Mary Ann Quotes & Sayings

My path is the nice one. The one filled with friends who will smile when I buy their children books for their birthdays. Who will take me out, sometimes, when I call on a random night because I can't settle down. The path with peaceful holidays with my parents, and reasonable work promotions at reasonable times.
The path with nice men, who take me on nice dates where I learn their last names the minute we shake hands at the bar.
A path clear of a man with eyes that drift into some private sorrow. A path that will never lead to a man whose hands shake when he holds my face for a kiss that feels like falling. — Mary Ann Rivers

I got cocky and I stopped taking my vitamins. It was an inconvenience to have a suitcase full of vitamins with me on the road. About two years ago, it caught up with me. — Mary Ann Mobley

I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers
booksellers really are a special breed. No one in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one
the margin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it
along with first dibs on the new books. — Mary Ann Shaffer

If all we've got to look forward to is disloyalty and treachery, why do we even make friends?"
"Again, human nature. Hoping for the best is what drives us. — Gena Showalter

His face searching the bus windows looked expectant, impatient, and a little anxious. It was a husband's face. Familiar, known, increasing beloved. Mary Ann, I reflected, had an awful lot to learn. And actually, I reflected, I wouldn't be in her shoes right now for all the flowers in Bermuda ... having it all to learn again.
— Ann Head

I think if you love somebody, and know you want to be with them forever, it doesn't matter how it starts, just so long as it doesn't end. — Mary Ann Rivers

Luckily, Dixie, Ernie, and the two girls, Sissy and Mary Ann, all loved his money. Money was power, no question about it. Sanders remembered how his father used to recite the Golden Rule - he who has the gold makes the rules. And Sanders had the gold. The power. The control. And — Harlan Coben

Women like poetry. A soft word in their ears and they melt - a grease spot on the grass. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I wonder if he practices making awkward and nerdy look sort of cool. Like he fills his house with furniture that is the wrong scale for his tall body and buys plaid shirts in bulk and tells his barber to leave crazy, too-long pieces of hair mixed in with the regularly cut hair so everything always looks messy.
Then he runs his hands through his hair and puts on his plaid shirts and uses mirrors to watch himself sit in uncomfortable furniture until comfortable furniture looks like it's the one with the problem. — Mary Ann Rivers

In a good mood I call my hair Chestnut with Gold Glints. In a bad mood, I call it mousy brown — Mary Ann Shaffer

They think of themselves as your grandparents,' he said. But call them whatever you like. James and Mary? — Ann Cleeves

The old adage--humor is the best way to make the unbearable bearable--may be true. — Mary Ann Shaffer

But I also want her to know that Mary Ann and I are best friends and have been forever. — Laurie B. Friedman

words. "Hell no! Sarah took Davie to Bingo. My old man's working four to twelve." "Where's your sister?" "Let's get one thing straight," Stanley grumbled. "She's not my sister!" "Okay, smart ass. Where's your cousin?" "She's upstairs. And she's not my cousin either. She's not related to me at all!" JD took the joint from Stanley's thick fingers and — Mary Ann Gouze

Christian Fiction is like a parable. The story is made up, but the truth is brought to life. Enjoy the story, but savor the truth. — Mary Ann Brantley

Antioxidants have a good effect on certain forms of Crohn's disease. — Mary Ann Mobley

It was amazing to me then, and still is, that so many people who wander into bookshops don't really know what they're after
they only want to look around and hope to see a book that will strike their fancy. And then, being bright enough not to trust the publisher's blurb, they will ask the book clerk the three questions: (1) What is it about? (2) Have you read it? (3) Was it any good? — Mary Ann Shaffer

I hoped that Mary Anne, Claudia, Stacey, and I - the Baby Sitters Club - would stay together for a long time. — Ann M. Martin

