Townsend Quotes & Sayings

London life was very full and exciting [ ... ] But in London there would be no greenhouse with a glossy tank, and no apple-room, and no potting-shed, earthy and warm, with bunches of poppy heads hanging from the ceiling, and sunflower seeds in a wooden box, and bulbs in thick paper bags, and hanks of tarred string, and lavender drying on a tea-tray. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

I married two weeks after my 18th birthday, far too young, and by the time I was 23 I was a single mother of three small children, Sean, Daniel and Victoria, living in a prefab house. — Sue Townsend

[On an anarchist acquaintance:] Everything in appearance the most alarmist aunt could wish. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Truth has beauty, power, and necessity. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Laura also thought that the law had done a great deal to spoil Henry. It had changed his natural sturdy stupidity into a browbeating indifference to other people's point of view. He seemed to consider himself briefed by his Creator to turn into ridicule the opinions of those who disagreed with him, and to attribute dishonesty, idiocy, or a base motive to every one who supported a better case than he. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Actors want to be told what to do - they really do. But they also want to have an input and be recognized for that. — Stuart Townsend

Fabio Capello needs to nail his hammers to the mast. — Andy Townsend

I must have been a very strange child. I was very pretentious. Like Adrian Mole. — Sue Townsend

Democracy is not about one party dominating. — Ed Townsend

Arsenal have the wind in their sails and they need to put their foot to the floor. — Andy Townsend

The body, after all, older and wiser than soul, being first created, and, like a good horse, if given its way would go home by the best path and at the right pace. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Rouen shone in dark sunlight and a storm swept it away from my eyes and churned up the broad river with waves which pounced up like cats as our train drew out of the arches of the bridge. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

It was Saturday evening and we were in the throes of a Veronica Mars marathon (season two DVD). I decided that when I left "Ms. Townsend, Ice Princess" behind, the New Sadie was going to be like Veronica Mars. She was plucky, cute as a button and she had a smart mouth. — Kristen Ashley

Townsend shrugged. 'With all due respect to the good doctor, I highly suspect he's a moron, — Ally Carter

One cannot revoke a true happiness. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

For me as a musician, there is this weird transition thing. I mean, I love to make music and everyday that goes by I think get a little dumber, to be honest. You know when you are 21, you are like 'this is what it's all about; this is the meaning of life' and then you know you're 40 and you're like 'okay, as long as I can pee in public I am okay at this point'. — Devin Townsend

Barry Kent's father looks like a big ape and has got more hair on the back of his hands than my father has got on his entire head. — Sue Townsend

Of nothing comes nothing: springs rise not above Their source in the far-hidden heart of the mountains: Whence then have descended the Wisdom and Love That in man leap to light in intelligent fountains? — John Townsend Trowbridge

I feel domesticity just slipping off me. It is a choice. Either one can let it go or one can intensify it. The people who intensify it seem to get quite a lot of interest out of that, too, and are as preoccupied as pirates. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

The President of the United States thinks that for the Japanese opium is more dangerous than war. — Townsend Harris

With our days and nights increasingly stretched across the vastness of megacities, we've turned to these smart little gadgets to keep it all synchronized. It's no accident that the most common text message, sent billions of times a year all over the world, is "where r u? — Anthony M. Townsend

Those who spend their strength in field and factory would rather hear that their emancipation is bound to come than that it is something to be hazardously purchased by struggle and sacrifice. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

I wasn't educated. I was very lucky. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders. — Robert Townsend

I've been very influenced by folklore, fairy tales, and folk ballads, so I love all the classic works based on these things
like George Macdonald's 19th century fairy stories, the fairy poetry of W.B. Yeats, and Sylvia Townsend Warner's splendid book The Kingdoms of Elfin. (I think that particular book of hers wasn't published until the 1970s, not long before her death, but she was an English writer popular in the middle decades of the 20th century.)
I'm also a big Pre-Raphaelite fan, so I love William Morris' early fantasy novels.
Oh, and "Lud-in-the-Mist" by Hope Mirrlees (Neil Gaiman is a big fan of that one too), and I could go on and on but I won't! — Terri Windling

