Hobbs Quotes & Sayings

Researching and writing about the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98 was one of the most exciting and involving projects I've undertaken. — Will Hobbs

An image often propels the novel, gets it started. For me, it's an image that has a lot of emotion connected to it. — Will Hobbs

At the end of the day, I want to be known for my ability to create life from words. — Chelsea Hobbs

I love to read about the exploits of technical mountain climbers, but I've never done any vertical climbing. — Will Hobbs

Dreams aren't practical, but we can't live without them. — Will Hobbs

In that house, Rob read. Rather, Jackie read to him, but she felt as if he were reading along with her. With the opening of a book, a shift occurred in his eyes and he nestled an inch deeper into her lap while angling his chin upward, and he seemed to age a year or two. Not a reader herself, Jackie went to the local library for the first time and pulled the popular titles: the Berenstain Bears, Richard Scarry wordbooks, Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle. — Jeff Hobbs

Old Japanese saying, live scorpion in pants makes life interesting. — Will Hobbs

Bradman is a whole class above any batsman who has ever lived: if Archimedes, Newton and Gauss remain in the Hobbs class, I have to admit the possibility of a class above them, which I find difficult to imagine. They had better be moved from now on into the Bradman class. — G.H. Hardy

There isn't a mayor in the world or a president in the world that can stop homicides. — Keith Hobbs

if you do not know, reader, what a Fisher Hobbs is, you know nothing about pigs, and deserve no bacon for breakfast. — Charles Kingsley

My first job out of college was six weeks of picking fruit alongside a dozen or so men from Mexico. The orchard was in Emmett, Idaho. The men spent almost nothing on themselves. Their paychecks went directly to their families back home. — Will Hobbs

Her son seemed to be belatedly rebelling against all his celebrated accomplishments- as well as the responsibilities inherent in them, the obligations to own his talents.In that rebellion, she saw a young man who was confused and upset that his life wasn't stacking up to be what he and everyone around him had always assumed it would. — Jeff Hobbs

I do have two wonderful awards from the Western Writers of America, one for 'Beardance' and the other for 'Far North.' The award is called the Spur, and the plaques really do have spurs on them! — Will Hobbs

Pacing has become more important than ever, largely because of other media. I've always tried to start my stories out with a bang, something that will hook their attention. — Will Hobbs

Once you're imagining being the main character, and you're having the conversations and actually being there, the magic in fiction writing takes over. — Will Hobbs

Our collective information regarding his death was still limited, which brought forward the sadder fact that, at the end of it all, none of us had actually known Rob as well as we thought we did, as well as we should have, as well as - with just a little more effort - we could have. — Jeff Hobbs

There was a sudden loud commotion outside, and Calvin's eyes widened. "Oh hell. It's them."
"Who?" Sounded like a damn war had broken out. Dex was sure he heard a chair clattering somewhere. He edged away from the door.
"Rafe and Seb...Hobbs's big brothers."
Dex arched an eyebrow at him. "Like, big as in older, right?"
"Big as in older and big."
"How much bigger can they get? Hobbs is already the size of the fuckin' Chrysler building. — Charlie Cochet

One day I get to that spot where I've discovered the secret to the maze, and then I've got free running the rest of the way. It's a great feeling. — Will Hobbs

In East Orange, initiations were completed by murdering someone, for no other reason than to prove to a tremendously cold, tremendously tight brotherhood that you possessed the hardness required to watch their backs. — Jeff Hobbs

Seven of my novels take place in the Southwest, in the Four Corners area which has been my home since 1973. I know these mountains, rivers, mesas and canyons well, so it's been natural for me to draw on my own personal experiences here. — Will Hobbs

But a deeper transition affected people of color in this dazed context. Before course selections and extra-curricular sign-up sheets, before bags could even be unpacked in rooms, black students had to situate themselves within their own race. The process was complicated, conflicting, usually silent, highly fraught, and wholly invisible to their white classmates. Most of whom had never actively had to consider the role of race in their lives. — Jeff Hobbs

