Barrett's Quotes & Sayings

Stop calling me son, you piece of shit. I'm the son of a man who worked himself to the bone, day in and day out for the piddly salary you paid him. He went deep into the dark earth every day for his family, for pride, because he'd do anything for those he loved. That's the blood I have coursing through my veins. I am not your son. I'm Daniel Barrett's son. — Mia Sheridan

In difficult times, it's so hard to look around and to see what to be grateful for. — Alice Barrett

This world you think you know? It's hidden ... in shards of reality. — Zechariah Barrett

You know it's going to be one of those days when the cat uses the carpet as a bum wipe ... — Hope Barrett

Infectious disease exists at this intersection between real science, medicine, public health, social policy, and human conflict. There's a tendency of people to try and make a group out of those who have the disease. It makes people who don't have the disease feel safer. — Andrea Barrett

Home, he murmured. It's always the hardest to leave ... because it gives you the biggest punch in the gut as you're on your way off. All the memories come flooding in ... and you're left with a feeling of emptiness. You're homesick before you're even gone. — Zechariah Barrett

Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire. And when I say at need
I love thee ... mark! ... I love thee
in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine. There's nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature's. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think one of the strengths of Wisconsin's economy is it's diversity - and in making sure that we're doing everything we can to have a state government that's responsive to that and being here and encouraging people to expand their businesses here. — Tom Barrett

Deception wasn't Tricia's strongpoint. Not when she'd been seven and blamed Angelica for a vase she'd broken, nor when coming up with excuses to avoid dating high school jocks who couldn't spell, let alone comprehend, Sherlock Holmes. — Lorna Barrett

That headlong ivy! not a leaf will grow But thinking of a wreath, ... I like such ivy; bold to leap a height 'Twas strong to climb! as good to grow on graves As twist about a thyrsus; pretty too (And that's not ill) when twisted round a comb. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness; Round our restlessness, His rest. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Now chin up," Puss said, moving Mark's chin upwards. "Did you hear me? My plan? Your future wife?"
"I'll have a wife?" Mark said, still in a daze.
"Details, details. You'll have a girlfriend, I suppose," Puss sighed. "Then she'll become your wife. And out of your gratitude, you will find me a lifelong companion from the pet store ... "
Mark laid his head back and let out a stream of air. "I'm going to have a wife. And my cat can talk. My cat is a matchmaker. — Zechariah Barrett

A woman's pity sometimes makes her mad. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You obey Wade Barrett's orders and you disrespect every person who has ever been champion. Including yourself. — Randy Orton

I have observed over a long lifetime that mental stability is not all it's cracked up to be. — Neal Barrett Jr.

I think most fiction writers naturally start by writing short stories, but some of us don't. When I first started writing, I just started writing a novel. It's a hard way to learn to write. I don't recommend it to my students, but it just happens that way for some of us. — Andrea Barrett

The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks, held out in the smoke, like stars by day. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

God's Word should both fuel our faith and define our petitions. God must keep His Word. — Michael P. V. Barrett

Learn to win a lady's faith
Nobly, as the thing is high;
Bravely as for life and death -
With a loyal gravity.
Lead her from the festive boards,
Point her to the starry skies,
Guard her, by your truthful words,
Pure from courtship's flatteries. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Oh come on. Let's serenade the stars. Maybe we'll catch one falling- Jameson Grant — Nikki Lynn Barrett

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said,
he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand ... a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it!
this, ... the paper's light ...
Said, Dear I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine
and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this ... O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last! — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I would not be a rose upon the wall
A queen might stop at, near the palace-door,
To say to a courtier, "Pluck that rose for me,
It's prettier than the rest." O Romney Leigh!
I'd rather far be trodden by his foot,
Than lie in a great queen's bosom. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write. — Andrea Barrett

I f thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say, I love her for her smile ... her look ... her way Of speaking gently ... for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and, certes, brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day- For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee-and love so wrought, May be unwrought so. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The world's male chivalry has perished out, but women are knights-errant to the last; and, if Cervantes had been greater still, he had made his Don a Donna. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

For a sculptor, a painter, a weaver, a potter, the dialogue between one's materials and what one makes from them is easy to see: discover a new material or a new way to use a familiar one, and new things can be made, sometimes leading to the discovery of more new material, leading to more creation. — Andrea Barrett

I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

World's use is cold, world's love is vain, world's cruelty is bitter bane; but is not the fruit of pain. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We all have known good critics, who have stamped out poet's hopes; Good statesmen, who pulled ruin on the state; Good patriots, who, for a theory, risked a cause; Good kings, who disemboweled for a tax; Good Popes, who brought all good to jeopardy; Good Christians, who sat still in easy-chairs; And damned the general world for standing up. Now, may the good God pardon all good men! — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Writing is mysterious, and it's supposed to be ... any path that gets you there is a good path in the end. But one true thing among all these paths is the need to tap a deep vein of connection between our own uncontrollable interior preoccupations and what we're most concerned about in the world around us. We write in response to that world; we write in response to what we read and learn; and in the end we write out of our deepest selves, the live, breathing, bleeding place where the picture forms, and where it all begins. — Andrea Barrett

Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all. What then?
Who's sorry for a gnat ... or a girl? — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It's always been too slow for me. Playing. The pace of things. I'm a fast sprinter. The trouble was, after playing in the group for a few months, I couldn't reach that point. — Syd Barrett

The trouble with Earl Barrett is that he's one paced ... Zooommmmm. — Joe Royle

Much of your strength as a woman can come from the resolve to replenish and fill your own well and essence first, before taking care of others. — Miranda J. Barrett

Durbin's sunglasses were gone, and his gray eyes sparkled up at her. He winked. "Take care of yourself, Dr. Venkman."
Lena bit back a grin. "You too, Dana Barrett. — Laura Oliva

Barrett lingers awhile. He's not eager to relinquish the strange pleasure of sitting in the green chair, surrounded by the ever-diminishing offerings that had, just yesterday, been daily articles, watching the apartment disappear, piece by piece. — Michael Cunningham

If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Cyndi Lauper is really good at talking to you about normal things. It's strange to be in the presence of a big celebrity like that. You want to make these connections and say things related to being a fan. It's not as interesting for them. She's amazing at making small talk without it seeming small. — Barrett Foa

The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise, I barter for curl upon that mart. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

What emerges from these separate strands of (modern) history is an image of man himself that bears a new, stark, more nearly naked, and more questionable aspect. The contraction of man's horizons amounts to a denudation, a stripping down, of this being who has now to confront himself at the center of all his horizons. The labor of modern culture, whenever it has been authentic, has been a labor of denudation. A return to the sources; "to the things themselves," as Husserl puts it; toward a new truthfulness, the casting away of ready-made presuppositions and empty forms - these are some of the slogans under which this phase in history has presented itself. Naturally enough, much of this stripping down must appear as the work of destruction, as revolutionary or even "negative": a being who has become thoroughly questionable to himself must also find questionable his relation to the total past which in a sense he represents. — William Barrett

So every single day, I found something to be grateful for and that's a powerful lesson. — Alice Barrett

You can take your finger out of my ass now." Maggie began to laugh. "Maybe I will and maybe I won't." Mace reached back and pulled her hand away. "Every doctor's dream, to have a nurse stick her finger up his ass while he jacks off. — Julia Rachel Barrett

Through heaven and earth
God's will moves freely, and I follow it,
As color follows light. He overflows
The firmamental walls with deity,
Therefore with love; His lightnings go abroad,
His pity may do so, His angels must,
Whene'er He gives them charges. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

He cared little for painting. In fact, he hadn't stood before an easel since school days. But if pretending to be interested in art kept a genuine smile on Amelia Barrett's face, he would learn to like it. — Sarah E. Ladd

In 'Love Story,' Oliver Barrett IV comes from generations of wealth and privilege, but when he meets working-class Jennifer Cavilleri, he can't resist. When they marry, his father disowns him, but they struggle on in love, until she's diagnosed with cancer and they can't afford the costly treatments. — Susan Straight

I just want to hold you. I want to be near you." She whispered, "I feel like I'm spiraling out of control and you are the one that keeps me together. I don't know why, or how, but that's just what it is. - Melody Roland — Nikki Lynn Barrett

Man's feeling of homelessness, of alienation has been intensified in the midst of a bureaucratized, impersonal mass society. He has come to feel himself an outsider even within his own human society. He is trebly alienated: a stranger to God, to nature, and to the gigantic social apparatus that supplies his material wants.
But the worst and final form of alienation, toward which indeed the others tend, is man's alienation from his own self. In a society that requires of man only that he perform competently his own particular social function, man becomes identified with this function, and the rest of his being is allowed to subsist as best it can - usually to be dropped below the surface of consciousness and forgotten. — William Barrett

What's the most fundamental human urge?"
Barrett recites for her. "To find the perfect pair of jeans. To find the jeans that fit and flatter you so ideally that everybody, every cognizant being on the planet, will want to fuck you. — Michael Cunningham

There's nothing great Nor small, has said a poet of our day, Whose voice will ring beyond the curfew of eve And not be thrown out by the matin's bell. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Golf: A plague invented by the Calvinistic Scots as a punishment for man's sins. — James Barrett Reston

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father's name; Piled high, packed large,
where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there At this or that box, pulling through the gap, In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, The first book first. And how I felt it beat Under my pillow, in the morning's dark, An hour before the sun would let me read! My books! — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If the rain spoils our picnic, but saves a farmer's crop, who are we to say it shouldn't rain? — Tom Barrett

