--Fred Gipson, Old Yeller
I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow.
--E.L.Konigsburg, From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
She understood that her heart operated on its own instructions, that she had no control over it or, indeed, anything else.
--Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
Ask a burning question, get a burning answer.
--Lynda Barry, Cruddy
"Why do beautiful songs make you sad?"
"Because they aren't true."
"Never?"
"Nothing is beautiful and true."
--Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close