I do apologize for writing by hand - and so badly. I shall soon be like Helen Thomas, notoriously illegible. In her last letter only two words stood out plain: 'Blood pressure.' Subsequent research demonstrated that what she had actually written was 'Beloved friends. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Many times I've called for Marius, but there was no answer. Just the endless procession of days, months, years ... My teacher left me to my darkest lesson, that in the end, we are alone, and there is nothing but the cold, dark wasteland of eternity. — Stuart Townsend

I was really educating myself on the environment, but I didn't realize it was so connected to politics, connected to globalization. — Stuart Townsend

Chicharito must have icicles flowing through his veins — Andy Townsend

My cream and black Aga. It is the heart of the house, and people congregate around it. — Sue Townsend

I wish you could see the two cats drowsing side by side in a Victorian nursing chair, their paws, their ears, their tails complementarily adjusted, their blue eyes blinking open on a single thought of when I shall remember it's their supper time. They might have been composed by Bach for two flutes. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

The expense of a war could be paid in time; but the expense of opium, when once the habit is formed, will only increase with time. — Townsend Harris

Cooking is the most succulent of human pleasures. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Just measured my thing. It has grown one centimetre. I might be needing it soon. — Sue Townsend

I never imagined when I began writing in the early 1960s I'd become professional and my life would be transformed. — Sue Townsend

There is a period in one's life - perhaps not longer than six months - when one lives in two worlds at once ... It is the time when one has freshly learned to read. The Word, till then a denominating aspect of the Thing, has suddenly become detached from it and is perceived as a glittering entity, transparent and unseizable as a jellyfish, yet able to create an independent world that is both more recondite and more instantaneously convincing than the world one knew before. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Personally, nothing would surprise me any more. If my father announced that he was really a Russian agent or my mother ran away with a circus knife thrower, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow. — Sue Townsend

To think of losing is to lose already. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

If you don't do it excellently, don't do it at all. Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun. — Robert Townsend

I have decided to keep a full journal, in the hope that my life will perhaps seem more interesting when it is written down. — Sue Townsend

It is only for a week or two that a broken chair or a door off its hinges is recognised for such. Soon, imperceptibly, it changes its character, and becomes the chair which is always left in the corner, the door which does not shut. A pin, fastening a torn valance, rusts itself into the texture of the stuff, is irremovable; the cracked dessert place and the stewpan with a hole in it, set aside until the man who rivets and solders should chance to come that way, become part of the dresser, are taken down and dusted and put back, and when the man arrives no one remembers them as things in need of repair. Five large keys rest inside the best soup-tureen, scrupulously preserved though no one knows what it was they once opened, and the pastry-cutter is there too, little missed, for the teacup without a handle has taken its place. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

If UEFA will not embrace video technology, then we need two more officials behind the goals to help the referee. — Andy Townsend

Peter Townsend Music is the silence between the notes.. So could it be said that dance is the stillness between the steps? — Claude Debussy

We are two travelers, Roger and I. Roger's my dog-come here, you scamp! Jump for the gentleman-mind your eye! Over the table,-look out for the lamp! The rogue is growing a little old; Five years we've tramped through wind and weather, And slept out-doors when nights were cold, And ate and drank and starved together. — John Townsend Trowbridge

Denying the undeniable just makes you sound like a fool as well as a liar. — Ally Carter

The birds can fly, An' why can't I? — John Townsend Trowbridge

You are only young once. At the time it seems endless, and is gone in a flash; and then for a very long time you are old. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

I used to be the sort of boy who had sand kicked in his face, now I'm the sort of boy who watches somebody else have it kicked in their face — Sue Townsend

Noise is a pollution. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Eva said, Are you sure that it's my husband, Dr Brian Beaver, she's carrying on with? Only he's not the type.
"He's a man, isn't he?" Said Nicola. — Sue Townsend

We were created to make the impossible possible. — Vista Townsend

We had library books in our house, but not our own. So you had 14 days to read them. There would be eight books a fortnight in our house and I'd read as many of those as I could. — Sue Townsend

I couldn't think of anything to say so I kept quiet. I still can't think of anything to say so I am going to sleep. — Sue Townsend

I always write back to people who are kind enough to write to me. Actually, I don't write - I recline on my red velvet sofa with my feet on the coffee table and dictate the letters to my eldest son. — Sue Townsend

