Tillie Quotes & Sayings

Compared to men writers of like distinction and years of life, few women writers have had lives of unbroken productivity, or leave behind a 'body of work.' Early beginnings, then silence; or clogged late ones (foreground silences); long periods between books (hidden silences); characterize most of us. — Tillie Olsen

love was simply the tenacity to make sure that the other half of your heart knew he, or she, was adored in every way. — Tillie Cole

This isn't the end. It's just a little pause in our lives. And I'll be watching over you, every single day. I'll be in your heart. I'll be in the blossom grove that we love so much, in the sun and the wind. — Tillie Cole

You can have me, solnyshko. You can have all of me. You always have, and you always will. — Tillie Cole

Don't fuckin' do shit like that again, baby," he interuppted in a raspy, hurt voice. There was no anger in is voice, just a desolate crushed roughness. "Cause I ain't wanting to be without you. You hearing me? You're my fuckin' woman. We ride this road together, no matter what gets in our way. — Tillie Cole

Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began in a great hurry; 'and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well
' 'What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking. — Lewis Carroll

Underneath the scars, the muscles, and the tattoos was a hurt and lost man. — Tillie Cole

Hey Mol.
Hey You.
You gonna give up that lucky sweet kiss?
If that's what you want.
It most definitely is. — Tillie Cole

And that is when I knew. I knew that what I was feeling was love. It had to be. Because it was all-encompassing and irrational, yet at the same time it felt so perfect and true. — Tillie Cole

It is distraction, not meditation, that becomes habitual; interruption, not continuity; spasmodic, not constant toil. — Tillie Olsen

And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total? — Tillie Olsen

Molly, a home is not a place. It's not a country or a town or a building or possession. Home is with the other half of your soul, the person who shares your grief and helps you carry the burden of loss. Home is with the person who throughout it all never gives up on you and brings you eternal happiness. That, Molly dear, is your home sweet home. — Tillie Cole

Cause scars or not, hacked-off hair or not, lash marks on your back, a fuckin' cross burned onto your stomach or not, you are perfect to me. You will always exist to me. And anything you did to yourself to fuck that up didn't work because you'll always be the most beautiful bitch I've ever seen. You'll always be the only bitch I'll ever see, period. — Tillie Cole

The soothing vocals of "Ave Maria" serenaded from the small speaker, and Austin looked at me and shrugged in embarrassment. "It makes her smile," was all he said. I lost a piece of my heart to him right then. — Tillie Cole

The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked. — Tillie Olsen

they signaled my eternal gratitude to the boy sitting silently in the dark. The boy as gifted at photography as I was at music. He was my heart. The heart freely given to me as a child. The heart that made up one half of my own. The boy who, though breaking inside, loved me so deeply that he gave me this farewell. Gave me, in the present, the dream that my future never could. My soul mate who captured moments. — Tillie Cole

My Flame, my tortured boy, had broken through the last of his defenses. He had found his voice. Flame, my always and forever, had found his song, like I had found mine. And through our love, he had finally found the courage to sing. — Tillie Cole

I looked down at Lilah, her hair around her on the pillow like a damn halo. "Baby," I rasped, you look like a fuckin' angel right now. I ain't seeing any evidence of some evil, sinful woman." Lilah's hand dropped. "That is the disguise. The devil is beautiful after all."
"Then I fuckin' want the devil, Li...I want you. — Tillie Cole

You have light within you, Styx, and I feel it shining through like the rays of the midday sun. It is beautiful. You are a good man. — Tillie Cole

It's funny. I used to look up at the stars and feel so small and unimportant. But I've come to realize that the only thing that can ever make you feel alive and important is the one person who takes you for you. — Tillie Cole

I have only ever liked one boy in my life. I have only wanted one man to have as my own. I have only ever had one dream since I was eight. Styx, the dream is you. You stole my heart fifteen yes ago and you still haven't given it back. — Tillie Cole

Be critical. Women have the right to say: This is surface, this falsifies reality, this degrades. — Tillie Olsen

For fractured souls are like magnets.
Drawn to collide into an impossible bliss..... — Tillie Cole

Mamaw also said that the best things in life die quickly, like the cherry blossom. Because something so beautiful can never last forever, shouldn't last forever. It stays for a brief moment in time to remind us how precious life is, before fading away just as quickly as it came. She said that it teaches you more in its short life than anything that is forever by your side. — Tillie Cole

The boy River had grown into Styx the man and, despite his flaws and his harshness, he was all I wanted. All I had ever wanted. — Tillie Cole

Tillie Olsen. James Joyce. Robert Stone. I must have read Updike's Rabbit, Run five times and Bellow's Herzog — Pamela Paul

We were always fated to be together. He is my everything. He is my entire world...
...Styx is my salvation. — Tillie Cole

A year and a half up that little tributary somewhere?' Tillie said. 'Good God, — Lily King

This is the whistle-stop memoir of how a lower-middle-class girl from the north of England one day changed the way she lived her life and set off on a bumpy path that ultimately led her to her own slice of the happily-ever-after pie. — Tillie Cole

