Ruff Quotes & Sayings

We know the pain the president has caused our society and his family and his friends, but we know, too, how much the president has done for this country. — Charles Ruff

Are you the government?"
He seemed surprised by the question. "Does the government fight evil?"
I thought about it. For some reason, the first thing that came to mind wasn't the FBI or the justice system, but my last trip to the DMV. "Well," I said, "it can."
"Lots of things can fight evil," True replied. "Cinderblocks, for example
if a Cinderblock had fallen in Josef Stalin's crib, the twentieth century might have been a bit more pleasant.( ... ) — Matt Ruff

Keep your head up, your chin high, and your eyes open for the little miracles occuring around you ... because trust me they are there, they are just waiting to be uncovered like a diamond on the ruff — Terrin White

I'm sayng people can be real creative when it comes to ducking resposibility"
Mr Fox, talking about Mr Jeckyl & Mr Hyde — Matt Ruff

It's north and south pole. When you win you feel great, but when you lose it, it's like you've lost 10 games in a row. — Lindy Ruff

But stories are like people, Atticus. Loving them doesn't make them perfect. You try to cherish their virtues and overlook their flaws. The flaws are still there, though. But you don't get mad. — Matt Ruff

I think I definitely want to blame my parents on this one. One of the things about having a minister for a father, you do tend to develop an irreverent streak. Kinda goes with the territory. And Dad was as bad as I am, really . — Matt Ruff

I received my training at an art academy, so what I produce is art. That's what is artistic about my photographs. — Thomas Ruff

As a Protestant minister's son I am partial to apocalypses ... — Matt Ruff

Well, it all started when I figured out that the janitor at my high school was the Angel of Death ... — Matt Ruff

That's the horror, the most awful thing: to have a child the world wants to destroy and know that you're helpless to help him. Nothing worse than that. Nothing worse. — Matt Ruff

Kids without dads are desperate and jealous. Those with dads can be uppity and sharp. — Shawn Stewart Ruff

The only conduct that merits the drastic remedy of impeachment is that which subverts our system of government or renders the president unfit or unable to govern. — Charles Ruff

Photographs are still always depictions, it's just that for my generation the model for the photograph is probably not reality any more, but images we have of that reality. — Thomas Ruff

I'd rather have a 16, as in Stanley Cup playoff wins. — Lindy Ruff

Described the Internet as a series of intestines, laid out by a goatherd's son, spewing bile at both ends — Matt Ruff

She decided to sleep with him and get it over with. It was the only way. He had become an annoying jingle, striking in the shower, or at work, or just as she was falling asleep. She had to at least kiss him deeply and completely, in a way that left nothing behind. So she could move on. So she could stop imagining it. She couldn't keep losing herself to the jingle. It was impairing her ability to function. — Max Barry

Like a pendulum my life swung between fairytales and nightmares. — K.S. Ruff

Kadyn groaned. "I cannot believe this. I'm on lockdown over here, Patrick. I can't leave."

"I know," Patrick responded. "I've seen the news." Patrick lowered his voice to a whisper. "You don't think there's a connection, do you?"

Kadyn's eyes locked on Phil's as he collapsed into the chair across from Phil's desk. "Kri has a stalker with terrorist connections, the Pentagon has been peppered with bombs, and Kri's gone missing. Of course there's a connection. — K.S. Ruff

Kimme and Dan joined us as they returned from their stroll along the beach. "Look what I found," Kimme announced as she dumped a pile of seashells out on the sand.
I smiled at Kimme as she sifted through her treasure. Then I thought about the treasures I had found. My eyes filled with tears as I examined each of my friends in turn. — K.S. Ruff

It is through that brokenness that we find courage and strength. It is what empowers us to do great things. — K.S. Ruff

I couldn't stop thinking of all the tragedies, the heartache, and pain that life has thrown our way. We ended up together, despite all the obstacles and frankly dismal odds. But what if God intended it that way? Man has been broken since the Garden of Eden, but we were never meant to be broken apart. We were meant to be broken together until He comes for us. — K.S. Ruff

There's me, Gurth, Dotti, Grenn an' about a hunnerd shrews. If'n we wants to lie 'round for a day or two then you'll find yore prob'ly outvoted!"
Lord Brocktree's eyes told the otter that he was not about to have his decision overruled. Swinging forth his battle blade, he stuck it quivering into the ground. "Lets's be reasonable about this, friend. Let me explain the rules. One Badger Lord carries two hundred votes and his sword carries another hundred. Agreed?"
Ruff looked from the sword to the badger. Sunlight gleamed from the blade lighting Brocktree's eyes with a formidable gleam. He smiled nervously at his huge friend. "Reason, that's wot I likes, mate. Vote carried. We go after brekkist tomarrer! — Brian Jacques

The people have to know what my portraits are like in order to behave in such a way that the result is one of my portraits. — Thomas Ruff

