Don't Poke Quotes & Sayings

It's insane," Shed said quietly. "Flying around in these metal bubbles, and then trying to poke holes in each other. You ever seen what long-term decompression and cold exposure does? Breaks all the capillaries in your eyes and skin. Tissue damage to the lungs can cause massive pneumonia followed by emphysema-like scarring. I mean, if you don't just die. — James S.A. Corey

Melody exploded. "THIS ISN'T LIKE GETTING A FISH TO SEE IF I COULD BE RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH FOR A PUPPY!" She took a deep breath, calmed herself and lowered her voice. She then repeated the statement as if doing so removed the stink of the outburst.

"I'm well aware of that," said Lonnie. "And not to poke it with a stick, but you don't see any puppies sniffing around that empty fish bowl, do you? — B.M.B. Johnson

Billy was walking up the hall, buckling his belt. His tanned face was now sallow and wet with sweat. He says there's a bulge in my aorta. Like a bubble in a car tire. Only car tires don't yell when you poke em. — Stephen King

--
"Don't roach me, funker," she said. "And don't shirk off in your
electro-steamer. This mopsy wants to poke."
--Mack Reynolds, _Commune 2000 A.D._, 1974 — Mack Reynolds

You don't know what you're doing," Mitchell says. "Poking a stick into a den of snakes." "Poke-poke, motherfuckers." Atlanta pulls the trigger. — Chuck Wendig

I don't care whose son he is. I won't go belly-up like a timid pup. If he's fool enough to take a poke at me, I'll snap the finger clean off that does the poking. — Patrick Rothfuss

Most of us don't have to worry about being shot if we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility. — Octavia Butler

A man that ain't willin' to cheat for a poke don't want it bad enough. — Larry McMurtry

One snake wasn't enough. Time for Perl's suggestion. I handed everyone two capsules and a pin. "Get as close to the guards as you can. Poke a small hole in the capsule and squirt the liquid near them. Don't get it on you," I instructed.
"Why not?" Leif asked.
"You'll have a necklace snake trying to mate with you."
"Gee, Yelena. I'm so glad you're home," Leif grumbled. "It's good to know Mother is doing something useful with her time."
"I thought your mother madeperfumes," Moon Man said.
"It all depends on how you look at it — Maria V. Snyder

Desmond, don't poke the baby!' ... 'I'll get you next time-' Don't threaten the baby either!' ... — Derek Landy

I don't think I'm too mean to celebrities. I poke fun, but I think in the end, they always win. — Shane Dawson

I'm probably the only sixteen-year-old girl in a three hundred mile radius who knows how to distinguish between a poltergeist from an actual ghost (hint: If you can disrupt it with nitric acid, or if it throws new crap at you every time, it's a poltergeist), or how to tell if a medium's real or faking it (poke 'em with a true iron needle). I know the six signs of a good occult store (Number One is the proprietor bolts the door before talking about Real Business) and the four things you never do when you're in a bar with other people who know about the darker side of the world (don't look weak). I know how to access public information and talk my way around clerks in courthouses (a smile and the right clothing will work wonders). I also know how to hack into newspaper files, police reports, and some kinds of government databases (primary rule: Don't get caught. Duh). — Lilith Saintcrow

Joe sighed and eyed me sceptically, 'I offer him a place in history, in the universe, sacrifice and all that shit and he squeals like a little pig. You offer him a last fuck and he plunges right in headfirst. I don't get it.'
'He's a Jock, a common man with common needs, he doesn't want fame and fortune all he wants is full belly and an empty ball sack. My father always said find the right stick son and give the fucker a poke. — J.W. Murison

But it's clear to me that us slow-poke writers are a dying breed. It's amazing how thoroughly my young writing students have internalized the new machine rhythm, the rush many of my young writers are in to publish. The majority don't want to sit on a book for four, five years. The majority don't want to listen to the silence inside and outside for their artistic imprimatur. The majority want to publish fast, publish now. — Junot Diaz

