Contemporary Fiction Quotes

“I just want to know—are you rooting for me? Are you hoping I pull this off?"

Cath's eyes settled on his, tentatively, like they'd fly away if he moved.

She nodded her head.

The right side of his mouth pulled up.

"I'm rooting for you," she whispered. She wasn't even sure he could hear her from the bed.

Levi's smile broke free and devoured his whole face.”
― Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

“Are you really a reporter?” asked Brown.
“You already asked me that. Come back to Levita, take the pardon.”
 “I doubt I’ll live long enough to get there,” said Brown bitterly.
“I hope you survive. You are a fighter. And we have the antidote for your habit on
Levita. I suggest you take a vacation. There’s nothing much that’s going to happen here.”
With that she left, leaving Brown more confused than ever.
He was a father, he had a son. And, the Levitians had a cure for his drug-addled body.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“I don't want just a night or a week or a month with you. I want you all the time. I like you better than calculus, and math is the only thing that unites the universe.”
― Helen Hoang, The Kiss Quotient

“Books are keys that open many doors.”
― James Rollins

“We're selling vacuum cleaners.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“[novan]: bassists are very good with their fingers
[novan]: and some of us sing backup vocals, so that means we're good with our mouths too...

(~ IM chat with Novan Chang, 18, bassist)”
― Jess C Scott, EyeLeash: A Blog Novel

“There have been times I have thought some dreams should never be dreamt, but I would hate a world where that was true.”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“I don't make threats," she said. "I make reality.”
― Lee Matthew Goldberg, Stalker Stalked

“She felt the cold blast from the sterile air conditioning on her bare arms and thighs, as she ambled down the center of the shopping complex's ground floor.

The scene was a swirl of candy bright lights--the Victoria's Secret fuchsia signboard, signboards which lured one to purchase "confidence," or "sexual appeal," or whatever it was that was being advertised--the fluorescent lights in each store, contrasting with the shiny, black-tiled walls and eye-catching speckled marble tiles on the ground.

One could lick the floor--the tiles were spotless, clean like the fake air she was breathing in, like the atoms and cells in her that were decaying in stale neglect.”
― Jess C Scott, Jack in the Box

“Whatever you did to make that sweet little cheerleader out on your deck ignore you so completely. Do me a favor and give her my number when you call it quits. She could use a little of the Jim-meister’s lovin’.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Crossover

“I don’t want to leave. I’m not sure how to carry on without you. We’ve always been together.
“And that will never change. You’ll still be able to watch over me and keep me safe.”
I’m not going to say goodbye then. See you later?
“You bet,” Karlee said. “But not for another sixty years or so.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Crossover

“It takes years to know a human being. An entire lifetime. It's what makes a home a home.”
― Fredrik Backman, Britt-Marie Was Here

“It’s funny how books can change you. You open up a book and one minute you are who you’ve always been, then you read some random passage and you become someone else.”
― Brian Joyce

“To the jaded eye, all vampires seem alike, but they are wonderful in their versatility. Some come to life in moonlight, others are killed by the sun, some pierce with their eyes, others with fangs, some are reactionary, others are rebels, but all are disturbingly close to the mortals they prey on. I can think of no other monsters who are so receptive. Vampires are neither inhuman nor nonhuman nor all-too-human, they are simply more alive than they should be.”
― Nina Auerbach

“The moment-when I could no longer face myself in the mirror-wasn't easily explained; nor was the oppressive misery I experienced once I finally became the person I was meant to be but then realized with terrific horror how much I still hated her.”
― Jodi LaPalm, The Choice Not Taken

