Dialogue Quotes

“Oh, once you’ve been initiated into the Elderly, the world doesn’t want you back.” Veronica settled herself in a rattan chair and adjusted her hat just so. “We—by whom I mean anyone over sixty—commit two offenses just by existing. One is Lack of Velocity. We drive too slowly, walk too slowly, talk too slowly. The world will do business with dictators, perverts, and drug barons of all stripes, but being slowed down it cannot abide. Our second offence is being Everyman’s memento mori. The world can only get comfy in shiny-eyed denial if we are out of sight.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“A true suicide is a paced, disciplined certainty. People pontificate, “Suicide is selfishness.” Career churchmen like Pater go a step further and call it a cowardly assault on the living. Oafs argue this specious line for varying reasons: to evade fingers of blame, to impress one’s audience with one’s mental fiber, to vent anger, or just because one lacks the necessary suffering to sympathize. Cowardice is nothing to do with it—suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what’s selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching. The only selfishness lies in ruining strangers’ days by forcing ’em to witness a grotesqueness. So I’ll make a thick turban from several towels to muffle the shot and soak up the blood, and do it in the bathtub, so it shouldn’t stain any carpets. Last night I left a letter under the manager’s day-office door—he’ll find it at eight A.M. tomorrow—informing him of the change in my existential status, so with luck an innocent chambermaid will be spared an unpleasant surprise. See, I do think of the little people”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“What is it?”
“A prayer.”
“For a child?”
She nodded.
“For me?”
Another nod.
“On a tree?”
“Trees spend all day looking up at God.”
― Mitch Albom, For One More Day

“My girl was mad and I loved her. Upon a night, she read my poetry; and kissing me madly she cried, ‘You are a genius, my love!’ To which I replied, ‘My girl,’ whispering, ‘Every doctor in this land with a prescription pad is more of a genius than I.”
― Roman Payne

“Every phrase had to be captured on paper or it wasn't real, it slipped away. I'd see the words hanging in midair--Camille, pass the milk-- and anxiety coiled up in me as they began to fade, like jet exhaust. Writing them down, though, I had them. No worries that they'd become extinct. I was a lingual conservationist. I was the class freak, a tight, nervous eighth-grader frenziedly copying down phrases ("Mr. Feeney is totally gay," "Jamie Dobson is ugly," "They never have chocolate milk") with a keenness bordering on the religious.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“But Finn was like no one else. He could be funny, teasing, informative all at once. I was discovering that smart, engaged dialogue with a man is extremely erotic. Cleverness is an aphrodisiac.”
― Jane Lotter, The Bette Davis Club

“You know what people who go to nude beaches look like?"

"Tell me."

"People who shouldn't go to nude beaches."

"Is Chili Palmer joining the tour?'

"I wasn't told"

"Ask Nick for me."

About a minute went by. Now he heard Nick saying, "Tell him if he goes near Chili Palmer I'll see that he suffers excruciating pain and will never fucking walk again in his life."

And, then Robin's voice: "Nick said to tell you that if you go near Chili Palmer he'll have your legs broken."

"Why couldn't he say it like that?"

"He reads, but the wrong books.”
― Elmore Leonard, Be Cool

“Political writers argue in regard to the love of liberty with the same philosophy that philosophers do in regard to the state of nature; by the things they see they judge of things very different which they have never seen, and they attribute to men a natural inclination to slavery, on account of the patience with which the slaves within their notice carry the yoke; not reflecting that it is with liberty as with innocence and virtue, the value of which is not known but by those who possess them, though the relish for them is lost with the things themselves. I know the charms of your country, said Brasidas to a satrap who was comparing the life of the Spartans with that of the Persepolites; but you can not know the pleasures of mine.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

“A man’s mind is hidden in his writings: criticism brings it to light.”
― Solomon Ibn Gabirol

“Dialogue is not just quotation. It is grimaces, pauses, adjustments of blouse buttons, doodles on a napkin, and crossings of legs.”
― Jerome Stern, Making Shapely Fiction

“Pria sejati selalu membayar, bahkan walau si wanita yang mengajak."

"Aku tidak perlu jadi pria sejati, cukup menjadi pria dengan posisi tawar tinggi.”
― Windhy Puspitadewi, Touché: Alchemist

“Do you know what two centimeters is?
Yeah. It's a measurement.
It's about three quarters of an inch.
All right.
That's the distance that round missed your liver by.
Is that what the doctor told you?
Yes. You know what the liver does?
No.
It keeps you alive. Do you know who the man is who shot you?
Maybe he didnt shoot me. Maybe it was one of the Mexicans.
Do you know who the man is?
No. Am I supposed to?
Becase he's not somebody you really want to know. The people he meets tend to have very short futures. Nonexistent, in fact.
Well good for him.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“And there are many people, both Moslem and Christian, who have a good grasp of each others0 conceptions of surrender to God an other principles. But the widespread existence of bias, misinformation and lack of knowledge (…) militate against the effectiveness of dialogue, (…) by the most subtle and one of the most effective of instruments, the subconscious, almost the subliminal, introduction of hostility.”
― Idries Shah, Elephant in the Dark

“Nous sommes devenus lucides. Nous avons remplacé le dialogue par le communiqué.”
― Albert Camus, The Fall

“For us to progress, we must be community in liberty, equality and fraternity.”
― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

“She squinted at his nametag. Her eyes weren't quite working. "What's your name?"

