Quotes & Sayings About Quizzical

Nothing is more practical than poetry," he says with a quizzical smile. "It teaches us how to be human. — Laurel Corona

Yossarian wrinkled his forehead with quizzical amusement. You won't marry me because I'm crazy, and you say I'm crazy because I want to marry you? Is that right? — Joseph Heller

The long flight from Georgia to England had been pretty uneventful. Exceept that Cal had sat next to me.
Which was fine. Really.
It wasn't like I'd been hyperaware of his presence and jumped the three times his knee bumped mine. And adter that third time, he definitely hadn't shot me a kind of disgusted look and said, "Chill out, will you?"
And when Jenna gave us both a quizzical look, we hadn't snapped, in unison, "Nothing!" Because all of that would have been weird, and Cal and I weren't weird. We were cool. — Rachel Hawkins

I'm glad I'm not a woman trying to impress the opposite sex, Luke grunted. Kate shot him a quizzical look. Luke responded with one of his incongruous grins. — Maggie Brendan

He looked at her levelly. There was something in his eyes, a sort of quizzical admiration; she wondered if it was simply admiration of Jessamine's looks. "No," he said. "No, even though you are the perfect picture of Jessamine, I can see Tessa through it somehow as if, if I were to scrape away a layer of paint, there would be my Tessa underneath." "I am not your Tessa either." The light sparkling in his eyes dimmed. "Fair enough," he said. "I suppose you are not. — Cassandra Clare

Lord Ram gave Hanuman a quizzical look and said, "What are you, a monkey or a man?" Hanuman bowed his head reverently, folded his hands and said, "When I do not know who I am, I serve You and when I do know who I am, You and I are One. — Tulsidas

Every morning he went for a walk with his wife, Reine-Marie, and their German shepherd Henri. Tossing the tennis ball ahead of them, they ended up chasing it down themselves when Henri became distracted by a fluttering leaf, or a black fly, or the voices in his head. The dog would race after the ball, then stop and stare into thin air, moving his gigantic satellite ears this way and that. Honing in on some message. Not tense, but quizzical. It was, Gamache recognized, the way most people listened when they heard on the wind the wisps of a particularly beloved piece of music. Or a familiar voice from far away. — Louise Penny

You absurd boy! Oh, Evelyn, I'm so thankful you've come, but what in the world has detained you? I've been sick with apprehension!"
There was a quizzical gleam in the gentleman's eyes, but he said in accents of deep reproach: "Come, come, Mama - !"
"It may be very well for you to say Come, come, Mama," she retorted, "but when you faithfully promised to return not a day later than -" She broke off, staring down at him in sudden doubt.
Abandoning the portmanteau, the gentleman shrugged the greatcoat from his shoulder, pulled off his hat, and mounted the remaining stairs two at a time, saying still more reproachfully: "No, really, Mama! How can you be so unnatural a parent?"
"Kit!" uttered his unnatural parent, in a smothered shriek. "Oh, my darling, my dearest son! — Georgette Heyer

Is there a perfect world? — Plato

When you have birds you stare at them a lot and their eyes are recessed on their head. When they look at something they tilt their head in a quizzical expression. — Ted Rall

During one wave, I suddenly found myself cramped over in front of my tent, stark naked, painful, liquid acidic craps, and, the humiliation of it all, surrounded by six elephants, silent, quizzical, polite, murmuring, almost solicitous, their trunks waving in the air investigating my actions and moans. They watched my agonized shitting as if it were an engrossing, silent Shakespearean tragedy performed in the round. — Robert M. Sapolsky

His son Peter Bucky happily spent time driving Einstein around, and he later wrote down some of his recollections in extensive notebooks. They provide a delightful picture of the mildly eccentric but deeply un-affected Einstein in his later years. Peter tells, for example, of driving in his convertible with Einstein when it suddenly started to rain. Einstein pulled off his hat and put it under his coat. When Peter looked quizzical, Einstein explained: "You see, my hair has withstood water many times before, but I don't know how many times my hat can. — Walter Isaacson

The poets get a quizzical ahem. They reflect time, I am the very ticking. — Roy Fuller

The man was staring directly at him now, a curious expression on his face, half smiling, half quizzical. Instantly Eager had a sense of certainty far deeper than anything he had experienced so far. "I have it too!" he exclaimed. "I am a part of this Earth, aren't I? Just like the birds and the trees and the people - I am."
"Om." said his companion.
Unseen by them, a blossom fell. — Helen Fox