There's something so quirky and fun and nerdy about the Tony Awards ... We're dorks being silly up there. — Barrett Foa

It's hard to explain how much one can love writing. If people knew how happy it can make you, we would all be writing all the time. It's the greatest secret of the world. — Andrea Barrett

My say is this: when you live in a worldwide bullring, bullshit is what you'll get. If they say I cannot be my mother's son, then it must be that I'm her daughter. — A. Igoni Barrett

A woman cannot do the thing she ought, which means whatever perfect thing she can, in life, in art, in science, but she fears to let the perfect action take her part and rest there: she must prove what she can do before she does it,
prate of woman's rights, of woman's mission, woman's function, till the men (who are prating, too, on their side) cry, A woman's function plainly is ... to talk. Poor souls, they are very reasonably vexed! — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

But the child's sob curses deeper in the silence than the strong man in his wrath! — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I have a funny process : it's called procrastination. — K. K. Barrett

Ron Carlson says, 'The most undervalued craft device that fiction writers need is empathy. You need to be able to actually imagine what your characters are going through. You've got to stay close. When you're in a story and dealing with people you're not certain of, or you've just come to meet because they've stepped into your story, it's very important to go slow and sit in their chair.'
As Carlson also says, you don't have to love the people or the characters you write about, but they should be at least as smart as you. Look beyond stereotypes. — Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You should never make a decision the day before your period. — Miranda J. Barrett

Stop worrying, Antonia. I know you despise being the center of attention, but as we all know, people attend balls for the sole purpose of quaffing down as much of the host's liquor as possible. It's a completely parasitic relationship, so trust me when I tell you that the crapulous crowd will take scant notice of you. — Jane Carter Barrett

And there my little doves did sit With feathers softly brown And glittering eyes that showed their right To general Nature's deep delight. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

She had curled up with those books on more than one occasion, and yes, she had dreamt of a handsome, red-haired man of action, but it hadn't been Dead-Eye Dan, drat it all. She'd dreamt of Daniel Barrett, the man who worked her father's cattle, who trained the finest mules in the county, and whose sky-blue eyes could melt her heart with a single glance. Daniel Barrett had stolen her heart before she'd ever even heard of Dead-Eye Dan. I — Karen Witemeyer

You're the only one I've ever been able to open up to like this. See, there you go. Another sign. And damn it, I don't believe in signs like this, but they all point to you. I wish I'd opened up a lot more to you in the past, but I never wanted to bombard you with my crazy life. So I always focused on you." He sank to his knees before her. "I want to give you everything. I want you to know me, all of me. So know that I'll try. It's weird to bare my deepest thoughts to anyone, but I'm ready to with you. — Nikki Lynn Barrett

There's so much around, you don't know what to listen to. All I've got at home is Bo Diddley, some Stones and Beatles stuff, and old jazz records. — Syd Barrett

Have you seen the roses? There's a whole lot of colours. — Syd Barrett

We dream. We aspire. We hope. Sure, we can get down too. But it's not about that. It's not those moments that define us. It's those times when we're looking forward, seeing that brighter future, and acting on it. — Zechariah Barrett

Of all the thoughts of God that are Borne inward unto souls afar, Along the Psalmist's music deep, Now tell me if that any is. For gift or grace, surpassing this
He giveth His beloved sleep. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Even his sleep was full of dreams. He dreamt as he had not dreamt since the old days at Three Mile Cross - of hares starting from the long grass; of pheasants rocketing up with long tails streaming, of partridges rising with a whirr from the stubble. He dreamt that he was hunting, that he was chasing some spotted spaniel, who fled, who escaped him. He was in Spain; he was in Wales; he was in Berkshire; he was flying before park-keepers' truncheons in Regent's Park. Then he opened his eyes. There were no hares, and no partridges; no whips cracking and no black men crying "Span! Span!"

There was only Mr. Browning in the armchair talking to Miss Barrett on the sofa. — Virginia Woolf

A child's kiss Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

So we all got basically what we wanted, and as far as the women are concerned, he figured that 30 good women could handle a crew of 300 anyway. So that's how we ended up with our crew. — Majel Barrett

O Earth, so full of dreary noises!
O men, with wailing in your voices!
O delved gold, the wader's heap!
O strife, O curse, that o'er it fall!
God makes a silence through you all,
And giveth His beloved, sleep. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I don't know why I feel so safe with you. I shouldn't let my guard down so much. There's something about you, Jameson. - Melody Roland — Nikki Lynn Barrett

The bullet smashed through the right lens of Winston's glasses and slammed him back against the lounge wall. Ozzy was expressionless as his old friend slid down the wall leaving a smear of red behind him. Above his creased body, a gob of pale tissue clung onto the light switch. "Aw, Winston," he said, "you did have a brain after all! — Andrew Barrett