Don't you think I would be a worthy replacement for you, Madam Prime Minister? You have a long nose. So have I. But I don't poke my nose into other people's affairs. — Sam Manekshaw

I have always thought foreigners with their unusual skin colours, mad languages and ignorant customs absolutely hilarious, and I think it's a shame that in recent years its become unfashionable to poke fun at them. I certainly don't think they themselves ever minded it. — Arthur Mathews

He had bucked harder with me than the fellows expected him to, and I don't know how I stayed on. I guess I was just too scared to fall off. Anyway, Mr. Cooper shook hands with me after Hi lifted me down. He said, "By God, you're going to make a cow poke, Little Britches. As long as you're with me you can call him your own horse." Then he laughed, and said to the other men, "I thought, by God, the kid was going to pull that one-inch hackamore rope in two before the music stopped."
Father never swore, and I know I wouldn't ever have said it out loud, but before I really knew what I was thinking, "By God, I thought so, too," went through my head. — Ralph Moody

If I don't poke my head out of my shell and show people who I am, all anyone will ever think I am is my shell. — Shonda Rhimes

A man who wouldn't cheat for a poke don't want one bad enough.
Augustus "Gus" McCrae — Larry McMurtry

And a refrigerator may hold a basket of strawberries, which would be important if a maniac said to you, "If you don't give me a basket of strawberries right now, I'm going to poke you with this large stick." But when the two elder Baudelaires and Quigley Quagmire opened the refrigerator, they found nothing that would help someone who was wounded, dying of thirst, or being threatened by a strawberry-crazed, stick-carrying maniac. — Lemony Snicket

Firstly: don't touch the hands of your cuckoo-clock heart. Secondly: master your anger. Thirdly: never, ever fall in love. For if you do, the hour hand will poke through your skin, your bones will shatter, and your heart will break once more. — Mathias Malzieu

It happens when I get really excited. The more excited I get, the more I vibrate."
"Now there's a thought," Lor says.
"If you mean what I think you mean, you want to shut the fuck up and never think it again," Ryodan says.
"Just saying, boss," Lor says. "You can't tell me you didn't think it, too."
I never understand half of what these dudes are talking about and don't care. "You can touch me if you want to," I say to Lor magnanimously. I'm so pumped on adrenaline and excitement that I'm feeling downright sociable. I poke one of my shoulders toward him. "Check me out. It feels really cool."
All heads swivel my way, then they look back at Ryodan.
"He doesn't own my fecking shoulder. Why you looking at him? — Karen Marie Moning

We have to do what we have to do. Miracles happen. The life force of this planet is very strong. Dandelions poke through sidewalks. We don't know enough to give up. We only know enough to know that we have to try to change the course of human events. — Elizabeth May

Buddy, I don't mean to poke my nose in where it don't belong, but that there is a dame to kill for. Why'd you let her go? — Frank Miller

I don't know. I mean we haven't talked about it. He literally left afterwards, and all he's done since then is poke me with his pen." "Probably because he wants to poke you with something else," she said dryly — Jennifer L. Armentrout

If we could only use other folks' experience, this here world would be heaven in about three generations, but we're so constructed that we never believe fire'll burn till we poke our own fingers into it to see. Other folks' scars don't go no ways at all toward convincin' us. — Myrtle Reed

You know what? Lets go." I shot Aiden a defiant look. "Come on Seth. Let's go continue our lovers' quarrel."
"Yes my love, that sounds fantastic. Don't forget to grab a dagger so you can poke my eyeballs out. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

I poke at my skull with a finger. It didn't feel soft or anything. I didn't feel insane. But if you'd really lost it, would you have enough left to know? Crazy people never thought they were crazy.
"I've always talked to things," I said. "And to myself."
"Good point," myself agreed with me. "Unless that means you've been nuts all along."
"I don't need wiseass remarks," I told myself severely. "There's work to do. So shut up. — Jim Butcher

