house, her hips swaying tantalizingly at every step. A heavy weight fell on my shoulders because I didn't have to ponder that question to find the answer. — Stephanie Witter

You said my name and my heart went rogue — Zandile

Men have those God's created guns inbuilt that are 24X7 hours loaded to shoot out. — Deepanshu Saini

The book that made a lasting impression was the one my mother gave each of us when she decided we were ready for our first 'adult novel,' Lucy Maud Montgomery's 'The Blue Castle.' — Hallie Ephron

I'm going to turn my life around. Make a complete three sixty."
"Don't you mean one eighty?" he corrected. "If you do that, you'll end up right back where you started."
"Maybe. But at least I'll have a chance of coming out of it a different person - a better version of me. — Megan Duke

This was a Darkness born of fire. — Brian A. McBride

On occasion we stumble upon what seems to be a truth. Compared to the surrounding blackness, it sparkles and dazzles our eyes. But are these actually truths? Are our eyes really feasting upon light? Or just patches of grey? — Roy L. Pickering Jr.

In the usual way I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of "normal" work. In my twenties some of my work for children was published by Macmillan. However, I was twenty-seven before my adult novel, The Birthgrave, was taken by DAW Books in the USA. This enabled me finally to stop doing stupid and soul-killing jobs, and start working day and night as a professional writer. It felt like a rescue from damnation, and still does. — Tanith Lee

Such a distant, forgotten thing, this Light. — Brian A. McBride

West Point - The Key to the Continent and Independence. — P.J. Parker

I'd never really considered doing young-adult novels, but one of the things that a friend pointed out to me is that I've actually had a teenage character in almost every adult novel that I've written. — Michelle Gagnon

We live in a complicated society, Bromley - one that is changing and which does indeed need to change. But do you not think any change must begin within our own family gathering? — P.J. Parker

Do you not recognize me? — P.J. Parker

Whether we think of Disney's blonde beauty and her pumpkin carriage or Marissa Meyer's recent recasting of 'Cinderella' as a cyborg in the young adult novel 'Cinder,' we know that there are countless modern retellings of the tale. — Marie Rutkoski

I distracted Herbert by pretending to trip and break a bone. Ethan darted around to the red golf cart with a cocky smile on his face. He put the key in ignition, and the vehicle roared to life. "Hey," Herbert shouted, snapping his attention to Ethan.
I sprang up and ran up to Ethan. He pulled me in the cart and stomped on the gas pedal. We shot through the automatic doors with Herbert on our tail.
"Go faster!" I cheered.
My brother smacked the steering wheel. "I can't; it's a golf cart. — Erica Sehyun Song

In 1965, when I was fourteen, I read my first adult novel; it was a historical novel about Katherine of Aragon, and I could not put it down. When I finished it, I had to find out the true facts behind the story and if people really carried on like that in those days. So I began to read proper history books, and found that they did! — Alison Weir

The early morning sunshine shot up the ice-covered valley. It glinted off the backs of slumbering mastodon, reflected between the antlers of caribou. — P.J. Parker

Have you lost your mind? What have I told you Charlie about whales? You can't MANHANDLE THEM! — Erica Sehyun Song

All I could think about was the heat of his soft lips, the way they fitted so wonderfully as I was coaxing him to open them some more, just enough to let my tongue slip in and taste him. I needed a taste, needed to complete this fantasy of mine. — Stephanie Witter

Talk to me. Say something, anything," he pleaded quietly as if he was trying to tame a wild animal.
"There's nothing to say."
He looked up and lowered his eyebrows on his eyes. "Why did you kiss me? — Stephanie Witter

One large cat bounded up the side of the outcrop to stand in full view on an overhanging boulder. She stared down at them, inside their protective enclosure, tilting her head from side to side. Her scarred yellow-brown coat was immaculately groomed, but the long tufting hair of her snout was matted with the bright red smear of uncongealed blood from a recent kill. Her upper lip curved over the top of foot-long saber teeth. — P.J. Parker

I could have drowned today. If they hadn't been screaming my name so loudly and if I hadn't woken up, I would have drowned. — Erica Sehyun Song

Although nobody could ever know about our friendship, that wasn't going to stop us from being together. — Erica Sehyun Song

If I sit down to write a young-adult novel, then I'm going to write either to the punch-pulling expectation of what I can't do, or I'm going to go the other way and think about what can I sneak in to be 'down with the kids' - which would be excruciating. — Patrick Ness

