Shipstead Quotes & Sayings

Her throat is tight with fear. She is afraid of how this man, this stranger, has already changed the sensation of being alive. She is afraid he will slip away. — Maggie Shipstead

She hates to disappoint him. She fears the slow, corrosive trickle of reality into his adulation. — Maggie Shipstead

I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea. — Horatio Nelson

What do you mean? (Fatima)
There's so much evil out there to protect him and others from. How can I fight for that and keep him safe simultaneously? (Stryder)
I still do not understand, milord. You are but one man with one sword to fight all the world. This is indeed a good thing. But when you are gone so too is your sword. So it seems to me that while it is important to fight the bad man, it is just as equally important to raise a good one. Raising more than one would be even better. That way when you are gone, you will leave a whole generation behind who will fight for what is right. (Fatima) — Kinley MacGregor

Female friendship was one-tenth prevention and nine-tenths cleanup. — Maggie Shipstead

As a former ballerina, I can't put down Maggie Shipstead's new book, Astonish Me. — Caitlin Moran

People spent their lives searching for something beyond the simple friction of skin on skin, but there was nothing. The void between two people could never be closed, and in trying to close it, they would only learn everything that was to be despised in the other. — Maggie Shipstead

Maggie Shipstead's prose is so graceful and muscular, so dazzling, so sure-handed and fearless, that at times I had to remind myself to breathe. Astonish Me is a treasure of small surprises. — Maria Semple

It has become a cultural norm in Jewish families for parents to bring up their children to value wealth. — H.W. Charles

Relax," Lucian said dryly. "Bricker will not leave without me. The SUV is - "
"What?" Basil asked when his brother paused with his arm half raised, shock crossing his features.
"The little shit just drove away without me," Lucian said with amazement. — Lynsay Sands

I pray you bear me henceforth from the noise and rumour of the field, where I may think the remnant of my thoughts in peace, and part of this body and my soul with contemplation and devout desires. — William Shakespeare

Flawless ... Tightly choreographed ... Shipstead gains entry into exclusive worlds and trains her opera glasses on private social rituals, as well as behind-the-scenes hanky panky ... Similar to classic ballet, the power of Astonish Me arises out of the pairing of a melodramatic storyline with scrupulously executed range of movement ... Shipstead sweeps you into this insider world of sweat, narcissism, and short-lived magic ... Transcendent. — Maureen Corrigan

Told with rare honesty, My Accidental Jihad is the story of Krista Bremer's lifelong quest for insight and understanding, a search that leads her out of the Pacific surf to journalism school in North Carolina and through the complex challenges and unexpected joys of a cross-cultural marriage and family. This book is a powerfully personal account of the courage and hard work necessary to open one's heart and keep it that way. — Maggie Shipstead

Unlike the older, more humanly shaped arts, which begin with a seed and accumulate their form organically, photography clips its substance out of an actual continuum. — John Updike

All he asked of her was basic civility and an ounce of propriety, but she was like one of her sea creatures, goaded by the slightest disturbance into puffing up and flashing warning colors. — Shipstead, Maggie

He let go, releasing her into a life of her own making. — Maggie Shipstead

Give over, big man. She is pregnant, not made of glass. Give her a bump, I promise she won't break."

Kane grinned wickedly. "Giving her a bump is what has me worried about her in the first place."

Keela's eyes shone with wonder. "I can't wait to see what you're like when she gets here; you'll have the poor kid wrapped up in bubble wrap from day one. — L.A. Casey

Good boys are nice - don't go for the bad ones! — Vanessa Hudgens

She seems distracted, the way Joan feels when Harry is away on a school trip and part of her tries to follow him clairvoyantly through his day, probing the ether for any sign of distress. — Maggie Shipstead

There is nothing wrong with you. God asks the most of those he loves best. — Julie Orringer