For the first time in my life, I feel wanted... like I finally belong. There is nowhere on Earth I would rather be than here with you. You do not cage me, Styx. You make me soar. — Tillie Cole

And tomorrow night, my two loves-one pure yet broken and the other so dark that I now realized I didn't know him at all-they would fight to the death. — Tillie Cole

I know that I haven't powers enough to divide myself into one who earns and one who creates. — Tillie Olsen

I had learned of late that someone who appears wicked on the outside, may actually turn out to possess the kindest soul of all. Flame projected violence and hate, but when he looked upon Maddie, you could see nothing but adoration in his stare. — Tillie Cole

I think hearts beat a rhythm like a song. I think, that just like music, we're drawn to a particular melody. I heard your heart's song, and yours heard mine. — Tillie Cole

He was living, breathing poetry. Not love poetry, but the poetry which tears out your heart, rips it to shreds, pushes it back into your chest, and makes you question what the hell just obliterated your soul. — Tillie Cole

We were both just too messed up to ever be with each other in the way we needed to be. Two shooting stars that burned out too quickly, never quite reaching each other's skies. — Tillie Cole

She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others. — Tillie Olsen

A home is not a place. It's not a country or a town or a building or possession. Home is with the other half of your soul, the person who shares in your grief and helps you carry the burden of loss. Home is with the person who throughout it all never gives up on you and brings you eternal happiness. — Tillie Cole

The habits of a lifetime when everything else had to come before writing are not easily broken, even when circumstances now often make it possible for writing to be first; habits of years - responses to others, distractibility, responsibility for daily matters - stay with you, mark you, become you. The cost of discontinuity (that pattern still imposed on women) is such a weight of things unsaid, an accumulation of material so great, that everything starts up something else in me; what should take weeks take me sometimes months to write; what should take months, takes years. — Tillie Olsen

Marry me. You wanna do all this shit right. Then marry me."
"Under God's holy law?" she asked.
I shrugged. "Under a fuckin' pink unicorn's law for all I care, I don't give a shit."
"You would do this for me?"
"Baby, I've done a complete one-eighty for you. May as well shackle myself to you for life too. — Tillie Cole

Why does any human want anyone? My body recognises you as something that's good for me. My mind recognises you as someone who's right for me, and my soul recognises you as someone who is meant for me. — Tillie Cole

I want to understand you, Maddie. I want to understand your world. — Tillie Cole

I do not know how to be of help."
I felt her in my arms. "You are, just by being here," I said. "You help because you understand. No other person has ever understood me like you do." I held her close. "You understand me, and I get you. — Tillie Cole

It's me babe... Ain't no other man for you... but me. — Tillie Cole

Because if Styx was damned to hell, so was I. I would follow him into the fire. — Tillie Cole

because sometimes all we get are moments. There are no do-overs; whatever happens in a moment defines life - perhaps it is life. — Tillie Cole

Eventually, something or someone will come along in your life to show you that what other people think don't matter. You'll find the strength to not let what people say affect you in quite the same way. — Tillie Cole

Not to have an audience is a kind of death. — Tillie Olsen

My mama's white and my papa is black. I'm your worst fucking nightmare, — Tillie Cole

But none of them are you." Luka pointed to his eye again. "We match. Why would I want anyone else? Nobody else if you. Long brown hair, blue eyes and tanned skinned beautiful you. — Tillie Cole

Tillie studied her mother's face. The face which had seen thirty-seven years of life. Twenty-one years of marriage. The birth of ten babies. The death of one. — Deeanne Gist

Literature is a place for generosity and affection and hunger for equals - not a prizefight ring. We are increased, confirmed in our medium, roused to do our best, by every good writer, every fine achievement. Would we want one good writer or fine book less? The sense of writers being pitted against each other is bred primarily by the workings of the commercial marketplace, and by critics lauding one writer at the expense of another while ignoring the existence of nearly all. — Tillie Olsen

Better mankind born without mouths and stomachs than always to worry about money to buy, to shop, to fix, to cook, to wash, to clean. — Tillie Olsen

A toast... to taking a chance, because that chance taken may be the very path that leads you to your happily ever after. — Tillie Cole

You're not the only one who feels like splitting when times get rough, baby, but from now on, I won't let you run anywhere if I'm not right there running beside you. — Tillie Cole

But now, when he smiles at you, his eyes smile too — Tillie Cole

It is a long Baptism into the seas of humankind, my daughter. Better immersion and in pain than to live untouched. Yet how will you sustain? — Tillie Olsen

What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness? — Tillie Olsen

Not at all, Shakespeare, but hear this. I'm gonna fuck you, but I'm also gonna make love to you. I'm gonna own every goddamn piece of your soul, and I'm never gonna let you go. You're gonna scream my name over and over until it's permanently lodged in your friggin' throat. You're not gonna be just a fuck to me, Mol - you're gonna be my fuckin' salvation! — Tillie Cole

He explains, the times where there is only a single set of footprints were not when He walked beside them, but instead, when He carried them. — Tillie Cole

No talking baby," I whispered as my lips closed in on hers. "I'm gonna kiss you now and I'm gonna show you how fuckin' good it feels. — Tillie Cole

