Lines you wish you'd written...

[Huckleman2000]

Here's your chance to contribute to Huckleman's Favorite Quotations. Fair warning, I intend to publish this thread to supplant Bartlett's.

Lines from a song, a poem, a movie, another lit post, or any other piece that you think so perfectly capture the author's intent that you wish you'd written them.

Here are a few:

"Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme"
1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Del McCoury Band

"Mixin' up drinks with mixed feelin's" ...and...
"Now, there's only two things in life, but I forget what they are"
Buffalo River Home, John Hiatt (This song is full of great lines, like many John Hiatt tunes)

The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves.
Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays"
Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen

 

[glynndah]

On a public radio show they're running a their own version of American Idol. One of the songs featured has the title:

Drinking her Pretty (Pedro Peterson?)

It struck me as a perfect little gem.

 

[elsol]

From Pros Vs. Joes:

"[Joe No. 1 is] an Eagle Scout and he's about to earn his 'I got my ass kicked by Roy Jones' badge." -- Petros Papadakis

 

[TE999]

"Sometimes you're the windshield,
sometimes you're the bug..."

Mark Knopfler

 

[cumallday]

On a public radio show they're running a their own version of American Idol. One of the songs featured has the title:

Drinking her Pretty (Pedro Peterson?)

It struck me as a perfect little gem.

I love that. I've drinken a few girls pretty myself.

Here's one from Charles Barkley - "You know it's going to hell when the best rapper is white and the best golfer is black."

Voltaire - "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

An old proverb on friendship - Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow.

 

[Patrick_B76]

"And I'm livin that whole life, we pushed weight
fuck the state penn, fuck hoes at Penn State"
-Notorious BIG

"Yesterday you were an only child
now your ghosts have gone away
you can kill them in the classic style
now you parlez vous francais"
-Billy Joel

"I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies
and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin these
mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me"
-Inspectah Deck

"There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost
But you'll never see the end of the road
While you're traveling with me"
-Neil Finn (Crowded House)

"I remember standin on the corner at midnight
Trying to get my courage up
there was this lone lovely dancer in a little club downtown
loved to watch her do her stuff
through the long lonely nights, she filled my sleep
her body softly swaying to that smoky beat
down on Main street."
-Bob Seger

"Now Rocky Racoon, he fell back in his room
only to find Gideon's Bible
Gideon checked out
and he left it, no doubt
to help with good Rocky's revival."
-The Beatles

"I saw her, yea I saw her
With her black tongue tied round the roses"
-Beck

"And still I see no changes, all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate gives disgrace to races"
-2Pac

"I'm just a notch in your bed post
but you're just a line in a song"
-Fall Out Boy

"Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky"
-Sung by Elton John, written by Bernie Taupin

"This world on you depends
our life will never end"
_The Doors

"Another mothers breaking heart is taken over
when the violence causes silence
we must be mistaken..."
-The Cranberries

"You say it's a good thing that you float in the air
that way there's no way I would crush your pretty toenails into a thousand pieces"
-Weezer

"If you can hear a piano fall, you can hear me comin down the hall
If I could just hear your pretty voice I don't think I need to see at all
don't think I need to see at all
soft hair and a velvet tongue, i wanna give you what you give to me
and every breath that is in your lungs is a tiny little gift to me
is a tiny little gift to me"
-The White Stripes

"substitute, me for him
substitute, my coke for gin."
-The Who

"The only two things in life that make it worth livin'
Is guitars tuned good and firm feelin' women"
-Waylon Jennings

"You see I gotta be feedin my daughter, teachin her to be that natural woman
she'll be waiting to exhale while you other hoes be dumb and dumber."
-Outkast

"As privileged as a whore, victims in demand for public show
swept out through the cracks beneath the door
holier than thou, how? surrendered, executed, anyhow
scrawled dissolved cigar box on the floor"
-Pearl Jam

