Ballantine Quotes & Sayings

Because I've lived a risky and unconventional life, I don't often struggle for subjects to write about. — Poe Ballantine

Namir snorted. "What is it with you people and Vader?" he asked. "It can't be the helmet that scares people. Stormtroopers have helmets. — Ballantine Books

Mortals were such fickle creatures. They called into the dark, demanded answers and attention from forces they could not comprehend, and yet when they had that attention and those answers, they complained about them. — Philippa Ballantine

The mention of money did intrigue him, since he did prefer wine, women, and song to beer, whores, and accordion music. — Pip Ballantine

Short chaps evolved naturally, but I didn't title and number them till much later. I like short chaps, like short books too, as a rule. — Poe Ballantine

One evening, after my wife and son had gone out for a walk, I decided to have a talk with my neighbor, who I believe was murdered. I had gotten to know and admire him by listening to people talk about him. He seemed a wonderful person with much to give. — Poe Ballantine

She sighed heavily before whispering, "I'm still a bit confused as to what we are waiting for." "We are waiting for one of the constants in our world, Miss Braun," Wellington assured her. "At the end of every opera, there is the grand finale, where the music continues its gradual crescendo, the tenor and tempo rising ever so gradually for that pinnacle of dramatic tension, that moment of anticipation - " "Welly, are you talking about opera or about sex?" His next words caught in his throat. For a woman of higher tastes and seeming refinement, this woman could be utterly crass. — Philippa Ballantine

I have learned that I am not built for conflict or controversy. I have also learned that, in all my life, I have never chosen a story. The story has always chosen me. — Poe Ballantine

She groaned as her face turned to press against the rosewood floor. "Welly, remind me to order a better mattress for my bed. This one is far too firm."
"Oh, Eliza," Wellington gasped, now remembering why he was in these lush surroundings. "No broken nose, I hope."
"S'all right," Braun slurred. Her voiced dropped to a whisper. "My ample bosom broke my fall. — Philippa Ballantine

Then Alan looked thoughtful and seemed reluctant to speak, perhaps because he had just written the sequel to the Star Wars novelization that Lucas had sold to Ballantine Books, but in his reserved and gentlemanly fashion he told the audience of a day when he had seen a rough cut of the film and had remarked on just this scientific illiteracy to Lucas. He had even suggested a workable alternative ... no, two workable alternatives ... and Lucas had said words to the effect of (approximate quote), "There's a lot of money tied up in this film and people expect to hear a boom when something blows up, so I'll give them the boom." And at that moment, the cynicism showed through. — Harlan Ellison

Western Nebraska is the only place in all my travels where I have seen the dust blowing and the rain falling at the same time. — Poe Ballantine

There's good money in true crime, I'm told, and plenty of it lying around, but it's a devil of an art form. — Poe Ballantine

Right then," Campbell began, his tone so civil it was offensive. "May I have your name for the record, Miss ... ?"
"Eliza Braun," Eliza sneered. "Here, I'll spell it for you
B-U-G-G-E-R-O-F-F. — Tee Morris

I studied a truckload of true crime, praying for illumination, but most true crime relies on luridness and voyeurism for effect. — Poe Ballantine

Shut the door, they're coming through the window, shut the window, they're coming through the door, are the words to an old song. They fit my lifestyle with newly arriving butcher/censors every month. Only six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with censorship and book-burning in the future, write to tell me of this exquisite irony ... — Ray Bradbury

A bilingual marriage, by the way, is a great way to stay together for longer than you normally would because you can't understand each other very well. — Poe Ballantine

'Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere' took me six years to write. — Poe Ballantine

I'm compared to Kerouac, I suppose, because he traveled and rejected middle-class values, but the similarities end there. — Poe Ballantine

Chadron had a water tower, grain elevators, a tanning salon, a video rental store, a small liberal arts college, a Hardee's, a stoplight, and a curling yellow sign in the pet store window that read, 'Hamsters and Tarantulas Featured Today.' — Poe Ballantine

