Sharp Pencil Quotes & Sayings

The truth is: I did want to be my dad's poem. I wanted to be his drawing, his novella, his most refined work of art. I wanted him to shape me with his love and intelligence. I wanted him to edit out my mistakes and many indulgences, with a sharp red pencil or a clean eraser. — Alysia Abbott

At first, when California started winning its water lawsuits and shutting off cities, the displaced people just followed the water-right to California. It took a little while before the bureaucrats realized what was going on, but finally someone with a sharp pencil did the math and realized that taking in people along with their water didn't solve a water shortage. — Paolo Bacigalupi

I believe every pencil has to be sharpened every now and then to stay sharp, or you dull out. So my records, I chose to speak on what black people do, what white people do, what women do, what men do. — Ice Cube

Now I will give you a piece of advice. I will tell you something that I absolutely believe you should do, and if you do not do it you will never be a witer. It is a certain truth. When your pencil is dull, sharpen it. And when your pencil is sharp, use it until it is dull again. — Mary Ruefle

Homework, I have discovered, involves a sharp pencil and thick books and long sighs. — Katherine Applegate

Healthcare is growing now at about 10 per cent per annum in the U.S. top line, versus 3 per cent for the economy. As someone with a sharp pencil and an eye for this kind of thing, this can't last. — James Chanos

All it takes is six cuts," he said near her ear. She nodded, relaxing against him as he guided her hands with precision. One deep stroke of the blade neatly removed an angled section of wood. They rotated the pencil and made another cut, and then a third, creating a precise triangular prism. "Now trim the sharp edges." They concentrated on the task with his hands still bracketed over hers, using the blade to chamfer each corner of wood until they had created a clean, satisfying point. Done. — Lisa Kleypas

People always laugh at me when I tell them I'm scared of pencils, because they can't fathom why anyone would fear a puncture wound or lead poisoning from a pencil, especially now that it's impossible to get lead poisoning since they don't actually contain lead. But those fuckers are sharp, and I have nightmares about getting cornered in a room and repeatedly stabbed with one. Somehow knives don't frighten me, even though they are the more obvious tool for both a real and imagined stabbing. — Kate Madison

I use a special tool. I make it myself; very sharp steel point and a handle like a pencil. For me it is a pencil. Maybe I have a special talent, a feeling you might say that lets me control it, to express my ideas as though I were sketching black on white. — Ugo Mochi

But that's just the way it was surviving in America's public schools. Every day was a struggle. Every day was psychological warfare, and if you didn't stay sharp, the system would grind you into human pencil shavings. — Jonathan LaPoma

There's an easy method for finding someone when you hear them scream. First get a clean sheet of paper and a sharp pencil. Then sketch out nine rows of fourteen squares each. Then throw the piece of paper away and find whoever is screaming so you can help them. It is no time to fiddle with paper. — Lemony Snicket

When we reached the stairs, I could hear somebody scream.
"should I call the police?" Prosper asked me.
"No," I said "Find a clean sheet of paper and a sharp pencil, and sketch out nine rows of fourteen squares each," and I left him gaping at me and ran up the stairs. — Lemony Snicket

The use of the right word, the exact word, is the difference between a pencil with a sharp point and a thick crayon. — Peter Marshall

Thus he always wrote using a pencil with a long, sharp but soft lead, so he couldn't here his words as they formed on the page. — Jacqueline Winspear