He turned, throwing over hi shoulder, "And if he growls at you, even once, he's out. He looks wild."
I am, Riley snapped inside her head.
Do not laugh, she thought to herself.
Her dad paused at the door. "Where does it stay while you're at school?"
It. Nice. "Outside."
"You could be inviting flees into our home, Mary Ann."
No. Laughing. "He's clean, Dad. I swear. But if I spot a single little bug, I'll bathe him."
That could prove interesting, Riley said. — Gena Showalter

The one thing I have wanted to stay away from is the steroids. When I had an attack two years ago in my home state of Mississippi, they put me on steroids, thinking they were doing the right thing, and I had a violent reaction. — Mary Ann Mobley

Went on, taking first one side and then the other, and making quite a conversation of it altogether; but after a few minutes she heard a voice outside, and stopped to listen. 'Mary Ann! Mary Ann!' said the voice. 'Fetch me my gloves this moment!' Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large as the Rabbit, and had — Lewis Carroll

Don't profane yourself, or the Biodag Dubh.
Oh, Mary Ann. Me and the Beedak Doo are just fine. — Kendare Blake

Isola doesn't approve of small talk and believes in breaking the ice by stomping on it. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Clovis Fossey has asked if you would send the society a copy of your prizewinning essay on chickens ... I'd like to read it too, chickens being the reason I fell off a henhouse roof. They'd chased me there. How they all came at me with their razor lips and back to back eyeballs. People don't know how chickens can turn on you, but they can, just like mad dogs. I didn't keep hens until the war came, but then I had to, but I am never easy in their company. — Mary Ann Shaffer

She was showing me her treasures, Sophie
her eyes did not leave my face once. We were both so solemn, and I, for once, didn't start crying; I just held out my arms. She climbed right into them and under the covers with me
and went sound asleep. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I should pity you, did I not know, that the Mind will make friends of any thing. A Mind that can make friends of any thing - I thought of that often during the war. — Mary Ann Shaffer

All I could do was scream, "How dare you! What have you DONE?! Put my books back! — Mary Ann Shaffer

I have seen doctors, in good faith, leave patients on steroids for years, thinking they are doing right. A friend of mine was on steroids for so long, she has severe osteoporosis. — Mary Ann Mobley

After all, what's good enough for Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. — Mary Ann Shaffer

If I wanted, I could choose to make my life a place that Brian could step into. He didn't have any room to move, but ... — Mary Ann Rivers

Would you like to hear of my first sight of the Germans? I'll use adjectives to make it more lively. I usually don't. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I have a tiny infant of an idea, much too frail and defenseless to risk describing, even to you ... I am going to coddle it and feed it and see if I can make it grow. — Mary Ann Shaffer

He is so shy, Juliet. He always has been-I don't think anybody's ever been in love with him, or him with anybody before, so he'd not know the right thing to do about it. It'd be just like him to hide away mementos and never say a word. I despair for him, I do. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Naturally curly hair is a curse, and don't ever let anyone tell you different. — Mary Ann Shaffer

The crematorium could not burn the bodies fast enough - so after we dug long trenches, we pulled and dragged the bodies to the edges and threw them in. You'll not believe it, but the SS forced the prisoners' band to play music as we lugged the corpses - and for that, I hope they burn in hell with polkas blaring. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I could tell you more about reading and how it perked up our spirits while the Germans were here. — Mary Ann Shaffer

The witch's hair was too short and too dark for blond. She wasn't sure if that relieved her or disturbed her.
Riley had immediately begun his interrogation, and it had gone something like this:
Riley: Where is the meeting between your kind and Aden Stone supposed to take place?
Witch: Go suck yourself.
Riley: Maybe later. Meeting?
Witch: Enjoy death.
Riley: I have once already. Now, decide to talk or lose a body part.
Witch: May I recommend a finger?
Riley: Sure. After I take one of your very necessary hands. — Gena Showalter