I closed my eyes and immediately I pictured Brooklyn's full lips parted on a moan, her eyes glassy and her pupils dilated, her cheeks flushed and her body ... her smoking body bared only for me. — Stephanie Witter

She might have been there for you in the aftermath, but I was there when everything came crashing down. — Megan Duke

She snorted in amusement at my remark. "When are the guards going to start to notice?"
Keith peered into the distance. "Starting now, — Erica Sehyun Song

In terms of age, I think I've covered about as wide a range as is possible, having written everything from picture books to early chapter books to middle grade novels to YA to one adult novel - and having been editor and lead writer for a magazine for retired people! — Bruce Coville

It's said that we can all choose our own destiny. But sometimes, for a special few, destiny has no choice but to choose for you. — Steve M. Robinson Jr.

When I was very little, four or five, I did comic strip drawings, so my first novel had no words. I couldn't write and thought adult handwriting was a mysterious scribble. When I was 14, my grandmother gave me a typewriter and I started writing in a different way. — Joyce Carol Oates

Death is but a dream and life is merely the daydream of death. — Mike Dickenson

The Sleepin' Fox Catches No Poultry. — P.J. Parker

The dining hall in our section of campus was like something out of an Ayn Rand novel: big, utilitarian, and impersonal. — Kirstie Collins Brote

I do not believe that I will ever write an adult novel from an animal's point of view unless someday it becomes suddenly appealing to me to make a narrator a mentally ill pet. Never say never. — Andrea Seigel

When English author Anna Sewell wrote Black Beauty, in the late nineteenth century, she said that her aim was to "induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses." Though now considered a children's classic, the book was originally intended for an adult audience. Narrated from the horse's point of view, the novel describes Black Beauty's life, from his earliest memory, of "a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it" to his wretched existence pulling a heavy load for a cruel peddler. The sentimental and emotionally wrenching book was wildly popular, quickly becoming a bestseller first in England and then in the United States, where it became a favorite of the progressive movement. Sewell's book was the first to popularize interest in the plight of the horse and to generate widespread concern about the beast of burden's treatment. — Elizabeth Letts

He now realized that right and wrong were intertwined notions. His arms could not differentiate between just and unjust causes. They only knew that they were empty. — Roy L. Pickering Jr.

I don't want to leave. — Svetlana Chmakova

You're my true north. No compass would point me in any other direction but to you. — Kristen Hope Mazzola

There were no stars, only the darkness and an arctic chill that had intensified since the first thin, blood-red stripes of sunrise shimmered on the ocean's horizon. — P.J. Parker

I think that books for young people should have serious and important themes, they shouldn't be trivial. So the books I write, they would be the kind of stories you would write in an adult novel only they just happen to feature a child at the center of them. — John Boyne

I move between the two: I write an adult novel, and then I write a children's book. I quite enjoy that. It's a nice change of pace each time. — John Boyne

My foray into young adult lit was by no means planned. I wrote the first 'Alfred Kropp' book as an adult novel, which everyone loved but no one would publish - until I changed my protagonist from a thirty-something P.I. into a 15-year-old kid. After that, it was off to the races, and I am so glad. — Rick Yancey

Before I was reading science fiction, I read Hemingway. Farewell to Arms was my first adult novel that said not everything ends well. It was one of those times where reading has meant a great deal to me, in terms of my development - an insight came from that book. — Robert Reed

That's where they found the skeletons. Right where you're standing. — Teresa Flavin

Red glowing eyes... No one could see her. No one could hear her. No one was coming to save her. Because Death had come sooner than expected. — Humairaa Anseline

In life, if a door closes, all you need to do is move to the window; as long as your whiskers can clear the space you will move through effortlessly. quote by T.G. the Feline Goddess of Everything and Everyone — R. Rose

My mom says . . . there are bad people who hurt others for fun . . . and there are good people who do it by accident. Like, they make a mistake?