Busy in a bus or lacking luck you poke to pluck a pick-up truck.
Utterly shocked you choke in the lock and check if you chuck a buck or if you are stuck in the muck.
So you should lurk in a day like this in such a murky lucky way.
In a day when you don't know if you laugh or cry...
Errands wait for those who are late in the busiest day.
Such day that defies all your senses and makes you want to fly...
To fly away! — Ana Claudia Antunes

The door opens. I don't lift my head or open my eyes.
"Stiff." It's Peter. Of course.
"Yes." When I let my hand fall from my face, a lock of hair falls with it. I look at it from the corner of my eye. My hair has never been this greasy before.
Peter sets a bottle of water next to the bed, and a sandwich. The thought of eating it nauseates me.
"You brain-dead?" he asks.
"Don't think so."
"Don't be so sure."
"Ha-ha," I say. "How long have I been asleep?"
"About a day. I'm supposed to escort you to the showers."
"If you say something about how badly I need one," I say tiredly, "I will poke you in the eye. — Veronica Roth

Will you go on a second date with me?"

"We're still in the middle of our first date, Zach. You can't just ask me that out of the blue."

"I already did, and I refuse to take it back."

"What if I don't like you by the end of this date?" I volley back.

"You honestly think that's possible?" His dimples poke through his smile, and I know right then I'm going to say yes. "Say yes, Delia. Be wild. Do something crazy and fun. — Teagan Hunter

Anyway, I don't trust those people who poke around sad people's minds and tell them how interesting it all is up there. It's not interesting. — Ottessa Moshfegh

You cannot let anyone know what you are."
"Gee. Really? I was thinking about updating my Facebook to halfling status."
He cocked his blondish-white head to the side. "You don't have a Facebook, Ivy."
I sighed.
Tink continued, because of course. "I looked for you. Wanted to add you as my friend so I could poke you, and I know people don't poke anymore, but I think poking is a great way to express how one - — Jennifer L. Armentrout

I just don't get it. You've been in love with this bloke since you were a kid, and he's never once got his hair cut short enough that it doesn't poke him in the damn eye. — Kristina Adams

For me, one of the privileges of being a writer is to poke your nose around and learn about worlds you don't know. — Gavid Hood

You want a poke in the eye with a sharp stick?" Sully offered. "You don't have a stick," Will pointed out. — Richard Russo

The thinness of contemporary life. I can poke my finger through it. — Don DeLillo

Ready to s-snuggle?" he asked Kaidan, a slight clatter in his voice. Only Blake could joke on a night like this and get away with it.
Kaidan shook his head and undressed down to his boxers, too, the tension finally shedding away from his frame. "I swear, mate. If I feel something poke me in the back ... "
Blake's laugh was dry. "I'm pretty sure my junk froze off, man, so don't worry. — Wendy Higgins

Facebook people are finding me that I don't really know. People poke you on Facebook. I'm like, 'Why? Why are you poking me?' — Bridget Kelly

Because who would ever want to get close to another person if they knew how hard the letting-go part was? In your heart they only die a little at a time, don't they? Like a plant when you go away on a trip and forget to ask a neighbor to poke in once in awhile with the old watering-can, and its so sad - — Stephen King

The point is that everyone needs some exposure to the various ways of life. People buy things out of catalogues too much. They see in Time magazine that they're suppose to be feeling in such and such a way, and they dash off a check and buy that life-style sight unseen. A pig in a poke if there ever was one, for once you've bought the thing there's no refund. We ought to be able to try things before we sign up for them. Used to be you could listen to the records in a record store before you bought them. Now they're sealed, for your protection, they say. Bullshit! It's for their goddamned protection, not ours. We don't need to be protected. We need to be allowed to get a taste of something before we accept it. — Arthur Alexander

To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don't tap people's phones and poke into their e-mail and you don't arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them. — Carol Moseley Braun