"slipped and sold mom, auctioned forearm and whiskers in the sink
truants move on, cannot stay long, some die just to live..."
-Pearl Jam

"Hey you, out there in the cold, getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me?"
-Pink Floyd

"If you should go skating on the thin ice of modern life
dragging behind you the silent reproach of a million tear stained eyes
don't be surprised when a crack in the ice appears under your feet
you'll slip out of your depth and out of your mind with your fear flowing out behind you as you claw the thin ice."
-Pink Floyd

"There's a little black spot on the sun today (that's my soul up there)"
-The Police

"If I had my way, I'd eat peaches every day."
-The Presidents of the USA.

"I came for the house and children and let it all slip through my hands
I feel like a weight has been lifted and nothing can matter tot his man
I came for the car and the vacuum, spinning my wheels into the void
I see now my ship it has come in, but it was a joke, there's nothing aboard
I came for the love and the action, then I go slipping of off the sword
I feel like a chain reaction, is it me or is it the world?"
-Prick

"I know you, I know you've seen her
she's a sad tomato, she's three miles of bad road
walking down the street
will I ever meet her?
She's a real woman-child, oh my kiss breath turpentine"
-REM

"You wrote our names down on the sidewalk, but the rain came and washed em off
so we should write em again on wet cement so people along time from now can know what we meant."
-The Raconteurs

"You want every morning to be just like
the stories that you read but you don't write."
-The Raconteurs

"They rally round the family with a pocket full of shells."
-Rage Against the Machine

"On the counter by your keys was a book of numbers and your remedies
one of these surely will screen out the sorrow
but where are you tomorrow?"
-Steely Dan

"Learn to work the saxophone, I'll play just what I feel
drink Scotch wiskey all night long and die behind the wheel"
-Steely Dan

"Vail of virtue hung to hide your method
while I smile and laugh and dance and sing your praise and glory"
-Tool

"My team supreme, stay clean, triple beam lyrical dream
i be that cat you see at all events bent, gats in holsters, girls on shoulders
playboy, i told ya, being mice to me, bruise to much, i lose too much
step on stage, the girls boo too much, I guess thats cause you run with lame dudes too much"
-Notorious BIG

"I believe I can see the future cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose, but then again, that might have been a dream"
-Nine Inch Nails

"All the jagged edges disappear
colors all look brighter when your near
the stars are all afire in the sky
sometimes I get so lonely I could..."
-Nine Inch Nails

"Hitchin on a twilight train
ain't nothing here that I care to take along
maybe a song, to sing when I want
don't need to say please to no man for a happy tune."
-Neil Diamond

"I found her on a night of fire and noise, wild bells range in the wild sky
and I knew from that moment on, that I'd love her till the day that I died.
And I kissed away a thousand tears, my lady of the various sorrows
Some begged, some borrowed, some stolen, some kept safe for tomorrow"
-Nick Cave

"There is an old cliche under your Monet, baby
remember the yards of roses right above your couch?"
-The Killers

"Slippin in my faith until I fall
you never returned that call
woman, open the door, don't let it sting
I wanna breathe that fire again"
-The Killers

"My heroes had the heart to put theirs lives out on the limb
and all I could remember was thinkin I wanna be like them
ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
it was no coincidence I've come and I can die when I'm done."
-Gnarls Barkley

"So we cheated and we lied and we tested
and we never failed to fail, it was the easiest thing to do
you will survive being bested
somebody fine will come along make me forget about loving you
in the Southern Cross."
-Crosby, Stills & Nash

"Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
we stare at the beautiful women
she's lookin at you, oh no she's lookin at me."
-Counting Crows

Who's going to pick you up, when you fall?
who's going to hang it up, when you call?
who's going to pay attention to your dreams?
Who's going to plug their ears when you scream?"
-The Cars





wow, that turned out a lot longer than expected. Guess I got carried away. Oh well.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Something someone said in my car.