I think you're a good person. — Svetlana Chmakova

Be myself. If only I remembered what it was like to be myself. I'm a fucking waitress in a crappy bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I was going nowhere. I had nothing to give him beside myself and my heart and he denied me. — Stephanie Witter

Men, if desire, they don't need to remove your clothes to rape you. Only their eyes are enough... — Deepanshu Saini

Even the most beautiful flower, the rose," he argued, "has the thorn that makes it imperfect. — Lynetta Halat

I loved you yesterday. I love you today. I'll love you tomorrow ... forever. — Lynetta Halat

The only wand you'll ever need is a better-feeling thought. — C.G. Rousing

I didn't want to be the woman who gave herself over willingly to the first man to notice her. I didn't want to be the stupid girl in every novel who loved without question and entered relationships that didn't make sense. — Destinee Hardwick

We must love our slaves, Papa. We must love them as hard as we are able. — P.J. Parker

She was magic, a direct light - the kind that seeps through in places that didn't exist inside him anymore. The light he thought he lost forever, but Nick realized we don't lose the light, we absorb it, and with Olivia he wanted to absorb every small speck of it. — Maria La Serra

There are demons within. And they're the deadliest kind. — Karren Renz Sena

I closed my eyes and dived into foreign water. — Erica Sehyun Song

The other one was filled with loud and obnoxious tourists. Always boasting on winning a sand castle competition and seeing who could get tanned first. What a whacky bunch of people. — Erica Sehyun Song

It's been a while since I've written a novel aimed at the adult market, but I never sit down and say to myself, 'Okay, now I'm going to write something for us old folks.' I get gripped by an idea, and I go where the idea takes me. — Rick Yancey

Ask me..what do I want? — L.J. Shen

Divorce in a young-adult novel means what being orphaned meant in a fairy tale: vulnerability, danger, unwanted independence. — Caitlin Flanagan

Dear Diary:
I have a confession to make: I've become a total idiot over French pastries.
They're my new favorite food.
My new-found edible souvenir.
My new favorite sin.
Dunkin Donuts is so yesterday. — Kimberley Montpetit

The movie, like the book before it, is an expertly built machine for the mass production of tears. Directed by Josh Boone ('Stuck in Love') with scrupulous respect for John Green's best-selling young-adult novel, the film sets out to make you weep
not just sniffle or choke up a little, but sob until your nose runs and your face turns blotchy. It succeeds. — A.O. Scott

Speak up and speak clearly. I want to hear what you have to say because it matters. Let's listen to each other and respect one another's opinions. Although, they may be different, wisdom allows us to be responsible for our own feelings and actions. — Felicia Johnson

Why are you looking at me like that?' he asked, his hand tensing for a second on my hip.
"No reason.' I moved my hand up his chest and on the way his abs contracted.
He pushed me away abruptly, forcing me to sit up with him. With the scruff hiding parts of his cheeks I wasn't sure, but he seemed to be blushing. "You shouldn't touch a man like that in the morning,' he rasped, his hand hiding his crotch. — Stephanie Witter

Some truths are hard to swallow, so we share it within tales that most people will accept without being frightened by the truth hidden within. — Larry Itejere

You were always mine. -Black — L.J. Shen

What am I to you?'
Sophiel smiled.
'The sun. You are my sun, like Astrid said. My sun, that lights up my life. That looks after me with its fiery rays. I only have to turn towards it for it to set fire to my heart. — A.O. Esther

Etta gave Will a small, knowing smile. Will, sometimes you have to love people for who they are, not who you want them to be. — Deanna Lynn Sletten

In books and movies, the stories always end when the two people finally have their romantic kiss. The happily-ever-after part is just assumed — Gayle Forman

The thing is that my first novel, which was basically a mystery adventure story, won quite an important award in Spain for young adult fiction, and because of this it became a very successful book, and right now it's some sort of a standard title, it's read widely in many high schools in Spain, so I think, in a way, I was a victim of my own success in the field of young adult fiction, because it was never my own natural register. I never intended to write that kind of fiction, but I became very successful at it. — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I lied to you,' she said, hanging her head in shame, 'more than once. In fact, I swore that my lies were truth. I can't understand how it could have happened. It just came out of my mouth and by the time I realised what I'd done, it was too late.
'It's never too late to realise that you were mistaken, Sophiel. — A.O. Esther

The intermittent depression that had shadowed him throughout his adult life was about to envelop him once again. — Erik Larson

The Day of Trouble is Near — P.J. Parker

I don't think I ever intended specifically to write for the young adult market. It's just that when the idea for City of Bones came to me, I knew the main characters were teenagers. In my mind they were just very clearly the ages they were, which turned out to mean it was a YA novel. — Cassandra Clare