What had happened wasn't supposed to have happened and yet, they still rendered the predictable media spin of potential squandered, the gift of education sacrificed to the allure of thug life, etc. Not only simplistic, but also offensively so. — Jeff Hobbs

As a child, books had been his passageway into foreign, sometimes utopian worlds. Carnival wasn't just an incarnation of that passageway in reality; it was everything that lay on the other side, where the only thing that mattered was the moment, and millions of people were able to inhabit that moment with ease and, predominantly, with bliss. — Jeff Hobbs

In a lot of cases, writers discover that the novel needs to begin later in the action than they'd first thought. — Will Hobbs

Therefore, as you seek to know God, there isn't a need to dabble in lots of different religions or make up one that makes Him more "modern and current." Basically, God's Word needs no revision. And the commandments aren't like the constitution: amending them to fit with the times isn't necessary. — Chantel Hobbs

Raquel's mother had driven her fiercely to do well in school, such that high academic prowess had been the only option. Others had come upon money by luck, or had relatives acting as patrons. Rob had had none of those things. All he'd had was a home, and a harried home at that, paired with his own drive. What he'd achieved, he'd achieved almost exclusively on his own. — Jeff Hobbs

My seventeen years of teaching inform my sense of audience in every line I write. — Will Hobbs

I've been collecting articles on extremophile bacteria for at least the last ten years. I find them fascinating, whether they live in boiling pools at Yellowstone, around thermal vents at the floors of the oceans, or on Mars, where NASA has been searching for them as the first evidence of life beyond Earth. — Will Hobbs

Last year they came in and won the game; that's how I would define it. Revenge is never on our mind. What's on our mind is playing defense, rebounding, taking care of the ball, and running our transition game. — Karl Hobbs

He wanted to instill that sociability in his son; he believed that being curious about people was one of the few crucial life skills that could be fully nurtured in a place like East Orange. — Jeff Hobbs

I love weird science. I learned in an article in 'National Geographic' that there are trillions of bacteria in our guts that help us digest food. These are non-human creatures. — Will Hobbs

Stepping to me? Yo, that's the wrong move.
So what you on, hobbs, dope or dog food? — Big Daddy Kane

He saw something more in those eyes. The emotion wasn't nakedly apparent, but Mr. Cawley was a professional at reading the subtleties of people. The elderly and wildly successful credit card magnate believed that certain human frailties could actually help fuel success. Insecurity drove billionaire entrepreneurs. Emotional instability made for superb art. The need for attention built great political leaders. But anger, in his experience, led only to inertia. — Jeff Hobbs

I'll make a beautiful corpse. — Will Hobbs

that Rob, who had turned seven two months — Jeff Hobbs

On the New England Patriots losing the Super Bowl after going 18-0: We set high expectations, now we go down as 18-1, and that is one big zit. It is one big blemish. We choked. — Ellis Hobbs

Watch this. 'Buenos Dios, Miguel.'"
A small, dark-eyed man looked up from his wood splitting, alarmed.
"They spook easy," Hobbs said.
Yes, well, people tend to do that when you come up behind them shouting, "Good God." It's just a habit, I guess. — David Sedaris

Here are a few of the actors who have brought my novels to TV life: Bill Pullman, Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, Julian Sands, Gena Rowlands, Rob Lowe, Julia Ormond, Chelsea Hobbs, Tate Donovan, Anne Heche, Max Martini, Campbell Scott, Kimberly Paisley-Williams, Alexa Vega, and the late legends Richard Kiley and Kim Hunter. — Luanne Rice

For four years at Yale, he'd sat at the center of his circle with free rein to utter whatever was on his mind. He was well known for calling people out on their "bullshit." But he'd been able to exercise that tendency with the concrete awareness that his words had no consequences, not real ones. Maybe someone's feelings would get hurt; maybe there'd be an argument. Even so, nobody at Yale would ever come at him, no one carried lethal weapons, no one constructed the particular walls around his pride that, if penetrated, might impel him to want to inflict severe physical harm. The situation was different in Newark - more so now than ever, since the gang explosion had begun. — Jeff Hobbs