He was my very own forbidden fruit, one of which I had to keep far far away. — Tillie Cole

For believers in true, epic, soul-shattering love. This one's for you. — Tillie Cole

A fucking pint-sized warrior. — Tillie Cole

Every woman who writes is a survivor. — Tillie Olsen

He kissed me until there was no part of me that didn't know who it belonged to. He kissed me until my heart again fused with his - two halves of one whole. — Tillie Cole

I had a choice," he argued. Then, with a surprising tenderness, he pressed three light kisses along my neck. When he raised his head, he said, "I chose to take you. I chose to hold you close." He inhaled. "I chose to make you mine. — Tillie Cole

Styx was sin; Rider was peace. — Tillie Cole

I want you to show me what being with a man should be like. What giving my body and soul to you should be like. — Tillie Cole

I am just so impossibly happy. Before you I was vacant of love. Now I am replete. Before you I lived without hope. Now I am inspired. Before you I was broken. Now I am whole."
"Lilah," I rasped, fighting a fucking lump in my throat at her words. I tapped over my heart with my fist and said, "You're in here, Li. You're fuckin' always in here. — Tillie Cole

For never was a truer story of love conquering woe than this of Molly Juliet and her Romeo. — Tillie Cole

That's because we were never apart. Since we were kids, we were one. It has always been that way. We found a way back to each other, my love."
Luka's eyes bored into mine, a flare of possession in their glare. "And will always be that way," he said assertively. "I'm never losing you again. — Tillie Cole

More than in any other human relationship, overwhelmingly more, motherhood means being instantly interruptible, responsive, and responsible — Tillie Olsen

Fucking was easy. It was this intimacy between two people that destroyed your heart so you couldn't see anything else but the bitch before you, giving you something you never knew you even needed. — Tillie Cole

I had no idea how to live a day without her next to me. How to breathe without her by my side. — Tillie Cole

Just like your picture, Maddie. I'm holding you just like your sketch. — Tillie Cole

Time granted does not necessarily coincide with time that can be most fully used. — Tillie Olsen

Not everybody feels religion the same way. Some it's in their mouth, but some it's like a hope in their blood, their bones. — Tillie Olsen

Lighting does occasionally strike and occasional the result isn't a corpse. — Tillie Olsen

required position — Tillie Cole

Writers in a profit making economy are an exploitable commodity whose works are products to be marketed, and are so judged and handled. — Tillie Olsen

Why be miserable when you can be happy? It's an obvious choice to me. — Tillie Cole

I could not live by literature if only to begin with, because of the slow maturing of my work and its special character. — Tillie Olsen

It takes an awfully good man ... to beat no man at all. - Tillie — Tamera Alexander

I t-tried to stay away, do the right thing. B-because I ain't no go for you. But f*uck, I want you so b-bad I feel like I- I c-can't breathe. Can't p-push you away n-no more. Need to have you c-close. — Tillie Cole

Luka had a kind smile and the most beautiful dark-brown eyes. But it was Luka's upper left Iris smudged with a small splash of blue that made our mothers think we were destined to be. Mama said God placed a piece of my eye within his so we would always know we shared one soul. — Tillie Cole

Live free, ride free, die free. — Tillie Cole

I love you, Li. You're mine. My woman. My property. My fuckin' old lady...my fuckin' forever. — Tillie Cole

I thought about you often, the boy behind the fence, the boy on the outside...the boy who stole my first and only kiss — Tillie Cole

We are Flame and Maddie. And we have survived. — Tillie Cole

Maybe we're like the cherry blossom, Rune. Like shooting stars. Maybe we loved too much too young and burned so bright that we had to fade out." She pointed behind us, to the blossom grove. "Extreme beauty, quick death. We had this love long enough to teach us a lesson. To show us how capable of love we truly are. — Tillie Cole

But I didn't bother looking up. What the fuck were the stars and moon, when I had her? I couldn't take my eyes off her. I could barely fucking breathe. — Tillie Cole

I get so lonely that at times, I literally think it might kill me. — Tillie Cole

I came to college to study, Cass, not to whore myself out to drunken frat boys!"
She gaffawed. "Whatever, darlin', you won't be thinking of studying when your ankles are wrapped 'round some stud's neck as he wears you like a necklace, tickling your belly button from the inside! — Tillie Cole

He had taken a piece of my tainted soul...of my heart...and made him a part of me. He was in my every cell, my conscience. He was simply part of me. — Tillie Cole

It only took Romeo one look at Juliet and his fate was sealed. Maybe I'm just like my namesake, and maybe you're just like yours. — Tillie Cole

We're star crossed, Shakespeare. Fateful star-crossed lovers. We have a lifetime to get to know each other, unlike our namesakes. I'll makes sure we get our happily ever after. — Tillie Cole

You are in my heart. You are in my scarred soul. — Tillie Cole

When you're near, my heart doesn't sigh, it soars, — Tillie Cole

My name is Valentin Belrov. I have a sister called Inessa Belrov. I have a love called Zoya Kostava. They are being held captive. I have to set them free! — Tillie Cole