The child cannot too early learn to be a good citizen? I think this is questionable: citizenship is an adult affair. Let school and home teach the child to respect the laws and institutions of his country. For the time being that should suffice. To use the juvenile novel or biography to turn the child into an internationalist or an advocate of racial tolerance may be high-minded, but I would suggest that the child first be allowed to turn into a boy or girl. Pious Little Rollo is dead; the Good Little Citizen is replacing him. The moralistic literature of the last century tried to produce small paragons of virtue. How about our urge to manufacture small paragons of social consciousness? — Clifton Fadiman

A poem can't do its work if you only read snippets of it. — John Green

Take a table and I'll join you in a second.'
When he walked away I did something I couldn't be scolded for doing.
I checked out his ass in his jeans and ... that looked good. — Stephanie Witter

Do not fret, my brother, my child. For the buffalo will roam the plains once more. — P.J. Parker

I said nothing in my texts. You came up with your own conclusions and you were mad thinking about me being with someone else ... '
"Stop,' he said, his jaw tightening.
"Touching another man ... '
"Stop it.'
"Sleeping ... '
He ran to me and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me once, not hard, but enough to make me stop. "Quit it,' he whispered, his voice deep and dark. — Stephanie Witter

As a kid, my brother and I would read the same novel, we'd memorize entire pages, reenact the book as it's characters, and would immerse in playing like that for hours. I suppose it was a natural follow up, wanting to still play in a similar fashion, but as an adult. — Irena A. Hoffman

I am still bowled over by this great young adult novel by David Levithan called 'Every Day,' which is about a character with no gender or body who wakes up every day in the body of a different person. It's a really impressive execution of a really great premise. — John Green

To be loved, is to be immortal. — Lynette Ferreira

The sun does not abandon the moon to darkness. — Brian A. McBride

Because I don't think I have a handle on how to write for grown-ups. The grown-up publishing world is so fraught with one-upsmanship, scorn and snobbery. I did write an adult novel. Thank goodness it went out of print. I think we kids' authors still start out with hope every morning. We honor our audience. — Virginia Euwer Wolff

Time had taught him that whether his sins were pardoned or left unforgiven, they would remain committed. Tomorrow he would hopefully choose wiser, with a stronger measure of compassion. — Roy L. Pickering Jr.

Experts recommend two hours of unstructured play for every hour of structured play. While your child is playing take half that time for your own play - a craft project, a good novel (or a bad one), looking at catalogs, sitting outside, dancing. If the very idea of "playing" as an adult confuses you, think back to your own childhood and the things that you spent time on and enjoyed doing. Try them again. As with everything else about children's behavior, there's nothing like a good role model. If you value play, your child will, too. — Madeline Levine

Am I your weakness?"
"Of course you are. — Brian A. McBride

For whom do you cry, my son?" the Great Spirit asked.
"I do not know."
"Yes, you do. — P.J. Parker

I am not only the person who wrote and sold a novel while raising a houseful of biological and foster children; I am also the person who wrote a horrific young adult novel that never sold and gave up on a foster child I couldn't handle - an experience that still haunts me. — Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Great. My life has suddenly become a young-adult novel. — R.J. Gonzales

I suspect that authors who start their careers writing for an adult audience - and who eventually produce a young adult novel or two - are more common than authors who begin by writing for young adults and who then gravitate toward composing something for an adult audience. — Paul Di Filippo

Mags, I don't know how many more times I will have to say this, but here it goes. You're amazing, you deserve the best, and I want nothing more than to be whatever you need me to be. — Kristen Hope Mazzola

All cats are gray in the dark. And besides, her actions have less to do with her, and everything to do with you. — Jaye Frances

As a child, a teen, a young adult, I developed a firm belief in my solitude, the not-novel concept that we are each alone in the world. Some parts self-reliance, some parts self-protection, this belief offers a binary perspective - powerhouse or victim, complete responsibility or total divorcement, all in or out the door. Carried to its extreme, the idea gives license to the belief that one's own actions do not matter much; we traverse the world in our own bubbles, occasionally breaking through to one another but largely and ultimately alone. — Piper Kerman

I was slightly thankful when Mom finally came out and unlocked the car. It was warm and toasty inside and it smelt like home. There was not the slightest smell of something that didn't belong home. — Erica Sehyun Song

I watched her shadow merge with the darker colours of the deep sea. — Erica Sehyun Song

With every fall of the sun and rise of the moon, I can hear it. The Prophecy. It echoes through the halls of time. It is written on the surface of every star. Even the sun and moon cannot withhold the news of the second coming. I hear it. And I fear it. — Brian A. McBride