It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. — Howard Ruff

I settled on the floor and whispered to Sam, "I want you to listen to me, if you can." I leaned the side of my face against his ruff and remembered the golden wood he had shown me so long ago. I remembered the way the yellow leaves, the color of Sam's eyes, fluttered and twisted, crashing butterflies, on their way to the ground. The slender white trunks of the birches, creamy and smooth as human skin. I remembered Sam standing in the middle of the wood, his arms stretched out, a dark, solid form in the dream of the trees. His coming to me, me punching his chest, the soft kiss. I remembered every kiss we'd ever had, and I remembered every time I'd curled in his human arms. I remembered the soft warmth of his breath on the back of my neck while we slept.
I remembered Sam. — Maggie Stiefvater

My ultimate authority would be the school librarian Mrs. Greenbacher. — Shawn Stewart Ruff

Coming from Ruff Ryders, there would be, like, 30 guys in the studio at once, and then me, trying to do my own thing. — Eve

You cannot explain the whole world in one photograph. Photography pretends. You can see everything that's in front of the camera, but there's always something beside it. — Thomas Ruff

See, you don't wanna be a Jew. Too much work--there's a lot of holidays but it's even more work. It's sanctioned oppression, it's God's tyranny. — Shawn Stewart Ruff

JENKINS AND VIRGIL walked back up the valley to the Ruff house, and found Muddy inside, tootling on a black electric guitar, a complex — John Sandford

You wouldn't cancel your insurance policy in the middle of a hurricane, and you shouldn't sell silver when it takes a tumble. Like any insurance, silver's value will pay out over time, not day by day. — Howard Ruff

He is no longer a city dweller who has even once in his life caught a ruff or seen how, on clear and cool autumn days, flocks of migrating thrushes drift over a village. Until his death he will be drawn to freedom. — Anton Chekhov

He's going to summon up one of the Elder Klansmen. — Matt Ruff

Sundays normally were hell. Or just the church pat of it, actually. It wasn't that I was afraid of God, or had anything against Him. It was just that having to be there for two to four hours made me cross, hateful, and blasphemous. Plus it seemed to me that the regulars, the good God-fearing folks, who didn't have diddly-squat, liked to pretend they had a lot to flaunt -- whereas the ones that had a whole lot showed up on holidays and funerals, in fancy cars and dressed to kill, all made possible by money they didn't tithe away every week. That's where Sunday-based faith got you -- broke and with a sore butt! — Shawn Stewart Ruff

He coiled himself neatly and waited without fidgeting, as was polite; but at length, when Majestatis showed no signs of waking - after ten minutes, or perhaps five - very nearly five - Temeraire coughed; then he coughed again, a little more emphatically, and Majestatis sighed and said, without opening his eyes, "So you are not leaving, I suppose?"
"Oh," Temeraire said, his ruff prickling, "I thought you were only sleeping, not ignoring me deliberately; I will go at once."
"Well, you might as well stay now," Majestatis said, lifting his head and yawning himself away. "I don't bother to wake up if it isn't important enough to wait for, that's all. — Naomi Novik

I'm saying people can be real creative when it comes to ducking responsibility. You — Matt Ruff

To err is human, but to be paid for it is divine — Howard Ruff

Yes, I eat nothing but shit food and coffee. So what? Guys in my line of work, there's no retirement package. Sooner or later, the fatality rate was a hundred percent. My unofficial motto: eat crap food, bed beautiful women, and slaughter as many unholy sons-of-bitches of the Midnight as I can. Life is short. Insert your favorite slogan here. — Joey Ruff

Shakespeare shook his head and sunk his chin into his ruff, making him look more owl-like than ever. I have written about other worlds often enough. I have said what I can say. There are many kinds of reality. This is but one kind. — Jeanette Winterson

She left the room, with her black-and-white kitty, Ruff, Elizabeth, Naiad and Persephone- a spotted gray-and-white shorthair- following on her heels in hopes of getting breakfast. As for her other two cats, she knew they must be out hunting rodents and birds rather than waiting to go down to the kitchens with everyone else.
Burr and old Henry, who had climbed with a stiff gait out of his basket, joined the furry entourage, tails wagging and tongues lolling as they descended the stairs. The Scotties were probably asleep in the nursery, happy to wait to see what tidbits the children would sneak them during their breakfast in another hour or two. — Tracy Anne Warren

Lord August Godwine was an odious man. Stretched around the barrel of fat was an ornate golden doublet. He wore a bright-white, linen ruff with drip marks running down its curves, and ill-fitting breeches. Atop his head sat a long, brown wig, no doubt hiding the old man's baldness. A vertical rows of curls stood in direct opposition to the gray of his scraggily, upturned mustache. — Lynn Lamb

Each evening she held his head in her hands and ran her aching fingers thru the thick ruff of fur around his neck. He burrowed against her, sighing devotion. — Meg Rosoff

You go out and obtain from your political allies and friends in the academic world to sign a letter saying that the offenses as alleged in the articles of impeachment do not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. — Charles Ruff

You believe you can make it every year. You don't think it's going to end. But the reality is that most teams, you end up in, you end up out. — Lindy Ruff

Diego considered while he stroked the thick ruff of fur around Finn's neck. "Fiction isn't lying. Everyone knows it's imaginary. It's not as if the writer's being dishonest and misleading the reader."