"Stig."

"Stick?" she asked, half ready to believe it.

He shook his head and pointed his long index finger at the name stitched on his uniform. "S-T-I-G. Stig."

Harriet's breath caught. "I can't believe it. I've been looking for you.”
― Kimberly Karalius, Pocket Forest

“Flirt with the old ladies and you’ll be fine,” I muttered, shoving my stuff into the cubby.

He hung his green hoodie on the hooks right beside me. “Is that how you get by?”

“Doesn’t work on the old ladies for me, but the old men on the other hand?” I paused and glanced at my nails. “Yeah, doesn’t work on them either.”
― Katherine McIntyre, By the Sea

“May as well have ox blood running through those veins,” I added, “You’re as
stubborn as one.”
― Katherine McIntyre, An Airship Named Desire

“Jim. If you have any other outside events, don’t confess them. That’s my advice, okay?”“What am I going to do, Bob? I have no family.”“You have family,” Bob said. “You have a wife who hates you. Kids who are furious with you. A brother and sister who make you insane. And a nephew who used to be kind of a drip but apparently is not so much of a drip now. That’s called family.”Jim fell asleep, his head leaning forward almost to his chest”
― Elizabeth Strout, The Burgess Boys

“Orthodoxy is the wide open field within which successful breeding can take place. If one maintains that Jesus was an eater of magic mushrooms or a Martian, then this will not make for fertility. There is not enough in common for there to be intercourse in any sense. How different can two believers be for the encounter to be fertile? This is a complex question which we do not need to explore here. Of course ultimately we must share orthodoxy, but this is not to narrow the scope of the conversation; it is to enter the broad terrain of the mystery, in which we are liberated from the tightness of ideology. It is a serious misuse of language to use the word 'orthodox' to mean conservative or, even worse, rigid. Orthodoxy does not lie in the unvarying and thoughtless repetition of received formulas. As Karl Rahner pointed out, that can be a form of heresy. Orthodoxy is speaking about our faith in ways that keep open the pilgrimage towards the mystery. Often it is hard to know immediately whether a new statement of belief is a new way of stating our faith or its betrayal. It takes time for us to tell.”
― Timothy Radcliffe, What Is the Point of Being a Christian?

“I’m asking about the kid,” Root said. “What does she get out of it?”
“My fist in her ear if she asks as many questions as you do,” Pennant said. “You worry too much. Well, what do you say, Sultan?”
― Walter Kaylin, He-Men, Bag Men, and Nymphos: Classic Men's Adventure Magazine Stories

“Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don't yet understand the characters well enough to write in their voices."

[Ten rules for writing fiction (The Guardian, 20 February 2010)]”
― Helen Dunmore

“Having personality does not mean being violent, rather honouring life by taking a stand. In this era so devoid of values, where people think it is safe to do everything that comes to mind, there is a need for purity. Man can and must have direction. Jews and Catholics must work together to help the man who suffers, and most importantly, look ahead.”
― Abraham Skorka

“This is like teaching queer remedial at the continuation high school. You were fishing, and you caught me. Don't you get that?"
"Oh, hell no." Tristan just stared.”
― Z.A. Maxfield

“So, what should I call you before you die?” she asked over the sound of the rain. “Bull-headed Mule? Surly Bastard?
“Mallor.”
“The Mallor?”
He didn’t answer.
“You’re supposed to be dead!”
He pulled the collar up on his long coat and stepped out into the driving rain. “Someday, I’ll get it right.”
― Shawn Wickersheim, The Penitent Assassin

“A good part of the physical attraction [between the hero and heroine of a romance novel] comes to life during these exchanges as well, since language creates a meeting of the minds. I have long thought that these lines of dialogue carve out the lines of the central love relationship. The dialogue between the hero and heroine creates the central shape of the story. It is the verbal sculpture.”
― Julie Tetel Andresen

“Murder doesn’t bother you much, does it?”
“Not as much as your endless questions.”
― Shawn Wickersheim, The Penitent Assassin

“Necks, of course, are important," said Big Dog.”
― Thea Verdak, The Barn Teacher

“Do you mean he is upside down? Do you mean he is not right side up?" Or, do you mean he is downright mean?" Jack demanded.”
― Thea Verdak, The Barn Teacher

“Do you mean he is upside down? Do you mean he is not right side up? Or, do you mean he is downright mean? Jack demanded.”
― Thea Verdak, The Barn Teacher