Hence it's funny to read in the New York Times that liberal Catholic activists are pushing for a change in Church teaching on issues relating to -- well, let's admit it, sex. Nobody is out there demanding the popes revisit the condemnation of Jansenism (don't ask), or settle the question of whether divine grace is or isn't resistable. No, journalists want to know what the Church thinks about whether one person should poke another and, if so, where, when, and how. What liberal Catholics and the journalists who love them are really asking for isfor the Church to admit that it was teaching a set of harsh, repressive errors for nineteen centuries and that now it is very, very sorry. — John Zmirak

With a hologram, like when your teacher is one of them, if you aren't looking right at them, they sometimes seem to be hollow. You see them and suddenly they don't have a face that pokes out. Their faces poke in, their nose and so on, and there is nothing inside them. If you don't look right at them, they can look just like an empty shell. — M T Anderson

You can poke fun at some pretty difficult circumstances, and it's just a way to pop the bubble. I don't do that thing onstage usually, but offstage sometimes I might. — Brian Regan

Well, I know better what I don't want. I don't want somebody who's always nagging me to be something I'm not. And I don't want somebody who thinks she knows what's best for me and who maneuvers around trying to get me to do things her way."

Kate frowned. "Nobody wants anyone like that. It's like saying, 'I don't want someone who'll poke me in the eye with a sharp stick.' Forget what you don't want. What do you want? — Jennifer Crusie

It. I don't mean to poke the bear, but I've got one nerve left, and Maddox is dry-humping it. So, could you all move it along? — Jamie McGuire

I just don't believe that being conservative means all you do is throw stones and poke people in the eye. — James Lankford

What [he] is apparently objecting to is that not everyone takes his beliefs seriously. Indeed, some don't seem to respect his beliefs at all, and actually poke fun at them. Well, I have news for [him]: that's the nature of a free society. Opinions don't necessarily merit respect; they must earn respect in the marketplace of ideas. — Jeffrey Shallit

I am afraid of reduction. After a lifetime's independence- yes, selfish independence- I am terrified of being reduced to childhood once more, to helplessness, to seas of confusion from which the cruel lucid intervals poke up like rock shoals. I don't want to sit in my chair and be fed, much less do I want to be handed over to medical professionals. — Rosie Thomas

I love you, Vicki!" Kennedy slurs.
"I love you, Ken-ken!" Vicki returns.
Then Vicki pokes my shoulder. "And you! You take good care of my Kenny! Don't make me hafta kick (poke) yer (poke) ass (double poke)!"
I give her a nod. "The ass-kicking days are behind us now."
"Good! Then there's somethin' you should know." Vicki's expression sobers, and she gestures me closer before ruining the effect by whispering loudly, "Kennedy hasn't had an orgamsum . . . orgamsam . . . Kennedy hasn't come in a loooong time. Like, years. At least, not with a guy."
"Shhhhhhh!" Kennedy swats her best friend like a fly. "Tha's a secret!"
"Maybe Brent can help you wif it?"
I give Vicki the thumbs-up - and it's not the only thing that's up, that's for sure. — Emma Chase

I am standing here in the shed, and I'm waiting to see if my seeds are going to poke out ofthe dirt. I don't know if it's too early to look for signs of life or if, this time, winter has claimed my family for good. — Maggie Stiefvater

People who make snide comments to authors like "anyone can write a book" or "well, you did it, so obviously I can/it can't be that hard" or poke at a book because it's "romance" or "genre fiction" and act like that somehow makes it substandard because they don't read it ... well, ok, go ahead. Write a bestseller. Don't forget to go through the correct edit process. We'll wait. — Michelle M. Pillow

If you give the audience what they expect, they'll be bored. There are no rules: You do what you want while respecting the boundaries. You don't poke people in the eye; you do things they haven't seen before and make it accessible, funny and clever. — Matthew Vaughn