“Shortly before school started, I moved into a studio apartment on a quiet street near the bustle of the downtown in one of the most self-conscious bends of the world. The “Gold Coast” was a neighborhood that stretched five blocks along the lake in a sliver of land just south of Lincoln Park and north of River North. The streets were like fine necklaces and strung together were the brownstone houses and tall condominiums and tiny mansions like pearls, and when the day broke and the sun faded away, their lights burned like jewels shining gaudily in the night.
The world’s most elegant bazaar, Michigan Avenue, jutted out from its eastern tip near The Drake Hotel and the timeless blue-green waters of Lake Michigan pressed its shores. The fractious make-up of the people that inhabited it, the flat squareness of its parks and the hint of the lake at the ends of its tree-lined streets squeezed together a domesticated cesspool of age and wealth and standing. It was a place one could readily dress up for an expensive dinner at one of the fashionable restaurants or have a drink miles high in the lounge of the looming John Hancock Building and five minutes later be out walking on the beach with pants cuffed and feet in the cool water at the lake’s edge.”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“It was a generation growing in its disillusionment about the deepening recession and the backroom handshakes and greedy deals for private little pots of gold that created the largest financial meltdown since the Great Depression. As heirs to the throne, we all knew, of course, how bad the economy was, and our dreams, the ones we were told were all right to dream, were teetering gradually toward disintegration. However, on that night, everyone seemed physically at ease and exempt from life’s worries with final exams over and bar class a distant dream with a week before the first lecture, and as I looked around at the jubilant faces and loud voices, if you listened carefully enough you could almost hear the culmination of three years in the breath of the night gasp in an exultant sigh as if to say, “Law school was over at last!”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“I got gold in one hand and mud in the other.......In the end it's the same for all of us we go out the same way we came in ....alone”
― Saira Viola

“HISTORIA RADICALMENTE CONCENTRADA DE LA ERA POSTINDUSTRIAL

Cuando fueron presentados, él hizo un comentario ingenioso porque quería caer bien. Ella soltó una risotada estrepitosa porque quería caer bien. Luego los dos cogieron sus coches y se fueron solos a sus casas, mirando fijamente la carretera, con la misma mueca en la cara.
Al hombre que los había presentado no le caía demasiado bien ninguno de los dos, pero fingía que sí porque le preocupaba mucho tener buenas relaciones con todo el mundo. Después de todo, nunca se sabe, ¿verdad que no? ¿Verdad? ¿Verdad?”
― David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

“Staring over him in the dim light of a side lamp, my tired eyes traced along the path of faint, yet emerging, lines etched around his equally-tired eyes. They'd become a permanent reminder of his ever-smiling face, and I wished–even after all of these years together-that I could absorb some of his contentment.”
― Jodi LaPalm, The Choice Not Taken

“I know it was my choice.'
'Doesn't mean it was easy,' Edie whispers, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. 'Doesn't mean it didn't hurt to choose.”
― Krystal Zammit, Strangers Everywhere

“It doesn't matter anyway, we all bleed the same.”
― Krystal Zammit, Strangers Everywhere

“I scream so loud that only Mother Nature and her crashing thunder can drown my cries. Maybe she too can recognise a pain only a Mother would understand.”
― Krystal Zammit, Strangers Everywhere

“My fingers reach the tuft of his thick hair, his sobs echoing through me. At least I will never know a world without him.”
― Krystal Zammit, Strangers Everywhere

“Nowadays, many young teenagers are encouraged by the world to do what is considered as evil in God’s eyes.—Kenneth Elrod”
― Lydia V. Simms, Broken & Betrayed II: Chaos

“I love you,” he said to her. “And I want you to know that you have a special place in my heart. You’re the first and only woman I've ever loved like this.”
― Lydia V. Simms, Solana

“For a few minutes, Solana basked in his embrace. He was the perfect husband. The man who understood her more than anyone else. The love of her life, the father of her baby, and the first and only man she’d ever put her trust in.”
― Lydia V. Simms, Solana

“She wanted Webb to know that she was done dealing with all of this. And she didn’t care about losing her job. If she lost her job for taking a stand against racism and sexism against black women coming from Webb, she’d calmly walk away and stand up for what she believed was right.”
― Lydia V. Simms, Solana

“Although Marisol’s words were factual, they hit Charlize much too hard. Charlize was well aware of the racism and sexism that women of color faced. The institutional racism was real, and her mother had been a victim of it.”
― Lydia V. Simms, Solana

“Solana pressed her hand to her stomach and the fluttering increased. The baby’s response to the mother’s touch.

“I'll never let you down,” she said. But she wasn’t sure if she could keep that promise. She felt so heartbroken for Mylez, so heartbroken for his innocent son, Jabari, who would have to grow up without a mother.

Motherlessness—Solana knew what it felt like firsthand because her mother abandoned her. And it still hurt, although she was a grown adult who could hold her own when it happened.”
― Lydia V. Simms, Solana