Do you suppose the St. Swithin's furnace-man was my one true love? Since I never spoke to him, it seems unlikely, but at least it was a passion unscathed by disappointment. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Will Thisbee gave me The Beginner's Cook-Book for Girl Guides. It was just the thing; the writer assumes you know nothing about cookery and writes useful hints - When adding eggs, break the shells first. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Mother Mary," he breathes. "How you shine."
I shake my head. "The light is yours. Right now you can't see it because you sit in shadow, but all I do is reflect you. — Ann Aguirre

For me, there isn't some miracle cure, this is my life, or my disease will progress and my life will change focus again, and I'll have another new life.
I need C to stay right where he is now because for now, I don't know enough to move from where I am.
My hypothesis is that the light will come back, both outside and inside me.
I'm afraid and angry, but the light is a theory I want to prove.
Until then, I just have to keep the experiment going with as many controls as possible.
One bus, back and forth.
One store.
One man, his words under glass. — Mary Ann Rivers

Mary Jo Putney is a gifted writer with an intuitive understanding of what makes romances work. I loved Silk and Shadows, couldn't put it down, and don't think readers will, either. — Jayne Ann Krentz

What nationality are you Mary-Ann can't tell you look like a mixed breed mut — Pamela Martin

Not even the Germans could ruin the sea. — Mary Ann Shaffer

To have the love of this man, who knows what it is to sacrifice his life for love, I would have waited longer. — Mary Ann Rivers

Treat a dog right and he'll treat you right ... Cats is different, but I never held it against them. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I will meet you on Wednesdays at noon in Celebration Park. Kissing only. I won't touch you below the shoulders. You can touch me anywhere. No dating, no hookups. I will meet with you for as long as you meet me, so if you miss a Wednesday we part as strangers ... — Mary Ann Rivers

They came here on Sunday, 30th June, 1940, after bombing us two days before. They said they hadn't meant to bomb us; they mistook our tomato lorries on the pier for army trucks. How they came to think that strains the mind. They bombed us, killing some thirty men, women, and children - one among them was my cousin's boy. He had sheltered underneath his lorry when he first saw the planes dropping bombs, and it exploded and caught fire. They killed men in their lifeboats at sea. They strafed the Red Cross ambulances carrying our wounded. When no one shot back at them, they saw the British had left us undefended. They just flew in peaceably two days later and occupied us for five years. — Mary Ann Shaffer

My neighbour Evangeline Smythe is going to have twins in June. She is none too happy about it, so I am going to ask her to give one of them to me — Mary Ann Shaffer

I have never had a first kiss like this. Is it that he's a stranger? So beautiful? If so, I am ruined for anything but beautiful strangers for the rest of my life. He is so hungry seeming, so explicit with his lips and teeth from every angle he tips my head into. I can feel my heart pounding every place ... — Mary Ann Rivers

This profusion of questions, exclamations, and tales is the new version of the Society. Its members are spread all over the world, but they are joined by their love of books, of talking about books, and of their fellow readers. We are transformed each time we pass a book along, each time we ask a question about it. — Mary Ann Shaffer

She is one of those ladies who is more beautiful at sixty than she could possibly have been at twenty. (how I hope someone says that about me someday)! — Mary Ann Shaffer

Then Susan suggested a new dress. I reminded her that the Queen was very happy wearing her 1939 wardrobe, so why shouldn't I be? She said the Queen doesn't need to impress strangers - but I do. I felt like a traitor to crown and country; now decent woman has new clothes - but I forgot that the moment I saw myself in the mirror. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Look," said Mary Ann evenly, "if I think you're really attractive, there must be plenty of men in this town who feel the same way."
"Yeah," said Michael ruefully. "Size queens."
"Oh, don't be silly!" Sometimes Michael was sensitive about the dumbest things. He's at least five nine, thought Mary Ann. That's tall enough for anybody. — Armistead Maupin

Later, I came to see that Mr. Dickens and Mr. Wordsworth were thinking of men like me when they wrote their words. But most of all, I believe that Mr. Shakespeare was. Mind you, I cannot always make sense of what he says, but it will come. — Mary Ann Shaffer