Prolific libraries take on an independent existence, and become living things ... We may have chosen its themes, and the general pathways along which it will develop, but we can only stand and watch as it invades all the walls of the room, climbs to the ceiling, annexes the other rooms one by one, expelling anything that gets in the way. It eliminates pictures hanging on the walls, or ornaments that obstruct its advance; it moves on with its necessary but cumbersome acolytes
stools and ladders
and forces its owner into constant reorganization since its progress is not linear and calls for ever new kinds of diviion. At the same time, it is undeniably the reflection, the twin image of its master. To anyone with the insight to decode it, the fundamental character of the librarian will emerge as one's eye travels along the bookshelves. indeed no library of any size is like another, none has the same personality. (pp. 30-31) — Jacques Bonnet

When they are alone, lying quietly, he holds her the way a child holds a stuffed animal: for comfort, for security, out of a primate's urge to cling, to close one's arms around a warm, soft object. — Maggie Shipstead

How strange it was that a dream, once realized, could quickly turn mundane. — Maggie Shipstead

What do I do?' she had asked Harry. 'What do I do now? Everything is ruined. You've ruined everything.' 'That you think that," he'd said, "is exactly the problem. — Maggie Shipstead

Marriage is difficult, perhaps the most difficult thing you can ever do, besides being a parent, but I think these two fine young people are up to the challenge. Here are two steady, responsible people who, I believe, understand the dire commitment they are about to make and will choose to keep that commitment. Because it turns out to be a choice, commitment-not some done deal. When you leave the alter tomorrow, there will still be a lifetime of choice and temptation and doubt and uncertainty in front of you. I didn't know that at my wedding. Getting married doesn't change you. Marriage changes you. — Maggie Shipstead

A voice that signaled he was being kind but not sincere. — Maggie Shipstead

Among the world's 500 largest companies, not one has completely relied on its own growth to develop. — Wang Jianlin

An airplane crossed the sky, and she imagined its interior-people packed in rows like eggs in a carton, the chemical smell of the toilets, pretzels in foil pouches, cans hiss-popping open, black oval of night sky embedded in the rattling walls. How strange that something so drab, so confined, so stifling with sour exhalations and the fumes of indifferent machinery might be mistaken for a star. — Maggie Shipstead

He finds low-level jealousy to be enlivening, pleasantly astringent. — Maggie Shipstead

With impeccable prose, dry wit, and uncommon wisdom, Ted Thompson brings to life one family's painful disappointments and powerful resilience. The Land of Steady Habits combines Austen's shrewd mastery of domestic economics with Updike's compassion for the melancholy commuter to make something elegant, fresh, and brilliant. — Maggie Shipstead

Though she would never say so, Sandy holds the opinion that mothers who keep their figures have sacrificed less than mothers who have widened and softened. — Maggie Shipstead

Whether it's a sitting president when I was an impeachment manager, or a Republican president who has taken liberties with adherence to the law, to me the standard is the same. — Bob Barr

We two alone will sing like bids i' th' cage. — William Shakespeare

No number of compliments will convince her of anything, and one of Jacob's projects in their marriage is to wean her off perfectionism. — Maggie Shipstead

This was truly advanced WASP: how to comfort a wronged wife and mother without acknowledging any misdeeds done or embarrassment caused by loved ones. — Maggie Shipstead

The flowers, the candles, the easy swing of the music, his daughter's perfectly made-up face, her artfully arranged hair, the swell of her pregnancy - it all cried out for love, for pride, for fatherly tenderness, even if Daphne would not look at him, even if she had walled herself up with her happiness and left him outside. He did not know how to make her forgive him. He would have to wait. — Maggie Shipstead

Most men I know, pissed away their fortunes. I'm the only one I know, that made a fortune pissin' — Frank Costello

Maggie Shipstead takes hold of the reader and doesn't let go. Astonish Me is a haunting, powerful novel. — Dani Shapiro

Ordinarily, her love affairs are entered into skittishly, sometimes reluctantly. She doesn't dive into bed but flutters in like a wayward moth. — Maggie Shipstead

The average Harvard freshman in 1952 would have placed in the bottom 10 percent of the incoming class by 1960. — Charles Murray