"My leg. I threw it out the window."

 

[Stella_Omega]

Lordy, Patrick!
I hardly have to find anything- you posted so many of my faves for me!

Good taste, buddy! Plus every artist you quoted put me in mind of at least one other song by that person...

I woke up with "Southern Cross" playing in my head and it was the first thing I listened to.

Other songs I wake up with are;
"And a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes"
(lyrics here) Not to mention many another Pogues song.

"Ma send me money now, I'm going to make it somehow, I need another chance- You see, my baby likes to dance" (Neil Young, "Cinnamon Girl")

"What's your name, who's your daddy- Is he rich like me?"
("Time of the season" The Zombies)

"From tree to tree, from you to me,
Travelling twice as fast as on any freeway,
Every single dream, wrapped up in the scheme,
They all get carried on the relay."
(The Who, "relay")

"Oh no, not me;
I never lost control
You're face to face
with the man who sold the world"
(David Bowie, "The Man Who Sold The World")
Likewise;
"Ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange changes"
Which is a mantra for me.


"Times when I know you'll be lonesome
Times when I know you'll be sad
Don't let temptation surround you
Don't let the blues make you bad"
(Billie Holliday, "We'll be together again")

... I'm going to stop now...

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

"It was the best of times, the worst of times." Damn I wish I'd written that. It's so totally clean.

 

[Patrick_B76]

Lordy, Patrick!
I hardly have to find anything- you posted so many of my faves for me!

Good taste, buddy! Plus every artist you quoted put me in mind of at least one other song by that person...

I woke up with "Southern Cross" playing in my head and it was the first thing I listened to.
.

Southern Cross is about as close to a "favorite song" as I have. I absolutely love that song.

I went a little overboard, but I just turned on the iPod and flipped around and tried to add at least one line from each of my favorites.

 

[darkerdreamer]

"...Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now."

Two nights later, as he was getting ready to bed down, the boy looked for the star they followed every night. He thought that the horizon was a bit lower than it had been, because he seemed to see the stars on the desert itself.

"It's the oasis," said the camel driver.
"Well, why don't we go there right now?" the boy asked.
"Because we have to sleep."

-Paulo Coelho

 

[darkerdreamer]

"I ain't a killer but don't push me. Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to getting pussy."

-Tupac

 

[Stella_Omega]

Here's a gushingly romantic pair of excerpts from one of my co-writers, describing a reunion twenty years later;

The sight of Jack Shaftoe’s face, after so many years, is making Jack dizzy and angry and hungry and sad beyond measure. Yes, he is older; his face is no longer plump and flushed with youth, and there are lines around his eyes that say he laughs a lot. And he’s scarred in ways that Jack longs to explore, because they’re serious scars and must have some astonishing stories attached to them. But oh, he’s grown into his wide shoulders, and though he’s thin as he always was it’s a strong wiry thinness, a thinness that showcases muscle and sinew and the raised tunnels of fat sturdy veins under the skin of his arms. He’s quite a man. Though apparently not as loquacious as he once was. And Jack reminds himself that he is not here to admire Jack Shaftoe, but to extract explication, and then probably revenge....

...Jack (Shaftoe) steps to stand in front of him, close in front of him, and puts a hand up, wonderingly, to the side of Sparrow’s face. A face that he knows, has told himself a thousand times, was the loveliest he’d ever seen, but whose image, over too many years, has faded and warped in his memory, has been reduced to component parts – shining black eyes, high smiling cheekbones, a plump kiss of a mouth – that he can never piece together in a coherent whole; but here they are, and how beautiful they are still; although the expression upon them is not one he would have chosen.

“You think I left you,” says Jack, horror curdling sudden in his belly.