I've missed the silence of you listening to me." Shahrzad attempted a weak smile. "No one listens to me as you do." His expression turned quizzical. "You don't wait to speak," she clarified. "You truly listen." "Only to you," Khalid replied gently. — Renee Ahdieh

No," Lillian said frankly. "But much as I hate to admit it, that puts us in a minority. Swift is liked by everyone in the northern hemisphere, including Westcliff and his friends, my friends, the servants, the neighbors - "
"You are exaggerating - "
" - children, animals and the higher order of plants," Lillian finished sardonically. "If root vegetables could talk, I've no doubt they would say they like him, too."
Daisy, who was sitting by the window with a book, looked up with a sudden grin. "His charm doesn't extend to poultry," she said. "He has a problem with geese." Her smile turned quizzical. "Thank you for being so accommodating, Lillian. I expected you to make a fuss about the betrothal. — Lisa Kleypas

The world was beautiful, the world was particolored, strange and quizzical ... Meaning and essence were not somewhere behind things, they were inside things, in everything. — Hermann Hesse

Beginning at her shoulders, he skimmed a touch down her arms until he clasped her hands in his. He took and lifted them to the level of her torso, then fitted her palms over her own pale, smooth breasts.

"Hold these for me," he said.

Then he reclined to the pillow, once again lacing his hands beneath his head.

She gave him a quizzical look. Then she turned that quizzical expression on her own breasts, plumping them lightly in her hands. "What am I to do with them?"

"Whatever feels good."

"And you're just going to lie there and watch?"

He nodded.

Her brow wrinkled. "Truly. This is something men fantasize about?"

"With regularity. — Tessa Dare

I'm just quizzical about how things work and why things are. — William Shatner

The quizzical expression of the monkey at the zoo comes from his wondering whether he is his brother's keeper, or his keeper's brother. — Evan Esar

It's no fair," I said.
He looked at me with a quizzical look in his eyes and tilted his head to the side.
"You get to touch me, but I can't touch you."
His smile was slow and sly. "Good. I don't want to share this moment. Not even with you. I'm going to be purely selfish right now, Katie. I've been longing to touch you like this since that first night you stayed here. This is my turn. Your turn can wait. — Cambria Hebert

I will protect you," she promised the Bosendorfer inside. "I won't let you down."
Sophie gave her a quizzical look.
"Bastards better not hurt my piano," Miranda replied.
"That's what you're worried about right now? What about your boyfriend? — Dianne Sylvan

Cabel gives her a quizzical look. I am totally not getting enough attention here. — Lisa McMann

In high school, I could recognize extremes of emotion. I knew enough to run if a guy came yelling and screaming at me with a baseball bat. But a girl with a subtle expression on her face ... was she smiling at me? Laughing? Quizzical and curious? I had no idea. That led to a lot of awkward interactions and years of loneliness. — John Elder Robison

How do you always know just what to say?" I ask.
His laugh rumbles through me. "Practice, I guess."
I pull back and give him a quizzical look.
"I spent three years imagining what I would say to you if you were mine," he says, tugging me close.
"I should hope I know what to say now that I've got you. — Tera Lynn Childs

Oh, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Slaying a villain in the service of your king is the stuff of legends and what heroes are made of." [Fanen told Myron]
"It didn't feel very heroic. It made me sick. I don't even know why I ... no, that's a lie. I really have to stop doing that." [Myron said]
"Doing what?"
"Lying. ( ... ) It's evidence of self loathing. You see, when you are so ashamed of your actions, thoughts, or intentions, you lie to hide it rather than accept yourself for who you really are. The idea of how others see you becomes more important than the reality of you.
"It's like when a man would rather die than be thought of a coward. His life is not as important to him as his reputation. In the end, who is the braver? The man who dies rather than be thought of as a coward or the man who lives willing to face who he really is?" [Myron finished]
"I'm sorry, you lost me there" Fanen said with a quizzical look. — Michael J. Sullivan

You would be purely ornamental," Evie replied, giggling.
"Ah, well, I suppose there's some value in that. God help me if I should ever lose my looks."
"I wouldn't mind."
He gave her a quizzical smile. "What?"
"If ... " Evie paused, suddenly embarrassed. "If anything happened to your looks ... if you became ... less handsome. Your appearance wouldn't matter to me. I would still ... " She paused and finished hesitantly, " ... want you as my husband." Sebastian's smile faded slowly. He gave her a long, intent stare, her wrist still clasped in his hand. Something strange crossed his expression ... an undefinable emotion wrought of heat and vulnerability. — Lisa Kleypas