This is Sadie," he told his father, tucking a hand around Lia's waist as he introduced her by her alias of choice. "And by the door, we have Esmerelda, Erma, and Barf."
For the first time, I saw a flicker of annoyance cross Townsend Senior's face. "Barf?" He eyed Dean.
"It's short for Bartholomew," Lia lied smoothly. "Our Barf had a speech impediment as a child. — Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I think it's essential for comic writers to have a hate figure, a despot, a regime to react against, and I think Thatcher was perfect for me, I loathed everything she stood for. — Sue Townsend

Excuse me, Abigail, but whose shift did she get away during?' Townsend asked with a glare.
'Excuse me, Townsend, but who was supposed to booby-trap the doors?'
'I'm an agent of Her Majesty's Secret Service,' Townsend said, indignant. 'I do not do booby traps. — Ally Carter

Just because you may live your life in recovery, surely doesn't mean the PARTY IS OVER, Nope!, it just means you can remember what you DID LAST NIGHT!.LOL — Catherine Townsend-Lyon

If I write in my name to the agents of England and France residing in Asia and inform them that Japan is ready to make a commercial treaty with their countries, the number of steamers will be reduced from fifty to two or three. — Townsend Harris

Possessiveness cannot accept; it cannot even strike a fair bargain; it has to confer. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Men are polished, through act and speech, Each by each, As pebbles are smoothed on the rolling beach. — John Townsend Trowbridge

Belligerents always abolish war after a war. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

The President wishes the Japanese to be very prudent about the introduction of opium, and if a treaty is made, he wishes that opium may be strictly prohibited. — Townsend Harris

Rembrandt is not a painter at all. He is a creator, who creates his beings, three dimensional living beings, on a two-dimensional flat surface which acts as a mute, and enforces silence on them. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Emotions, or feelings, have a function. They tell us something. They are a signal....Anger tells us that our boundaries have been violated. Much like a nation's radar defense system, angry feelings serve as an "early warning system" telling us we're in danger of being injured or controlled. — John Townsend

If one were to include one-tenth of the remarkable people one knows, in one's fiction, no one would accept it. Real life remains one's private menagerie. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

A. MOLE'S SCONES Ingredients 4 oz flour or metric equivalent 2 oz butter or metric equivalent 2 oz sugar or metric equivalent 1 egg (eggs are still only eggs) Method Beat up all the ingredients. Make a tin greasy, throw it all in. Turn oven to number 5. Wait until scones are higher than they were. Should be 12 minutes, but keep opening oven door every 30 seconds. — Sue Townsend

I swore I'd never become some lord's brainless arm ornament and political host, but I've become far worse. I'm a glorified housekeeper and sperm donor.
-from the journal of Payton Marcus Townsend. — J.L. Langley

My second husband encouraged me to go to a writing group at our local theatre. It was my 'coming out of the closet' moment. — Sue Townsend

I thought I heard Billy sniffling and I asked him what was wrong. He said, "Mal, you haven't heard, have you?"
"Heard what?"
"Coach Bryant died this morning."
I don't remember saying another word. I don't remember hanging up the telephone or even leaving the phone booth. It was the saddest moment of my career.
I just leaned up against the aging brick wall of the coffee shop and cried. — Mal Moore With Steve Townsend

I'd worked with directors who wouldn't collaborate. Then I've also worked with directors who didn't really know what they wanted. I knew I didn't want to be either one of those guys - or girls. — Stuart Townsend

One need not write in a diary what one is to remember for ever. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Unless a man has considerable skill with and reliance in his weapon, he will not remain cool in the presence of dangerous game close by. — Townsend Whelen

Alexander assured her, 'Eva, none of us know our children. Because they are not us. — Sue Townsend

The advantages of being a postman seemed more and more dubious. It is not a congenial profession for anyone who is at all sensitive, for people visit upon the postman all their first annoyance at receiving a couple of bills when they looked for a love-letter, and if a packet is insufficiently stamped they hand over the pennies as though to a despicable bandit, too outrageous to be denied, too groveling to be feared. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

If war should break out between England and Japan, the latter would suffer much more than the former. — Townsend Harris

Two things are desired in order that intercourse may be had: First, that a minister or agent be allowed to reside at the capital. Second, that commerce between different countries be freely allowed. — Townsend Harris

