Top 100 Flanagan's Quotes
#1. Science is what scientists do, not what nonscientists think they do or ought to be doing.
Wetenschap is wat wetenschappers doen.
[Flanagan's motto as magazine editor for selecting content to put in Scientific American.]
Dennis Flanagan
#2. If it wasn't for O'Flanagan's Pub on Manhattan's Upper East Side, I don't know where I would have spent my Friday nights as a young man.
Michael Bloomberg
#3. I will go through a lot of pain to beat someone. If there's pride and ego on the line, if I'm desperate, then I'm willing to go to a place where it hurts a lot more.
Shalane Flanagan
#4. Memory's only like justice, because it is another wrong idea that makes people feel right.
Richard Flanagan
#5. Anyone can make a mistake ... It's how they learn from it and recover from it that shows their true worth.
John Flanagan
#6. You surely can't be trying to blame us for Erak's habit of charging ashore waving an axe and grabbing everything that isn't nailed down? No offence, Svengal."
Svengal shrugged. "None taken. It's a pretty accurate description of Erak on a raid, as a matter of fact.
John Flanagan
#7. You can spend a day in a library and feel: 'Great, I've done a day's work.' But it's only research, not writing.
Richard Flanagan
#8. Writing about sex at length is a bit like describing mastication at length. It's the causes and the consequences and the meaning of it that are interesting, not the anatomical descriptions.
Richard Flanagan
#9. It's not what I expected," he said. "They're far more organized than our intelligence had led us to believe.
John Flanagan
#10. It's only our faith in illusions that makes life possible...It's believing in reality that does us in every time.
Richard Flanagan
#11. Dubai has got very little oil; it is Abu Dhabi that has got the oil. Dubai has very small resources, and it is running out, so the government's plan has been to relieve Dubai of any dependency on oil at all by 2010.
Maurice Flanagan
#12. Will raised both eyebrows. 'Well, you learn a new thing everyday,' he said reflectively.
'In your case, that's no exaggeration,' Halt said, completely straight-faced.
John Flanagan
#13. If and perhaps ... The language of procrastination and uncertainty. That's just people looking to justify their own lack of action.
John Flanagan
#14. My secret skill is baking bread. My mother was a farmer's daughter and still made bread every day when I was a child. She would have me knead the dough when I got home from school.
Richard Flanagan
#15. On his death bed, the eighteenth-century haiku poet Shisui had finally responded to requests for a death poem by grabbing his brush, painting his poem, and dying. On the paper Shisui's shocked followers saw he had painted a circle.
Richard Flanagan
#16. He ... discovered that people's goodwill was frequently in inverse relationship to their position ...
Richard Flanagan
#17. Welcome to Shelter Bay,' he said to Stig. 'Is that what it's called?' Hal gave him a tired grin. 'It is now'.
John Flanagan
#18. Sit down, Will. There's a good fellow," he said.
"Yes, sir," replied Will, and Halt's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"He's never called me sir," he said.
"Probably trying to get on my good side," Crowley replied.
Halt nodded savagely. "Probably.
John Flanagan
#20. Who are you, gaijin? What do you know about honor?'
'I'm called Chocho,' Will said ...
'Chocho?' Arisaka shouted, goaded beyond control. 'Butterfly? Then die, Butterfly!
John Flanagan
#21. Under Malcolm Fraser's Liberal governments in the 1970s, large numbers of refugees fleeing Vietnam in wretched boats were taken in without any great fuss.
Richard Flanagan
#22. A murderer's light spilled out from the sunset. It flooded William Street with its ruddy glow and ran beneath the blue-black hail clouds and up the boulevard like hot blood.
Richard Flanagan
#23. I had some bad jobs when I was young. Writing is not one of them. If you're fortunate enough to reach my age, to still be writing, you have to be grateful, and I am. I've been lucky. For many years, all I've done is writing, and it's all I've ever wanted to do.
Richard Flanagan
#24. Then, marveling at the recuperative powers and endurance of the Ranger horse breed, he tightened the girths on Blaze's saddle and swung astride the bay, groaning softly as he did so. Ranger horses might recover quickly. Ranger apprentices took a little longer. It
John Flanagan
#25. Family matters, friends matter, love matters. Those you love and who love you matter. That's what writing does - it allows you to say all those things.
Richard Flanagan
#26. Of course you love her!" he'd replied. "She's been your best friend since you both could walk, and now she's grown up to be beautiful, talented, intelligent and witty. What's not to love about all that?