The men her girlfriends dated were too often angry and muttering about oppression. One of the reasons she took to Skeet later in life was that he never went to that place; he believed with a firm positivity that he didn't need to waste time resenting real or imagined social constructs because he would always be ahead of them. The individual, not the people, was responsible for success or failure. — Jeff Hobbs

I've been under the spell of the North ever since my childhood in Alaska. More and more, I've been returning to Alaska, and sometimes my adventures inspire a story. — Will Hobbs

Niggers just like to start shit," he said. "They don't value human interaction, let alone human life. They're just stupid, period. They walk around, trying to act hard, trying to be bangers...That's all a nigger cares about: acting hard. Fronting."

"What about the brothers?" I asked. This word felt much safer.

"A brother's like me. He just wants to take care of his own and chill. — Jeff Hobbs

Oswaldo was flummoxed by the fact that his friend could be so quiet, almost embarrassed, about his academic acumen, yet so damn loud and proud of his status as a premier campus drug dealer.

"I've never met anyone so smart but so fucking dumb," he told Rob. — Jeff Hobbs

Everything will change when we get back home, Sophie. I don't want to lose this, lose what we've found while we have been away. I need to know, whatever happens when we get back, we will be okay. — K.A. Hobbs

orders at home. Over the following — Jeff Hobbs

So much of writing is discovery. Sometimes I feel like a rat in a maze, trying to discover the way out. My little heart is beating, and I'm racing down a path thinking, this is the route, it will get me there, as I turn this way and then that. — Will Hobbs

I was astounded to learn that Alaskan caves might be hiding secrets about the earliest people ever to enter the Americas. That's when I began to picture a story that would start with kayaking and lead into the caves. — Will Hobbs

men and women who'd constantly filed through our common room, wearing hoodies and piercings - uniform in their aversion to uniformity - to — Jeff Hobbs

Like everything else, the beans had exploded with growth in the last few days. "Holy jumping garbanzos!" my father declared. My mother answered with, "Great leapin' limas! — Will Hobbs

In a variation on James's recipe for interesting experience
the familiar leavened by the novel
Hobbs's "art of choosing difficulties" requires selecting projects that are "just manageable." If an activity is too easy, you lose focus and get bored. If it's too hard, you become anxious, overwhelmed, and unable to concentrate. Tellingly, one group is distinguished by its zeal for the kind of work that requires you to give it all you've got: high achievers particularly relish taking on risky projects that have only a 50/50 chance of success. — Winifred Gallagher

Unbeknownst to me, from the beginning of freshman year Rob and Oswaldo had been drawn away from Yale via their friends on the dining hall and custodial staffs, outward into the city of New Haven. Rob considered these excursions a much-needed dose of reality, the social equivalent of an antidepressant. — Jeff Hobbs

I think we made huge positive changes and Thunder Bay is in a better place than it was four years ago. — Keith Hobbs

He talked about what he believed defined a Real Man: someone who had honor, curiosity, respect for women, and took responsibility for his people. — Jeff Hobbs

How you react to reality is more important than the reality to which you react. — W.R. Hobbs

One wide-awake persistent enemy may be worth twenty friends. Friends point out all the good things you do. You know all about that. Your enemies point out your mistakes. Get yourself a first-class enemy, cultivate him, and when you achieve success thank him. — Harold Hobbs

Like a bird handled by humans whose flock would not accept it back, Rob now wore the unwashable scent of the Ivy League. — Jeff Hobbs

and it's like nothing matters, not even time, and for a couple hours I can just be. — Jeff Hobbs

I often read nonfiction, and some of my ideas begin there. — Will Hobbs

Strawberries and Sophie. Ummmmmm, better than strawberries and cream. — K.A. Hobbs

I stay in contact with kids, and that is a lot of fun for me, not only to get their letters but to meet them in schools and see that the books really have engaged their hearts and imaginations. That's what makes it so worthwhile. — Will Hobbs