Arms wrapped around him, she kissed him, halting the flow of his words. He decided he would allow the kiss, but since he couldn't make her naked here, he had to stop it. "Why did you change your face, Lily?"
Liliana lifted her hands to her face at that quizzical question, terrified her father had cast a final vengeful spell. "Is it very bad?" she whispered to the man who held her in arms of steel.
"I suppose I'll get used to it," he muttered, then kissed her again using his tongue and squeezing her bottom - as if his brothers and sister, and other people, weren't standing right there.
An instant later, she decided she didn't care. — Nalini Singh

What would happen," Zeitoun asked the captain, "if you and I went below the deck, and just went to our bedrooms and went to sleep?"
The captain gave him a quizzical look and answered that the ship would most certainly hit something
would run aground or into a reef. In any event, disaster.
"So without a captain, the ship cannot navigate."
"Yes," the captain said, "What's your point?"
Zeitoun smiled. "Look above you, at the stars and moon. How do the stars keep their place in the sky, how does the moon rotate around the earth, the earth around the sun? Who's navigating?"
The captain smiled at Zeitoun. He'd been led into a trap.
"Without someone guiding us," Zeitoun finished, "wouldn't the stars and moon fall to earth, wouldn't the oceans overrun the land? Any vessel, any carrier of humans, needs a captain, yes?"
The captain was taken with the beauty of the metaphor, and let his silence imply surrender. — Dave Eggers

Her eyebrows were so blonde they were almost invisible, making it difficult for her to look angry, apologetic or quizzical. — Joe Dunthorne

Suppose 'Heaven' and 'Hell' are just other universes."
"Just other universes," Eliza repeated, smiling. "And the Big Bang was just an explosion."
Dr. Chaudhary chuckled. "Is another universe bigger or smaller than the idea of God? Does it matter? If there is a sphere where 'angels' dwell, is it a matter of semantics, whether we choose to call it Heaven?"
"No," Eliza replied, swiftly and firmly, a bit to her own surprise. "It isn't a matter of semantics. It's a matter of motive."
"I beg your pardon?" Dr. Chaudhary gave her a quizzical look. Something in Eliza's tone had hardened.
"What do they want?" she asked. "I think that's the bigger question. They came from somewhere." There is another universe. "And if that somewhere has nothing to do with 'God' " - It doesn't. - "then they're acting on their own behalf. And that's scary. — Laini Taylor

Everyone is after me to exercise, get in shape, play football, rush about, even go swimming and flying.
Fair enough.

Everyone is after me to take it easy. They all make doctor's appointments for me, eyeing me in that quizzical way.
What is it?

Everyone is after me to take a trip, to come in, to leave, not to travel, to die and, alternatively, not to die
It doesn't matter. — Pablo Neruda

Some fish were jumping up the beach and into the tree, which struck me as an odd thing for a fish to do, but I tried not to be judgmental about it. I was feeling pretty raw about my own species, and not much inclined to raise a quizzical eyebrow at others. The fish could play about in trees as much as they liked if it gave them pleasure, so long as they didn't try and justify themselves or tell each other it was a malign god who made them play in trees. — Douglas Adams

God help me if I should ever lose my looks."
"I wouldn't mind."
He gave her a quizzical smile. "What?"
"If..." Evie paused, suddenly embarrassed. "If anything happened to your looks... if you became... less handsome. Your appearance wouldn't matter to me.I would still..." She paused and finished hesitantly, "...want you as my husband."
Sebastian's smile faded slowly. He gave her a long, intent stare, her wrist still clasped in his hand. Something strange crossed his expression... an undefinable emotion wrought of heat and vulnerability. When he answered, his voice was strained from the effort to sound cavalier. "Without a doubt, you're the first one who's ever said that to me. — Lisa Kleypas

I don't believe she'll be available for the rest of the day," Gabriel said.
"No? Is she in Velora, perhaps? I could go to the school and meet with her there."
"No, she's not in Velora."
Raphael's voice took on a note of concern. "Is she ill, then? I hope not. Is it a fever?"
"No, not a fever - I mean, she's not ill at all. She's just unavailable."
"Raphael's face took on a quizzical expression. "She has not been locked in her room, has she? Really, Gabriel - — Sharon Shinn

You busy?" she asked.
He gave her a crooked grin, "Right now I'd say I'm completely engaged."
She smiled demurely. "But I want to take you to my secret place."
Bryce loosened his grip on her, giving her a full view of the quizzical, playful look on his face. "Is that a come-on? Because I'm way past ready to go to your secret place. — Tracy March

Miss Moneypenny would have been desirable but for eyes which were cool and direct and quizzical. — Ian Fleming