Chaotic Of Echoes The Lands Darkest Hours Of Lions
Architect the Garlots of War The Precognitions — Philippa Ballantine

All my life, I never realized you could have a conversation with a ghost. — Poe Ballantine

I could write the political history of those years based on how Red Label gradually gave way to twelve-year-old Ballantine and then to single malt. — Umberto Eco

For the first time, it struck me that when Denver said he'd be my friend for life, he meant it-for better or for worse. The hell of it was, Mr. Ballantine never wanted a friend, especially a black one. But once Denver committed, he stuck. It reminded me of what Jesus told His disciples 'Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. — Ron Hall

Since I was a kid. I had this series by Ballantine Books about the history of World Wars I and II. In my 20s, it was the Vietnam War literature of novelists like Tim O'Brien, Philip Caputo, and Tobias Wolff, and then nonfiction such as "A Bright Shining Lie" by Neil Sheehan and "The Best and Brightest" by David Halberstam . Those are the two best histories of Vietnam. — George Packer

Amazon is evil, like anything big, but we can't help if it flows the very center of literature. — Poe Ballantine

It is unlikely you will truly get the feeling of the violin until you have been studying for at least a year -- perhaps even two. Then one day the sheer pleasure of playing the instrument will suddenly flow over you. Perhaps it will be when you hear a fine string quartet. Maybe the revelation will come at the concert of an outstanding string orchestra, or better yet, when you are asked to sit in one made of boys and girls your own age. In any case, you will hear the singing strings clearly -- perhaps for the first time -- as the pure, jubilant spirit of music. — Bill Ballantine

I'm that sensitive, honest guy who likes people, wants to know why, and who puzzles everyone by continually putting himself in harm's way. — Poe Ballantine

I first came across Chadron, Nebraska, by accident in 1994. — Poe Ballantine

Of the authors published under Ballantine's Adult Fantasy logo, only Evangeline Walton 'spoke' to me. — Stephen R. Donaldson

I think you will agree the sign of a civilised society is a regular dining schedule. — Philippa Ballantine

Well, if you're going to watch that close, the trick is off. — Carl Ballantine

I read to him from his mother's Bible the first line of Genesis: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' It says nothing about hell, Tom. That came later with the membership drive. — Poe Ballantine

I always think better when I am being shot at. — Philippa Ballantine

Most people would live in an outhouse in Bangladesh before they would voluntarily move to Nebraska. — Poe Ballantine

The bicycle is its own best argument. You just get a bike, try it; start going with the thing and using it as it suits you. It'll grow and it gets better and better and better. — Richard Ballantine

If I am dead, well, then there's somethin' 'bout you, Eleanor, that's makin' me feel like I'm still alive. — Tabitha Freeman

Be that as it may, we were
and no doubt, still are
held under scrutiny, with that whole Phoenix Society brouhaha. It is imperative we remain on our best behaviour, a feat that you did not exactly manage effortlessly with your shenanigans in Edinburgh. — Philippa Ballantine

Nay, you attract mayhem, chaos, and anarchy wherever your delicate feet tread. Around you there is no such thing as a coincidence."
"Why do you think it is always me, Director?" Eliza protested. "It could be Books. My father always told me to beware the quiet ones! — Philippa Ballantine

Just as the ideal of classic Greek culture was the most perfect harmony of mind and body, so a human and a bicycle are the perfect synthesis of body and machine. — Richard Ballantine

In lang, lang days o' simmer,
When the clear and cloudless sky
Refuses ae weep drap o' rain
To Nature parched and dry,
The genial night, wi' balmy breath,
Gars verdue, spring anew,
An' ilka blade o' grass
Keps its ain drap o' dew. — James Ballantine

Possibly the tragedy of the bicycle is that it was invented too close in time to the car. In the historical scheme, pedal power hardly got under way before the combustion engine appeared and, not only took over the roads, but changed our view of machines. We've forgotten that pedal power is a potent form of energy. — Richard Ballantine