John Flanagan
#27. Oh, it's a case of 'they think I'll think that they'll do A, so they'll do B because I wouldn't think they'd think of that but then because I might think I know what they're thinking they'll do A after all because I wouldn't think they'd think that way,' Will said
John Flanagan
#28. It's surprising how often history is decided by something as trival as bad shellfish.
John Flanagan
#29. I think you're wonderful too, Hal! Stephan said, in a workmanlike approximation of Ophelia's breathless, admiring tones. The crew laughed even harder.
Lydia snorted through her nose.
John Flanagan
#30. A good leader is someone who knows what he's bad at, and hires someone who's good at it to take care of it for him.
John Flanagan
#31. I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child's character.
Edward J. Flanagan
#32. Executing a criminal often makes a martyr of him. Once he's dead and gone, people all too often forget the crimes he's committed and start to see a more sanitised version. A person like that starts to be seen as a victim.
John Flanagan
#33. Shall I call the others back in?"
He nodded. "Why ask me? It's all of you who are making the decisions.
John Flanagan
#34. What the devil is Chocho?' Will whispered.
Horace's grin broadened. 'You are. It's what the men call you,' he said. Then he added, 'It's a term of great respect.'
Behind them, Halt nodded confirmation. 'Great respect,' he agreed.
John Flanagan
#35. Hal: " ... Then we'll leave in a huff, taking you with us."
"I've always wanted to travel in a huff," Ingvar mused. "It sounds very comfortable. I imagine they're well padded."
"Lined with feathers, in fact," Gilan put in.
John Flanagan
#36. Writing is not lying, nor is it theft. It is a journey and search for transparency between one's words and one's soul.
Richard Flanagan
#37. Well, we can ride together for a while longer. The highway south is farther along this way. I'll be glad of some cheerful company." "First time anyone's said that about me," Halt replied.
John Flanagan
#38. If you choose to take your compass from power, in the end you find only despair. But if you look around the world you can see and touch - the everyday world that is too easily dismissed as everyday - you see largeness, generosity, hope, change for the better. It's always small, but it's real.
Richard Flanagan
#39. We're going to see Ragnak," Halt told him. "He's going to have to promise to free every slave who fights for Hallasholm." Will shook his head doubtfully. "He won't like that," he said. Halt turned and looked at him, a faint grin touching the corner of his mouth. He'll hate it," he agreed.
John Flanagan
#40. Evanlyn smiled grimly as she thought how once she might have objected to the cruelty of the bird's death. Now, all she felt was a sense of satisfaction as she realized that they would eat well today.
Amazing how an empty belly could change your perspective, she thought.
John Flanagan
#41. It's a sin for a writer to go looking for camels to put into his or her pages. I only want details that are the story.
Richard Flanagan
#42. You see, reason, gentlemen, is a fine thing, that is unquestionable, but reason is only reason and satisfies only man's reasoning capacity, while wanting is a manifestation of the whole of life. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Richard Flanagan
#43. That's a big nose," he croaked and instantly realized he shouldn't have said something so impolite. I must be light headed, e thought. But the face smiled. The teeth seemed inordinatley white against the dark beard and skin.
The only one I have," he said.
John Flanagan
#44. How do you explain to your friend's mother why a night out with friends has left her daughter dying from an ecstasy overdose?
A.C. Flanagan
#45. As he poured carefully, Arrow's head turned toward the sound. The horse made a low grumbling noise in his throat.
"Hold your horses," he said. The he laughed. It seemed absurd to say tat to a horse.
John Flanagan
#46. Horace, who had been trying to find out the meaning of Kurokuma for some time now, was pleased to hear the translation.
"Black bear," he repeated. "It's undoubtedly because I'm so terrible in battle."
"I'd guess so," Will put in. "I've seen you in battle and you're definitely terrible.
John Flanagan
#48. But I wasn't happy ... when I heard you two had assaulted Castle Macindaw with just thirty men,' [said Halt].
'Thirty-three,' mumbled Horace ...
The Ranger gave him a withering look. 'Oh, pardon me ... three more men does make a lot of difference.
John Flanagan
#49. Ow!" said Horace as the Ranger's fingers probed and poked around the bruise.
Did that hurt?" Halt asked, and Horace looked at him with exasperation.
Of course it did," he said sharply. "That's why I said 'ow!
John Flanagan
#50. As a meteorite strike long ago explains the large lake now, so Amy's absence shaped everything, even when - and sometimes most particularly when - he wasn't thinking of her.
Richard Flanagan
#51. Still reeling from the touch of her husband's lips on her, Trudy didn't know whether to feel relief or dread that she'd married Seth Flanagan for better or worse. But from the fireworks of excitement swirling in her middle, she figured on both.
Debra Holland
#52. The enslavement, humiliation, torture, and ultimate destruction of thousands upon thousands of human beings for a project for which there was ultimately no purpose is a horror that's very hard to imagine, far less understand.
Richard Flanagan
#53. She has a particular penchant for mentally noting how much I drink, how much I eat, how much exercise I get, and the like. These specifics all fall within her purview. So in truth, I don't remember how much I drink; it's not my job.
Jack Flanagan
#54. There is no better way to manage than by walking around. Autocracy doesn't work. Talk to people in their offices, find out what's on their minds.
Maurice Flanagan
#55. What is this Chocho business?' Will muttered to himself. But his friends overheard the comment.
'It's a term of great respect,' they chorused, and he glared at them.
'Oh, shut up,' he said.
John Flanagan
#56. But ... what if I mistime it?"
Gilan smiled widely. "Well, in that case, I'll probably lop your head off your shoulders."
Horace and Gilan
John Flanagan
#57. Now," said Halt, "all I have to do is work out a way of beating these horse-riding devils."
Erak grinned at him. "That should be child's play," he said. "The hard part will be convincing Ragnak about it.
John Flanagan
#58. It's like life, isn't it? You think you'll outrun it, that you're better than it, but it makes a fool of you every time. It runs you into the ground and steams off whistling away, happy as buggery with itself.
Richard Flanagan
#59. I said you were Sir Horace of the Order of the Oakleaf," Halt told him, then added uncertainly, "At least, I think that's what I told him. I may have said you were of the Order of the Oak Pancake." Horace
John Flanagan
#60. You can always win points; winning people's respect is a lot more important.
John Flanagan
#61. In many respects a teenage girl's home is more important to her than at any time since she was a small child. She also needs emotional support and protection from the most corrosive cultural forces that seek to exploit her when she is least able to resist.
Caitlin Flanagan
#62. Come closer, Kurokuma. It's quite safe.'
Horace shuffled closer to the edge ...
'Quite safe, my foot,' he muttered to himself. 'And what's this Kurokuma you keep calling me?'
'It's a term of great respect,' Shigeru told him.
'Great respect,' Shukin echoed.
John Flanagan
#63. There are always risks in battle. It's a dangerous business. The trick is to take the right ones.' [said Halt].
'How do you know which are the right ones?' Shigeru asked.
Halt glanced at his two younger companions. They grinned and answered in chorus, 'You wait and see if you win.
John Flanagan
#64. That's it," Flanagan said, his thick hands gripping the bar and his eyes wide. "I'm getting back on the wagon and I'm never getting off again. Oh, Jesus, look at that."
"I'm looking," Jesus said. Flanagan flicked an annoyed glance at him
Kevin Hearne
#65. The young gentleman is correct," he said.
Halt raised an eyebrow. "He may be correct, and he is undoubtedly young. But he's no gentleman."
~Halt and General Sapristi speaking of Will
John Flanagan
#66. It's a lot easier to heal an
injured body than a damaged soul.
John Flanagan
#67. It's easy to walk away from risk, and you don't actually have to face it. Success is based upon overcoming the inherent risk you can't manage your way out of.
Maurice Flanagan
#68. All we could get out of them was that they were taking us to 'Kurokuma'. We didn't know if that was a place or a person. What does it mean, by the way?'
'I'm told it's a term of great respect,' Horace said, unwilling to admit that he didn't know.
John Flanagan
#69. Without thinking, [Will] spoke.
'Halt? Are you awake?'
'No.' The ill humor in the one-word reply was unmistakable.
'Oh. Sorry.'
'Shut up.'
He pondered whether to apologize again and decided this would go against the instruction to shut up, so remained silent.
John Flanagan
#70. If you're a ghost," he said, "we mean you no disrespect. And if you're not a ghost, tell me who you are-or you soon will be one
John Flanagan
#73. Much has been made about the death of the novel and the end of literature as it's seen to be assailed by technology, by the web, by the many and varied new forms of entertainment and culture. I don't share that pessimism because I think it is one of the great inventions of the human spirit.
Richard Flanagan
#74. You're not built for riding, either," Horace added. "I'd say more saddle sore than homesick."
Svenal sighed ruefully, shifting his buttocks for the twentieth time to find a more comfortable spot.
"It's true," he said. "I've been discovering parts of my backside I never knew existed.
John Flanagan
#75. You're right, Halt,' she said, and he nodded acklowledgement of her backing down.
'Nice to hear someone else saying that for a change,' Will said cheerfully. 'Seems like I've said those words an awful lot in my time.'
Halt turned a bleak gaze on him. 'And you've always been right.
John Flanagan
#76. She knew more about these situations than she realized, he thought. She'd spent years at Duncan's side. "When in doubt," he added, "be pompous.
John Flanagan
#77. It's called a sea anchor,' [Evanlyn] explained. 'It'll stop us drifting too far.'
Alyss was impressed. 'And you said you were pig-ignorant when it came to boats.'
'I don't remember saying that,' Evanlyn replied with a frown.
Alyss shrugged. 'Oh? Well, it must have been me.
John Flanagan
#78. Orman nodded wearily 'As I said, when a person is unpopular, it's so easy to think badly of him
John Flanagan
#79. The journey is long, the road is dark and frightening, but together we can reach our destination: the Tasmania of which we all dream, where all are welcome and all prosper, made no longer of lies but truth, built not of rich men's hate but our love for our island and for each other.
Richard Flanagan
#80. Dubai Airport will peak at a maximum of 100 million passengers a year, which would limit Emirate's growth, but the new Al Maktoum International with its capacity for another 120 million passengers will allow us to continue growing.
Maurice Flanagan
#81. No," Hal said. "The sea is moving constantly and you have to make little adjustments to keep it going smoothly. You can't take it for granted."
"Just like a friendship," she said smiling. And Hal nodded.
"Maybe that's why the word ends in ship," he said.
John Flanagan
#82. It's a big raised platform at the end of the square, with steps running up to it."
Like a stage?" Evanlyn suggested. "Maybe they're planning to put on a play?"
Or an execution," Horace said.
John Flanagan
#83. My ancestors came from Co Roscommon, transported to Van Diemen's Land for stealing food.
Richard Flanagan
#84. Remember, this thing is small. It's not like the wolfships. It'll ride over the waves, not crash through them. So we're safe as houses.
He wasn't sure about the last two statements, but they seemed logical to him.
John Flanagan
#85. Remember no one expects you to be Halt. He's a legend, after all. Haven't you heard? He's eight feet tall and kills bears with his bare hands ...
John Flanagan
#86. Adversity brings out the best in us ... It's everyday living that does us in.
Richard Flanagan
#87. You know, Gilan, sarcasm isn't the lowest form of wit. It's not even wit at all.
John Flanagan
#88. One man's feeling is not always equal to all life is. Sometimes it's not equal to anything much at all.
Richard Flanagan
#89. Halt sighed in exasperation. "What is it with you Araluens? Are you all afraid of a little fall?" He began hauling the rope up, coiling it over his shoulder as it came. "It's not the fall that bothers me," said Duncan. "It's the sudden stop at the end.
John Flanagan
#90. [Will]'d barely been asleep a few minutes when Halt's voice woke him.
'Will? Are you asleep?' ...
'I was,' he said, a little indignantly. 'I'm not now.'
'Good,' Halt replied, a trifle smugly. 'Serves you right.
John Flanagan
#91. Oh dear, oh deary me!" Thorn said in a ridiculous falsetto voice. "What are we going to do? It's twelve big hairy guardsmen and Mahmel in a natty green hat."
It was all very well to joke about it, Hal thought, but the situation was serious.
John Flanagan
#92. I think it's always wrong of writers to make too much of the pains of their labors, because most people have much worse jobs and suffer such indignities and hardships.
Richard Flanagan
#93. If war illuminates love, love offers the possibility of allowing some light to be brought back out of the shadows. It's almost as if they buttress and make possible an understanding of each other.
Richard Flanagan
#94. I love the fact that not many people can say 'Oh, I went out and ran 20 miles today.' I love how much dedication it takes and how much you learn a lot about yourself, your physical and mental limits. There's just something about it.
Shalane Flanagan
#95. Ah, Signor Halt,' he said uncertainly, 'you are making a joke, yes?'
'He is making a joke, no,' Will said. 'But he likes to think he is making a joke, yes.
John Flanagan
#96. You're a dead man, Arratay," Jerrel said through clenched teeth.
Halt smiled. "That's been said before. Yet here I am.
John Flanagan
#97. There's always been something deeply disturbing about the Abbott government's attitude to women.
Richard Flanagan
#98. Let's face it, she can't have simply disappeared ... can she?"
Horace shrugged. "That's what I keep telling myself," he said morosley. "But somehow it looks as if she has.
John Flanagan
#99. There's nothing honerable in a man who hides behind a blue woman's hanky.
John Flanagan
#100. It was one of those Hobart spring nights, cold as charity, snow coming down hard on the mountain, the harbour a lather, sleet slapping and scratching at windows and tin roofs like a wild drunk who's been locked out.
Richard Flanagan
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