"Though it's still not true."

"Well...no, it's not."

"Honest lying." Finn laid his head on Diego's thigh. "I like that. — Angel Martinez

I believe that photography can only reproduce the surface of things. The same applies to a portrait. I take photographs of people the same way I would take photographs of a plaster bust. — Thomas Ruff

How do you leave someone who has been such an important part of your life for twenty-eight years, someone you love more than life itself? — K.S. Ruff

Invoking the name of Al Gaddafi cured my blue screen of death — Matt Ruff

Something else that puzzles me about other people is that a lot of them don't know their purpose in life. This usually does bother them - more than not being able to remember being born, anyway - but I can't even imagine it. Part of knowing who I am is knowing why I am, and I've always known who I am, from the first moment. — Matt Ruff

George sat on his porch, and drank his Coke and made daydreams out of the rain. He wondered about the book he would write this year, and he wondered - not too desperately - whether love would find him at last and let him rest for a time. But he smiled all the while he was thinking about it, because at the core he was happy enough just to be alive and watching the storm, and this one thing made him special. — Matt Ruff

Of course a certain number of scientists have to go mad, just to keep the tradition alive. — Matt Ruff

If I could teach my children only one thing, it would be the skill of marketing. For with that skill, they could be successful at anything they chose for the rest of their lives. — Howard Ruff

Hope emanates from you, like a warm fire brightening an otherwise depressing room. — K.S. Ruff

White people in his experience were far more transparent. The most hateful rarely bothered to conceal their hostility, and when for some reason they did try to hide their feelings, they generally exhibited all the guile of five-year-olds, who cannot imagine that the world sees them other than as they wish to be seen. — Matt Ruff

If things are the way they are, why should I try to make them look different? — Thomas Ruff

Wheresoe'er I turn my view,
All is strange, yet nothing new:
Endless labor all along,
Endless labor to be wrong:
Phrase that Time has flung away;
Uncouth words in disarray,
Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet,
Ode, and elegy, and sonnet. — Samuel Johnson

Loosely translated Der schlechte Affe hasst seinen eigenen Geruch means that people are most deeply offended by moral failings that mirror their own. — Matt Ruff

Impeachment is not a remedy for private wrongs; it's a method of removing someone whose continued presence in office would cause grave danger to the nation. — Charles Ruff

There have to be at least two copies of a photograph, otherwise it's not a photograph. — Thomas Ruff

My images are not images of reality, but show a kind of second reality, the image of the image. — Thomas Ruff

In the Novel

He described her mouth as full of ashes.
So when he kissed her finally
he was thinking about ashes

and the blacker rim just below
the edge of the ashtray,
and the faint dark rim that outlined her lips,

and the lips themselves, at the limit
of another darkness, farther
and far more interior.

Then the way the red,
paling, just outside those lines
caught fire and the pages caught

soon after that. Slowly at first,
but then all at once
at the scalloped brown corners of each;

like the ruff of an offended and darkening bird,
extended, then folded
in on itself; multiple,

stiffening, gone. — Susan Stewart

To acknowledge evil, without being consumed by it."
Penny (Mouse), in "Set this House in Order — Matt Ruff

She said "sweet boy" again, as if making a diagnosis like tooth decay or flat feet. I was embarrassed. I didn't know if I was being insulted or complimented. — Shawn Stewart Ruff

In photography, you always have both the medium and the depicted subject at the same time. — Thomas Ruff

Much of American wealth is an illusion which is being secretly gnawed away and much of it will be completely wiped out in the near future ... So what is the rest of your future? A grisly list of unpleasant events
exploding inflation, price controls, erosion of your savings (eventually to nothing), a collapse of private as well as government pension programs, and eventually an international monetary holocaust which will sweep all paper currencies down the drain and turn the world upside down. — Howard Ruff

He shook his head. "Did you tell him he should expand the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline up to Poland?"

I smiled. "Yes. Yes, I did. You should definitely expand the pipeline. Think of all the money you could make if you sold your oil to the EU. You could build a whole new children's hospital and a research center. You'd have enough money to buy real toilets for the university so women don't have to crouch over those holes in the floor." I shook my head. "I'd like to see you try that in five inch heels! — K.S. Ruff

Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if it made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious. "That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak. — J.K. Rowling

I buried my face in my hands. This wasn't a train wreck. It was a nuclear disaster. — K.S. Ruff