What impresses me about her writing is that she very accurately reproduces the style of the original writer (Jack Sparrow everyone knows, but Jack Shaftoe comes from an entirely different historical fiction work); That she can create run-on sentences that remain so lucid; and that she can keep the reader perfectly aware of which particular man named Jack is speaking, or thinking, at any time.
Plus the observations- "raised tunnels of fat sturdy veins" that stand up against a lean musculature, or the way a remembered face disintegrates into components with time... I love those two passages.

 

[rgraham666]

Voltaire - "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

I'm going to remember that one.

I suppose I should add some.

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." William Gibson - Neuromancer

"The alien sidled up to the blue-blazered security officer - Raghubir, a grizzled but genial Sikh who'd been with the ROM forever - and said, in perfect English, "Excuse me, I would like to see a paleontologist." Robert J. Sawyer - Calculating God

 

[CharleyH]

Here's your chance to contribute to Huckleman's Favorite Quotations. Fair warning, I intend to publish this thread to supplant Bartlett's.

Lines from a song, a poem, a movie, another lit post, or any other piece that you think so perfectly capture the author's intent that you wish you'd written them.

Here are a few:

"Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme"
1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Del McCoury Band

"Mixin' up drinks with mixed feelin's" ...and...
"Now, there's only two things in life, but I forget what they are"
Buffalo River Home, John Hiatt (This song is full of great lines, like many John Hiatt tunes)

The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves.
Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays"
Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen

No offence, but I don't have lines I wish I had written ... I have lines I did write and can't believe I wrote them - does that count?

 

[glynndah]

"We've got a blind date with Destiny - and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." The Shoveller (William H. Macy) Mystery Men

 

[Stella_Omega]

"We've got a blind date with Destiny - and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." The Shoveller (William H. Macy) Mystery Men

"Are we going to have to sheperate you two?"
"He started it."
"She started it."

 

[darkerdreamer]

"So he built his great empire
and he slaughtered his own kind.
He died a confused man,
killed himself with his own mind."

-Bad Religion

 

[TE999]

"Silent as specters, the tall and fat thief edged past the dead, noose-strangled watch-leopard, out the thick, lock-picked door of Jengao the Gem Merchant, and strolled east on Cash Street through the thin black night-smog of Lankhmar, City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes."

'Ill Met In Lankhmar' Fritz Leiber


Don't that just sing to ya'?

 

[glynndah]

"What do you think, Jimmy, they'll be eatin' chips out of our knickers?"

"Are you doing what I told you? Are you thinking of that reed as a woman's nipple?"

"There's a band around called "Free Beer". Always draws a big crowd."

The Commitments[/I]

 

[Stella_Omega]

"Silent as specters, the tall and fat thief edged past the dead, noose-strangled watch-leopard, out the thick, lock-picked door of Jengao the Gem Merchant, and strolled east on Cash Street through the thin black night-smog of Lankhmar, City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes."

'Ill Met In Lankhmar' Fritz Leiber


Don't that just sing to ya'?

Fafrd and the Grey Mouser- a sweeter pair of rascals were never written.

 

[AppleBiter]

"People say 'I'm ugly and I hate myself,' but if you truly hated yourself, you'd be glad you were ugly." -- Bob George, from "Classic Christianity"

"'But, faith has no weight,' she says. 'Now, doubt -- now, there's the burden. You're completely right to think you're grounded.'" -- Ellis Paul, "Weightless"

"Wouldn't it be nice if I could melt myself like ice, or outrun my skin and just be pure wind?" -- Jewel, "Fat Boy"

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." -- Terry Pratchett

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -- Aristotle

"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian." - Dennis Wholey

 

[TE999]

Fafrd and the Grey Mouser- a sweeter pair of rascals were never written.

You got that right.

Arguably some of the finest S&S fiction ever produced.

 

[Patrick_B76]

"I ain't a killer but don't push me. Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to getting pussy."

-Tupac

Yes. That was from an excellent album.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Two of the many by Raymond Chandler I wish I'd written. These both come from the first chapter of, The Big Sleep,

Rumple Foreskin

==

I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it.

--

Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.