And that dismal cry rose slowly And sank slowly through the air, Full of spirit's melancholy And eternity's despair; And they heard the words it said,- "Pan is dead! great Pan is dead! Pan, Pan is dead!" — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I wish I were the lily's leaf To fade upon that bosom warm, Content to wither, pale and brief, The trophy of thy paler form. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I've never known a writer who didn't feel ill at ease in the world. We all feel unhoused in some sense. That's part of why we write. We feel we don't fit in, that this world is not our world, that though we may move in it, we're not of it. You don't need to write a novel if you feel at home in the world. — Andrea Barrett

You will shape up and get better ... But you'll always have others to rely on as well. It's the fact that we're not each a detective going solo. We're together. The unique talents of our friends fill in where we lack. There's nothing wrong with that. — Zechariah Barrett

There's a line in The Barretts of Wimpole Street - you know, the play - where Elizabeth Barrett is trying to work out the meaning of one of Robert Browning's poems, and she shows it to him, and he reads it and he tells her when he wrote that poem, only God and Robert Browning knew what it meant, and now only God knows. And that's how I feel about studying English. Who knows what the writer was thinking, and why should it matter? I'd rather just read for enjoyment. — Susanna Kearsley

Margot Livesey, my dear friend, reads all the drafts of what I write, and I read hers. We have an intense working relationship. I've been really lucky to know her. She's a great reader and teacher as well as an astonishingly good writer. — Andrea Barrett

I am, as are most writers, just hugely obsessive, and so are many of my closest friends, who tend to be writers or scientists. It's a trait of human nature that I'm particularly in touch with. So I tend to project it onto my characters. — Andrea Barrett

It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth
'Tis then we get the right good from a book. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

God's gifts put men's best dreams to shame. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Some things in life could not be solved or even contemplated by a rational mind. Roger's mind, however, had ceased being anywhere near rational about half a bottle of Grand Marnier ago. — Andrew Barrett

Someone made me a Leaf Coneybear finger puppet. Someone made me a portrait of me on some chocolate. I'm keeping it. I daren't eat such a work of art. It's so unique and so fun that fans do that. It's incredibly flattering. I like it when people spend time on me. People don't spend the same amount of time on my brother who's an insurance broker. — Barrett Foa

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You don't invade. You're one of us." He said softly. "I meant what I said earlier. I know things are still uncertain, but please know there's a place for you. Here in Harmony's Echo, and here." Jameson put a hand over his heart. — Nikki Lynn Barrett

It's rather difficult to think of anybody being really interested in me. But you know, man, I am totally together. — Syd Barrett

The devil's most devilish when respectable. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

He'll be successful, finally, this coming Sunday, at the modest ceremony to be held in the living room. It's all so clear. Tyler will write a beautiful, meaningful song. Barrett will find a love that abides, and work that matters. And Liz. Liz will tire of boys, tire of her resolution to grow into a tough, colorful old woman who lives defiantly alone. — Michael Cunningham

The voices may propel you to warble along, or to dance, they may inspire you to seduction or insurrection or inspection or merely to watching a little less television. The voices of Barrett Rude Jr. and the Subtle Distinctions lead nowhere, though, if not back to your own neighborhood. To the street where you live. To things you left behind.
And that's what you need, what you needed al along. — Jonathan Lethem

If science could comprehend all phenomena so that eventually in a thoroughly rational society human beings became as predictable as cogs in a machine, then man, driven by this need to know and assert his freedom, would rise up and smash the machine.
What the reformers of the Enlightenment, dreaming of a perfect organization of society, had overlooked, Dostoevski saw all too plainly with the novelist's eye: namely, that as modern society becomes more organized and hence more bureaucratized it piles up at its joints petty figures like that of the Underground Man, who beneath their nondescript surface are monsters of frustration and resentment. — William Barrett

It's ironic, but until you can free those final monsters within the jungle of yourself, your life, your soul is up for grabs. — Rona Barrett

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: I'm with you kid. Let's go. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

He's just, your cousin, ay, abhorrently, He'd wash his hands in blood, to keep them clean. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Somebody's going to be reading, right? Wrong. They're FBing. Doing a Number Two. Maybe I shouldn't have had those chilli peppers. Hope y'all having a good day! - Coming from a toilet not far from you. xxxx — Hope Barrett

Tis aye a solemn thing to me
To look upon a babe that sleeps
Wearing in its spirit-deeps
The unrevealed mystery
Of its Adam's taint and woe,
Which, when they revealed lie,
Will not let it slumber so. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I am one who could have forgotten the plague, listening to Boccaccio's stories; and I am not ashamed of it. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

She has seen the mystery hid Under Egypt's pyramid: By those eyelids pale and close Now she knows what Rhamses knows. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning