Standby Quotes & Sayings

When in doubt, I can stare blankly. The rubber face. There's only so many ways you can stare incredulously at the camera and tilt an eyebrow, but that's your old standby: What would Buster Keaton do? — Jon Stewart

Some people standby you in your darkest hour while others walk away; only a select few march towards you and become even closer friends. — Jeffrey Archer

Any movie about cult figure Charles Manson needs lots of sex, drugs and blood. But as John Roecker discovered while filming his first feature
screening Friday and Saturday only at the Avalon
the key to amping up the gore is an old standby: puppets. — John Roecker

Here's what I want from a book, what I demand, what I pray for when I take up a novel and begin to read the first sentence: I want everything and nothing less, the full measure of a writer's heart. I want a novel so poetic that I do not have to turn to the standby anthologies of poetry to satisfy that itch for music, for perfection and economy of phrasing, for exactness of tone. Then, too, I want a book so filled with story and character that I read page after page without thinking of food or drink because a writer has possessed me, crazed with an unappeasable thirst to know what happens next. — Pat Conroy

The worst way of flying, I think, is standby. It never works. That's why they call it standby. You end up standing there going, 'Bye!' — Jerry Seinfeld

It is the mind's job to protect and take care of you, to solve your problems and make sure you're safe. So, if you feel a surge of emotional upset, it moves into action, trying to help, looking for the source of the upset - for the problems - and generating solutions.
Under these conditions, the key to getting the mind to go on standby - to stilling the mind's compulsive thinking - lies in recognizing, accepting, and working with the emotional upset. Once you address the emotional undercurrent, once it is no longer churning inside you, the mind can switch off and quite literally leave you in peace. — Sharon Rose Summers

I hit you. Won't that make you go away? What else can I do?" he snarled. He'd fallen back on his old standby, anger.
"I'm not going away, Cole, so maybe we can cut out the assaults in the future. You don't want me to go away. I know that. You love me, Cole. That's the feeling that makes you so angry." She'd sighed and looked at the ceiling. "You don't know what to do with it, because the people you've loved in the past caused you pain. That's what you think love is. Pain."
She'd looked at his face until he met her eyes. They were still green.
"But, Cole, I love you. Have I hurt you? Ever?"
Cole had to shake his head. She hadn't. Not once.
"I'm showing you what to do with love, Cole." She stood and held out her arms.
A hug. A simple hug he didn't have to earn by throwing a chair. Human contact that wasn't required because he was trying to hurt someone. She still trusted him. She still saw something in him. — Debra Anastasia

It was the job of people like me to make up reasons, to spin a plausible yarn. And it's amazing what people will believe. Heavy selling out of the Middle East was an old standby. Since no one ever had any clue what the Arabs were doing with their money or why, no story involving Arabs could ever be refuted. So if you didn't know why the dollar was falling, you shouted out something about Arabs. — Michael Lewis

Let me just say this right now, in case there's any confusion in 2016: If you're a white person and you have references on standby to verify that you're allowed to say the N-word, you are probably the last person on planet Earth who should be saying nigga. — Phoebe Robinson

Given my swimmingly fetching cultural milieu, getting used to this bleeding business took quite a while. In the meantime, I fervently asked people why the hell this happened to us girls. Various sources consistently informed me that it was (big sigh) "just part of being a woman" (big sigh), or the good ol' standby curse we inherited from Eve. — Inga Muscio

Claire lunged toward her desk. She opened the drawer. Lydia's file was still hidden inside. Claire's relief was so pronounced that she wanted to cry. She touched her fingers to her cheek. She was crying. Her tear ducts were on constant standby for anything that would send them over. Instead of giving in to it, Claire shut the drawer. She wiped her eyes. She stood up. She straightened her shirt as she made her way to the kitchen. — Karin Slaughter

IMAGINE YOU ARE Siri Keeton. You wake in an agony of resurrection, gasping after a record-shattering bout of sleep apnea spanning one hundred forty days. You can feel your blood, syrupy with dobutamine and leuenkephalin, forcing its way through arteries shriveled by months on standby. The body inflates in painful increments: blood vessels dilate, flesh peels apart from flesh, ribs crack in your ears with sudden unaccustomed flexion. Your joints have seized up through disuse. You're a stick man, frozen in some perverse rigor vitae. You'd scream if you had the breath. — Peter Watts

What about the old standby of kicking a guy in the groin?"
"Try to."
Love to ... — Kresley Cole