Daltrey was by all accounts the toughest man in the Who; maybe the toughest man in London. Filled with blue collar attitude, he strutted around the stage, screaming out the rage of a century of London's dead end lives, roaring like a young lion trapped in a decadent, dying England. Townsend wrote prettily, daydreaming foolishly individualistic dreams of artistic expression, but it was Roger's sledghammer voice that smashed the skulls of the enemy. — Dave Marsh

You get some sleep, Abigail," Townsend told her. "I'll keep watch."
"That's very gracious of you, but being that we're on an airplane ... "
Even after the plane took off, they kept debating security perimeters and protocols. I'm pretty sure they argued for forty-five minutes about where the best place for cappuccino was near the Colosseum. — Ally Carter

For me the diamond dawns are set In rings of beauty ... — John Townsend Trowbridge

Abby must have been the one who found the safe house, because Townsend didn't like it.
"The building across the street is under construction," he snarled as soon as we'd carried our bags inside.
"The elevator has key card access, and I've hacked into the surveillance cameras from every system on the block," Abby argued. "We have a three-hundred-sixty-degree visual."
"Excellent." Townsend dropped his bag. "Now the circle can see us from every angle."
"Don't mind Agent Townsend, girls," Abby told us. "He's a glass-half-empty kind of spy."
"Also known as the good kind," he countered.
Abby huffed. — Ally Carter

said he 'would rather go without'. — Sue Townsend

I take life very seriously. I can laugh at it, because what else can you do? But it's a hard daily battle. — Sue Townsend

To keep an organization young and fit, don't hire anyone until everybody's so overworked they'll be glad to see the newcomer no matter where he sits. — Robert Townsend

Measured my 'thing'. It was eleven centimetres. — Sue Townsend

Love is the only real patriation, and without one's dear one sits in a dreary and boring exile. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

If you will observe, it doesn't take A man of giant mould to make A giant shadow on the wall; And he who in our daily sight Seems but a figure mean and small, Outlined in Fame's illusive light, May stalk, a silhouette sublime, Across the canvas of his time. — John Townsend Trowbridge

We do not wish to open your ports to foreign trade all at once. — Townsend Harris

Only two things are real to me: my love and my death. In between them, I merely exist as a scatter of senses. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Open the doors to all. Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct, and intellect. — Townsend Harris

I would like to clarify one thing about the 1970 USC game. Talk about urban legend. There have been numerous stories and documentaries about Coach going to the USC dressing room after that game and bringing Sam Cunningham back into our locker room and saying, "This is what a real football player looks like." I was there and it didn't happen. It wasn't unusual for Coach Bryant to go to a visiting locker area after a game and congratulate the other team if they beat us and he did do that after the game. But he never brought anyone back to our dressing room. — Mal Moore With Steve Townsend

The amusement she had drawn from their disapproval was a slavish remnant, a derisive dance on the north bank of the Ohio. There was no question of forgiving them. She had not, in any case, a forgiving nature; and the injury they had done her was not done by them. If she were to start forgiving she must needs forgive Society, the Law, the Church, the History of Europe, the Old Testament, great-great-aunt Salome and her prayer-book, the Bank of England, Prostitution, the Architect of Apsley Terrace, and half a dozen other useful props of civilization. All she could do was to go on forgetting them. But now she was able to forget them without flouting them by her forgetfulness. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

The United States have no possessions in the east and do not desire to have any, as other countries do. — Townsend Harris

Unless you go before you go, you'll need to go while you're going. — Jim Townsend

There are not enough poems in praise of bed ... — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Since I learned to read I've used them as a kind of anaesthetic. — Sue Townsend

No man is competent unless he can stalk alone and armed in the wilderness. — Townsend Whelen

All governments, even these precious "democracies," derive all their power by force. Do something the government doesn't want, like, say, cross the street against the light, refuse to submit to its authority, and it won't be long before they'll use some form of force, usually a weapon and the threat of death or injury, to compel you to comply. — S. Evan Townsend

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure. — Stuart Townsend

Sitting here, and thus, she had attained to a state which she could never have desired, not even conceived. And being so unforeseen, so alien to her character and upbringing, her felicity had an absolute perfection; no comparison between the desired and the actual could tear holes in it, no ambition whisper, But this is not quite what you wanted, is it? — Sylvia Townsend Warner