Sidelong Glance Quotes & Sayings

You may have noticed that people in bus stations, if they know you also are alone, will glance at you sidelong, with a look that is both piercing and intimate, and if you let them sit beside you, they will tell you long lies about numerous children who are all gone now, and mothers who were beautiful and cruel, and in every case they will tell you that they were abandoned, disappointed, or betrayed--that they should not be alone, that only remarkable events, of the kind one reads in a book, could have made their condition so extreme. And that is why, even if the things they say are true, they have the quick eyes and active hands and the passion for meticulous elaboration of people who know they are lying. Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever been otherwise. Loneliness is absolute discovery. — Marilynne Robinson

The sidelong glance is what you depend on. — Robert Frost

Elphaba gave him a sidelong glance. "I think you enjoy going to school, Nick. Are you sure canoodling with teenage girls isn't your ulterior motive?"
"Perish the thought, Elphaba, perish the thought. I'm too old for that." Nick winked. "By about eight hundred years. — Abramelin Keldor

I missed you."
There was a pause. Then Tariq turned to her with a half-grinning, half-grimacing look of distaste. "What's the matter with you?"
How many times had she, Hasina, and Giti said those same three words to each other, Laila wondered, said it without hesitation, after only two or three days of not seeing each other? I missed you, Hasina. Oh, I missed you too. In Tariq's grimace, Laila learned that boys differed from girls in this regard. They didn't make a show of friendship. They felt no urge, no need, for this sort of talk. Laila imagined it had been this way for her brothers too. Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.
"I was trying to annoy you," she said.
He gave her a sidelong glance. "It worked."
But she thought his grimace softened. And she thought that maybe the sunburn on his cheeks deepened momentarily. — Khaled Hosseini

You've been going for hunts," Tamlin said at last, "but you really don't have any interest in hunting." He cast me a sidelong glance. "No wonder you two never catch anything." No — Sarah J. Maas

The earnest worker soon learns his own weakness. If you seek humility, try hard work; if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

They desecrate Riora's sacred temple! She will be enraged."
"Oh, gods, look at the marble. We are all beyond doomed."
"Somebody put a plant in front of it! — Kresley Cole

When the media defines something, you have to question: Is it the definition that you want applied to your culture? I'm trying to determine who's leaving the legacy, and if the legacy that is being left is a positive one. — Tim Reid

We all have secrets, Beth."
"Not like mine."
"Okay, I'll tell you one of my secrets and make it fair."
She gave me a sidelong glance. "You don't have to do that."
"I know. Strangely, I want to tell you all my secrets. — Pamela Sparkman

We're all simultaneously separated and connected by our devices, staring into our little screens, and also hungry for experience and community. — Dani Shapiro

Only once did McMurdo see him, a sly, little gray-haired rat of a man, with a slinking gait and a sidelong glance which was charged with malice. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Shay opened his palm, a Hershey's Kiss rested in his hand.
Mason winked at him. 'Welcome to the table, man. I hope you survive.'
'I think I'll manage.' He turned the silver-wrapped chocolate in his fingers. 'Thanks for this. There's nothing quite like a really good kiss.'
His mouth crinkled in a smile and he cast me a sidelong glance, making my toes curl. — Andrea Cremer

Turning a lazy smile on her, he inquired, "All right?" "Fine, now that I'm not in danger of toppling out of the curricle!" She cast him a sidelong glance and caught his snicker. "You meant to terrify me!" "Never!" he defended himself, the portrait of innocence. "I suggested you hold on, did I not?" Exasperated, — Sarah MacLean

And that reminds me, Mama! I have just intercepted another of that puppy's floral offerings to my sister. This billet was attached to it. (Charles) — Georgette Heyer

The man looks the world full in the face, as if it were made for his uses and fashioned to his liking. The woman takes a sidelong glance at it, full of subtlety, even of suspicion. Had they both worn the same clothes, it is possible that their outlook might have been the same. — Virginia Woolf

What are "whinwans"?' 'Have you never heard that word before?' 'No.' 'That's a first. I suppose it means the creeps.' 'What's its origin?' 'I've no idea, it's just what people say round here. Tell you what, that can be your next bit of homework.' 'The etymology of "whinwan"?' She nodded. 'Discuss.' She gave him a sidelong glance. 'You're smiling. — Lissa Evans

Jenni spared a moment to shake her head, before following after. "So you do it."

Max gave her a sidelong glance. "Some are born to coach, some are born to do. Some of us didn't have a good soldier and a benevolent nurse to back up our sparkling smile."

"I do not sparkle. You are to shoot me if I ever sparkle. — Shanda Sharlow

Our children are going to be remarkably stubborn," he commented as they started down the main street of town. Lily tried to ignore the avid stares of passers-by. "We aren't going to have any children," she said. Some instinct caused her to lie. "My - my monthly arrived today." Caleb fell silent, and in a sidelong glance Lily saw his disappointment. She laid a hand on his arm but could not. bring herself to admit the truth. If the major believed there was no child - indeed, no possibility of a child - he might stop pursuing Lily. The sooner he gave up, the sooner she could get on with building up her homestead and finding her sisters. She bit down on her lower lip. Of course, if there was a baby growing inside her, would it be fair to let Caleb go back to Fox Chapel without ever knowing he was about to become a father? The — Linda Lael Miller

Must the women keep curtseying to me as if I were some deity?" he grumbled.
"Yes. It's due you because of your rank." An impish smile crossed her face. "You didn't even have to brandish your saber in front of them to get it. Fancy that. It must be a new experience for you."
He cast her a sidelong glance. "If you don't show me some respect, my dear wife, I'll have to brandish my ... er ... saber in front of you later when we're alone. — Sabrina Jeffries

There should be more or less of a jumble in your head or on your note paper after the first time and even after the second. Much that you will think of in connection will come to nothing and be wasted. But some of it ought to go together under one idea. That idea is the thing to write on and write into the title at the head of your paper ... One idea and a few subordinate ideas - [the trick is] to have those happen to you as you read and catch them - not let them escape you ... The sidelong glance is what you depend on. You look at your author but you keep the tail of your eye on what is happening over and above your author in your own mind and nature. — Robert Frost

Drink a bottle of French water and then step into the shower for ten minutes and you've just received the exposure equivalent of drinking a half gallon of tap water. We enjoy the most intimate of relationships with our public drinking water, whether we want to or not. — Sandra Steingraber

Leaning in, he brushed his lips on Holly's cheek, and whispered in her ear, "You okay?"
She gave him a sidelong glance. "You might not promise adventure, but you sure do deliver. — Tracy March

Well, just to dispel all the myths, Walt [Disney] was not anti-Semitic. He was not racist in any way, shape, or form. He was not frozen when his life ended. He's not in some frozen vault right now waiting to make a big comeback. — Pat Williams

That widow's peak is preposterous. God. It really makes you feel the sad dearth of widow's peaks in daily life. We could, like, use him as breeding stock to seed widow's peaks into the populace.""My god. What's with all the mating and seed talk?""I'm just saying," Zuzana said reasonably. "I'm crazy about Mik, okay, but that doesn't mean I can't do my part for the proliferation of widow's peaks. As a favor to the gene pool. You would, too, right? Or maybe ... " She shot Karou a sidelong glance. "You already have? — Laini Taylor

Magnus gave Alec a sidelong look as they climbed the rickety stairs. Alec caught the glance, and his breathing quickened; his blue eyes were bright. Alec bit his lower lip, and Magnus stopped walking. It was only a momentary hesitation. But then Alec reached out and caught his arm, fingers tight above his elbow.
'Magnus', he said in a low voice. — Cassandra Clare