Hobbs and Sutcliffe. More than any other players in those years they raised the status of the professional cricketer. — Stephen Chalke

Dusty rarely barks, but did she ever send up a clamor now, barking like there was no tomorrow. — Will Hobbs

It's like you can't have a real conversation with anyone. — Jeff Hobbs

My youngest brother and I went on a ten-day canoe trip in Bowron Provincial Park in British Columbia years ago. Believe it or not, we took only granola, thinking we'd be eating a lot of lake trout. Well, we neglected to bring along a net, and our fishing line was only 8-lb. test. — Will Hobbs

A poetry professor had once defined romance to me as "bringing two people together when every force in the universe is working to keep them apart. — Jeff Hobbs

Rob's small room on the second floor of the Chapman Street house, a three-shelf bookcase was packed with black-and-white composition books, the front and back of each page filled with single-spaced notes from various classes. Tavarus thought, Damn, this is how you go places. — Jeff Hobbs

the music player. — Jeff Hobbs

On that night he made clear to his secret society that the fundamental conflict of his life was founded on precisely that belief: the white establishment would always keep the common black man down in order to cover their own asses. — Jeff Hobbs

Love must be shared, or else it is just madness. — Peter Hobbs

For 'The Big Wander,' I probably had ten different outlines before I made myself start writing. I would sleep on each one, thinking it was wonderful, but I would always awake perceiving some flaw. — Will Hobbs

Time softens all griefs, they say, and it is useless to dwell on lives that might have been. We are granted only one life, and one is enough. Whom do such regrets profit? What do they achieve, except to bring us unhappiness? — Peter Hobbs

What does she look like?"
"Glasses," I said. "Snobbish face. Usually has her hair in a bun."
"The glasses," Grandpa Smedry said slowly. "Did they have ... horn rims?" "Usually." "Hyperventilating Hobbs!" he exclaimed. "A Librarian! Quickly, lad, we have to go! Get dressed; I'll go steal some food from your foster parents! — Brandon Sanderson

Over time, a commitment to challenging, focused work and leisure produces not only better daily experience, but also a more complex, interesting person: the long-range benefit of the focused life. As Hobbs put it, the secret of fulfillment is to choose trouble for oneself in the direction of what one would like to become. — Winifred Gallagher

Books were better than movies, — Eric Hobbs

'Ghost Canoe' takes place on the storm-tossed tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where I spent a lot of time hiking and exploring. — Will Hobbs

[Flowy]'d undertaken this mainly because he'd known that going to public school, with girls, would sentence him to fatherhood by age sixteen, and he wanted to evade that pattern, one from which he himself had been born. — Jeff Hobbs

Anyone who has examined into the history of the theories of earth evolution must have been astounded to observe the manner in which the unique and the difficultly explainable has been made to take the place of the common and the natural in deriving the framework of these theories. — William Herbert Hobbs

I don't need to see you to know how breathtakingly beautiful you are, Sophie." he breathes into my ear "The sun, the stars, this place, it all pales in comparison to you. — K.A. Hobbs

Professionally, I was at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and did lots of things there, and then I won the BBC Carlton Hobbs Award, so I did some BBC Radio drama work, which is a lovely way to start out because you work with lots of great people, and you're working all the time, so you're learning rather than sitting around and waitressing. — Lydia Leonard

The elevator came to a jerking halt and the doors slid open. A young vault manager was waiting for us. She looked up and then froze in fear, dropping the papers she was holding. I don't remember much else about her, but I'll never forget her scream. It wasn't even particularly memorable. Like most, it started like a high-pitched yelp and ended in hysterical sobbing. The timing was what threw me off. During most robberies, it takes a few seconds before someone lets out a yelp. Sometimes there is even this strange pregnant silence through the whole thing because everyone's too shocked and scared to move. But not this time. As soon as the elevator doors opened up, the woman started screaming.