I never had the slightest desire to be a major league manager, and all knew it. But Ban Johnson, Bob Hedges, and Jimmy McAleer persuaded me that the Browns were in a sort of a jam, and it was up to me, as an old standby, to do what I could. — Bobby Wallace

No matter where I am, especially when I'm on tour around the country, Caesar salad is my standby. In a random city and eating in random to-go restaurants, you're kind of scared about trying things, but you can always count on a Caesar salad. — Sasha Cohen

Sorrow comes with so many defense mechanisms. You have your shock, your denial, your getting wasted, your cracking jokes, and your religion. You also have the old standby catchall
the blind belief in fate, the whole "things happening for a reason" drill.
But my personal favorite defense has always been anger, with its trusty offshoots of self-righteous indignation, bitterness, and resentment. — Emily Giffin

The relationship between a perfect cup of coffee and a writer is just like the couple who always standby and feel proud of being committed to each other. — Himmilicious

Sally Field taught me to do needlepoint on 'Steel Magnolias,' and a standby painter on 'Pelican Brief' taught me to knit. I'm pretty good at it now! — Julia Roberts

Perhaps violence, like pornography, is some kind of an evolutionary standby system, a last-resort device for throwing a wild joker into the game? — J.G. Ballard

"What is honor?" "Honor is what no man can give ya. And none can take away. Honor is man's gift to himself." "Do women have it?" "Women have a heart of honor, and we cherish and protect it in 'em. We must never mistreat a woman or malign a man, or standby and see another do so." "How do you know you have it?" "Never worry on the gift of it. It grows in ya' and speaks to ya'. All ya' need do is listen" ... — Rob Roy MacGregor

Everyone had their levers. Often it was greed. Greed was a reliable old standby. Sometimes it was pride. That was Groat's lever. He desperately wanted promotion; you could see it in his eyes. Find the lever, and then it was plain sailing. — Terry Pratchett

I have an extra set of eyelashes because you never know. I could cry or laugh, or it could be windy, and I'll need a standby pair. — Niecy Nash

*Always schedule enough time between connections. I always like to give myself at least two hours between flights. It's much easier to sit in the terminal for three hours than it is to sit on standby for two days because you missed your connection. — Morgan Carver Richards

My skin is a bit sensitive, so Cetaphil is my standby. I also use toner and a light layer of moisturizer - I use a lot of Kiehl's and other natural brands. — Claire Danes

Part of the redesign of FEMA is that they have so many people on standby, whether it is a retired nurse or a doctor who will take time off to go exactly where they are needed. — Ginny Brown-Waite

Greetings. My name is Don Tillman and I am a suspected paedophile. I wish to put myself on standby for an assessment. — Graeme Simsion

One of the speechless situations is when the people you admire, people you follow, people you look forward to standby you and support you, people you are dedicated towards and people whom you consider self made and respectable, stand helpless in front of you when others cut you into pieces.
They keep standing, they fumble, they are helpless.
And you're just disappointed — Himmilicious

If I'd known you'd look so beautiful, I would've gotten dressed up," Loki teased when Finn and Thomas brought him into the War Room. Finn shoved him into a seat unnecessarily hard,but Loki didn't protest.
"Don't get familiar with the Princess, Duncant told him,giving him a stony look.
"My apologies," Loki said. "I wouldn't want to get familiar with anyone."
Loki looked about the room. Duncan, Finn, Thomas, Tove,the Chancellor, and I were the ones set to meet Sara. The rest of the house was on standby, should we need them,but we didn't want to look like we were ambushing Sara when she arrived.
"Did you change your mind and decide to execute me?" Loki asked,looking us over. "Because you all look like you're going to a funeral."
"Not now," I said, fidgeting with my bracelet and watching the clock.
"Then when,Princess?" Loki asked. "Because we only have about fifteen minutes until I leave."
I rolled my eyes and ignored him. — Amanda Hocking

At some point the rhetoric runs out, and we have to ask ourselves, 'Are we simply going to standby while somebody's rhetoric is good, but their actions are so lousy?' Are we going to stand up for that? — Matt Gonzalez

I'd like to have James Brown as my singer. I already have the best drummer, Tommy Clufetos. I've jammed a bunch with John Entwistle, and it was like a musical orgy. That guy is a living, breathing, grunting rhythm. For horns, let's go with the Stax/Volt guys, and I'm going to have Steve Cropper on standby just in case I want a rhythm guitarist. — Ted Nugent

Secretary of state is far superior to vice president, because it's involved in continuously solving problems and making policy and not being on standby. — Gloria Steinem

Yeah, he'd been trained to be good with details, but once his dick started working, his brain generally shifted to standby. — Pamela Clare