When, one otherwise ordinary day, she tentatively stepped back into the world, she left behind, deep within the walls of that ancient monastery, more than the simple white habit the Sisters had made for her. — Mary Ann D'Alto

It's a great affirmation of the possibility of overcoming conflict through reason and good will. — Mary Ann Glendon

Thousands of those men and boys died here, and I have recently learned that their inhuman treatment was the intended policy of Himmler. He called his plan Death by Exhaustion, and he implemented it. Work them hard, don't waste valuable foodstuffs on them, and let them die. They could, and would, always be replaced by new slave workers from Europe's Occupied countries. — Mary Ann Shaffer

He didn't say much at our first meeting - nor at any of our meetings since, come to think of it - but left him into a room, and everyone in it seems to breathe a sigh of relief. I have never in my life had that effect on anyone; I can't imagine why not. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I can't ignore his one-sided almost smile or his methylene blue eyes. I can't ignore his pretty shoulders or his arms. I can't ignore his big hands, his shoulder-blade-spanning hands, the way the tendons in them lock to every knuckle and speculate on things like capability and dexterity and, of course, the scar over those knuckles on his left hand that I've noticed before, and its reminder that he has a life and has been hurt in it. — Mary Ann Rivers

What a blight that woman is. Do you happen to know why? I lean toward a malignant fairy at her christening. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Magic comes from freedom, from openness, from willingness. Play burbles up from the yes that lives in the dark space, the now, the gimme, the yearning urge to be and belong and become.
Our joy lives in the dizzying impulse we all learn to stifle as we grow - the voice of yes that tells us to close our eyes on the swings so we can feel the earth fall away beneath us, to lie in the grass with the sun warming our faces until we're certain that it's spinning, it's really spinning, and we're all spinning with it.
I told Cal that the dark space is light, and it is, but it is also play. To be at play is to release the light. — Mary Ann Rivers

All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged
after all, what's good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it's a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I hope, too, that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art - be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music - enables people to transcend any barrier man has yet devised. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Then i imagined a lifetime of having to cry to get him to be kind, and I went back to no again. — Mary Ann Shaffer

On the page, I'm perfectly charming, but that's just a trick I learned. It has nothing to do with me. — Mary Ann Shaffer

There was Isola in a mad hat and a purple shawl pinned with a glittering brooch. She was smiling fixedly in the wrong direction and I loved her instantly. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Turning to Ann Gower, she smiled. "You're a good woman, Ann Gower."
Ann Gower drew back and looked askance at Mary. "Don't you go ruinin' me reputation, Mary Abacus. I be a real bad woman, but a bloody good whore, and you knows it! — Bryce Courtenay

Does it even give thee pause, that men used to have a soul
not by hearsay alone, or as a figure of speech; but as a truth
that they knew, and acted upon! Verily it was another world
then ... but yet it is a pity we have lost the tidings of our
souls ... we shall have to go in search of them again, or worse
in all ways shall befall us.
Thomas Carlyle — Mary Ann Shaffer

I was able to un-stick my tongue from the roof of my mouth after the first two minutes and began to have quite a good time. — Mary Ann Shaffer

He keeps his arms away from me, but eventually, holding him, I feel him tuck his chin over my head. Then he whispers, "You're the sweetest girl, the best girl, I ever kissed, Carrie West," and rubs his face into my hair like a child, breathing deep. — Mary Ann Rivers

Now that I think about it, maybe he is a werewolf. I can picture him lunging over the moors in hot pursuit of his prey, and I'm certain that he wouldn't think twice about eating an innocent bystander. I'll watch him closely at the next full moon. He's asked me to go dancing tomorrow
perhaps I should wear a high collar. Oh, that's vampires, isn't it? I think I am a little giddy. (After meeting Mr. Markham V. Reynolds, Jr.) — Mary Ann Shaffer