I grabbed her by the hair and threw her into one of the teller windows. — Roger Hobbs

Life is too short to suffer anybody's meanness, which is what you can learn eating shrimp with store-bought coleslaw, if you look it straight in the face. — Valerie Hobbs

to live on Pierson Street, just two blocks north of — Jeff Hobbs

Look, anything you do, if it isn't hard, it isn't doing anything for you. So you're better off not doing it. Use your time somewhere else. — Jeff Hobbs

If somebody's going to tell me I can't do something, I'll break every bone in my body proving them wrong. — Will Hobbs

The word "fronting" was important to Rob. A coward who acted tough was fronting. A nerd who acted dumb was fronting. A rich kid who acted poor was fronting. Rob found the instinct very offensive, and in college he saw it all around. — Jeff Hobbs

The pressure to keep up with what society tells us is perfect is causing us to enter a time when women are no longer women, but plastic shells of what women used to be. — Chelsea Hobbs

Now they were lawyers and investment bankers, with faces creased and drawn by the skirmish of daily life. Others I'd known well, and as we inched perilously closer to the casket, our talk evidenced a shared fondness for Rob but also something else shared in our own receding dreams. There was Ty and his dermatology career, me and my struggles to publish a second novel, former history majors who were doing their best to remain in school forever. Nobody, it seemed, was making the money he'd thought he would make, inhabiting the home he'd thought he would inhabit, doing the thing he'd thought he would do in life. Nobody was fulfilling the dreams harbored on graduation day almost ten years earlier. — Jeff Hobbs

It's all fun and games until somebody dies. -Brian Sheahan "Trauma Junkie — Tom Hobbs

The park was a highly secure place for people to do drugs after dark, more secure even than homes and apartments. The police didn't make regular patrols because they were too busy answering 911 calls. Policemen were more likely to enter a user's building during the night, answering a domestic abuse call from down the hallway, than they were to make a pass through the Orange Park playground. — Jeff Hobbs

'Changes in Latitudes' began when I was looking at a photograph of a sea turtle swimming underwater. I had such a strong feeling for the beauty of this ancient creature, at home in the sea. On the spot, I wanted to swim with that turtle. I began to imagine a character who would do just that. — Will Hobbs

Success is waking up in the morning and bounding out of bed because there's something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you're good at - something that's bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again. — Whit Hobbs

A snick by Jack Hobbs is a sort of disturbance of a cosmic orderliness. — Neville Cardus

At Yale, most everyone (except Oswaldo Gutierrez) refrained from telling Rob what to do, because of the way he'd grown up in Newark. In Newark, most everyone (except Oswaldo Gutierrez) refrained from telling Rob what to do, because of the way he'd gone to Yale. — Jeff Hobbs

Some of the best things that have happened in my stories have happened seemingly of their own accord. The writer becomes a listener, just writing things down as they come. — Will Hobbs

Choosing the narrator for a first-person story like 'Downriver' is a crucial decision because the voice has to be one the reader wants to listen to, and the voice has to be a match for the emotion you want the story to carry. — Will Hobbs

But words mattered, more so in Newark than many other places. In a world where income and possessions were limited, words represented dignity, pride, self-worth. — Jeff Hobbs

I've been reading about Crazy Horse and Custer for a long, long time, and I thought that if I was going to write a story that took place in the Black Hills, I should find a way to include this history in it. — Will Hobbs

When you were so depressed after you shot Mr. Garrett Jacob Hobbs to death, it wasn't the act that got you down, was it? Really, didn't you feel so bad because killing him felt so good? Think about it, but don't worry about it. Why shouldn't it feel good? It must feel good to God - He does it all the time, and are we not made in His image? — Thomas Harris

We are such sticklers for tradition in insisting on an amateur captain, regardless of the question of whether he can pull his weight as a player. The time is coming when we will have to change our views [...] when there will be no amateurs of sufficient ability to put into an England side. — John Berry Hobbs

The boy I once was is a stranger to me, and sometimes I wonder if terrible experiences are enough to change a person - I mean fundamentally to change a person's nature - or if they merely subdue it, and it endures there beneath, and will reassert itself in time. I wonder if I will be recognized by my family. If those I love will still know me. — Peter Hobbs