As to that Sidney, he sounds a very fine man - but bossy. It's a failing common in men. — Mary Ann Shaffer

I don't mind the dark, and because it's Christmas, we've been busy putting lights up everywhere. High, so everyone knows we're okay. — Mary Ann Rivers

I do a lot of races for the cure for breast cancer. — Mary Ann Mobley

Juliet, none of your margin notes! Sophie, dear, don't let her drink coffee while she reads. And off we'd go with new books to read. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Prayer is lifting up empty hands to an abundant God. Harvey Kneisel, missionary — Mary Ann Bridgwater

I should take his kisses with me and go. But with a seeping, resolute calm, I decide to keep him. I am not losing these Wednesdays, even if I can't have anything else. — Mary Ann Rivers

I'm not a woman you bring home to Mother, pick out china patterns with, or Mary forefend, breed. I've seen a chunk of the universe, true, but there's still so much more to see. I doubt I'll ever cure this wanderlust, and I'm content with dedicating my life to failing to sate it ... He's never going to sit at my feet and write me poems, which is good because I hate poetry, except dirty ones that rhyme. — Ann Aguirre

My worries travel about my head on their well-worn path, and it is a relief to put them on paper. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Death was confused. "That's senseless! I am the doorway to eternity. — Mary Ann D'Alto

Yesterday, Amelia and Kit came over for supper, and we took a blanket down to the beach afterward to watch the moon rise. Kit loves to do that, but she always falls asleep before it is fully rise, and I carry her home to Amelia's house. She is certain she'll be able to stay awake all night as soon as she's five. — Mary Ann Shaffer

One year as his wife, and id have become one of those abject, quaking women who look at their husbands when someone asks them a question. I've always despised that type, but I see how it happens now — Mary Ann Shaffer

My life is cozy, but I'm starting to let myself think I want something wet and aching stabbed through it. I want something substantial. I want to gorge myself. Excess. — Mary Ann Rivers

I'm home about two days a month, and on those I have to pack. — Mary Ann Mobley

Not a chance in China — Mary Ann Barrucco

You were the first thing I had asked for, just for me, in a long, long time. — Mary Ann Rivers

I am to cover the philosophical side of the debate and so far my only thought is that reading keeps you from going gaga. — Mary Ann Shaffer

My daughter is one of the associate producers on two shows for Disney. I am really proud of her. — Mary Ann Mobley

Then he was quiet, and Nina didn't have anything to say. But he stayed on the phone, she could hear him breathing, and so she kept it to her ear while she pulled out their plates, heated their food, wrapped utensils in napkins. He stayed right there, and didn't say good-bye until she did. He just stayed right there. — Mary Ann Rivers

We are going to find, I think, several different kinds of Crohn's disease. — Mary Ann Mobley

Boredom is a powerful reason, and the prospect of fun is a powerful draw - especially when you are young. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Redd up the ship! — Mary Ann Shaffer

The German officers said any soldier caught stealing food from our gardens would be shot. One poor soldier was caught stealing a potato. He was chased by his own people and climbed up a tree to hide. But they found him and shot him down out of the tree. Still, that did not stop them from stealing food. I am not pointing a finger at those practices, because some of us were doing the same. I figure hunger makes you desperate when you wake to it every morning. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books. — Mary Ann Shaffer

Finding your voice is like finding your self. — Mary Ann Taylor-Hall

Grandpa, that's something I never am." I asked him, "What's that?" And he said, "Lonesome in my spirits." Eli to Eben — Mary Ann Shaffer

Spencer's other grandmother, Mary Ann Olpin Woolley, was from England — The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints

I sometimes think I prefer suitors in books rather than right in front of me. How awful, backward, cowardly, and mentally warped that will be if it turns out to be true. — Mary Ann Shaffer

To earlier feminists who had fought for the vote and for fair treatment in the workplace, it had seemed obvious that the ready availability of abortion would facilitate the sexual exploitation of women. — Mary Ann Glendon