Himes Quotes

#1. I wrote my graduate thesis at New York University on hard-boiled fiction from the 1930s and 1940s, so, for about two years, I read nothing but Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James Cain and Chester Himes. I developed such a love for this kind of writing.

Megan Abbott

#2. what i really need is a dead man.

Chester Himes

#3. I don't feel that I was a Hollywood-created star.

Kim Novak

#4. It seemed so illogical to punish some poor criminal for doing something that civilization taught him how to do so he could have something that civilization taught him how to want. It seemed to him as wrong as if they had hung the gun that shot the man.

Chester Himes

#5. His wings, all six, shed embers of incandescent grace as he skidded across the night sky. And when he opened his mouths to scream, the Earth could do naught but shudder.

Ian Tregillis

#6. American violence is public life, it's a public way of life, it became a form, a detective story form. So I should think that any number of black writers should go into the detective story form.

Chester Himes

#7. No greater problem is presented to the human mind.

Annie Jump Cannon

#8. The 'Carousel' overture has always been one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.

Kelli O'Hara

#9. I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Chester Himes

#10. Growth is the surviving influence in all our lives. The tree will send up its trunk in thick profusion from land burned black by atom bombs. Children will grow from poverty and filth and oppression and develop honor, integrity, contribute to all mankind.

Chester Himes

#11. The Harlem of my books was never meant to be real; I never called it real; I just wanted to take it away from the white man if only in my books.

Chester Himes

#12. Dream-travelers, there is no path, paths are made by dreaming.

Antonio Machado

#13. Why can't you?" he snapped as if on cue. "You're not fooling...

Elise Himes

#14. I remain as committed as ever to working across party lines with anyone who believes we must invest in the future of our economy by revitalizing our transportation infrastructure, ensuring every child is getting a world class education, and spurring research and development of new technologies.

Jim Himes

#15. Western magical practitioners incorrectly call such a creature a demon, when I would describe it as a kidnapped inter-dimensional alien.

S.J. Himes

#16. I'm a big taco fan.

Leslie Easterbrook

#17. You don't always have to kiss a lot of frogs to recognize a prince when you find one
-Henrietta Barett

Julia Quinn

#18. I go out and take oysters, clams and mussels every 2 weeks or so during late fall, winter and early spring. I particularly like to go out when there is a below-average ebb tide because that exposes clamming grounds and oysters that are usually under water.

Jim Himes

#19. Love me for stupid reasons,
I like those most.

Sarah Slean

#20. There is an indomitable quality within the human spirit that cannot be destroyed; a face deep within the human personality that is impregnable to all assaults.

Chester Himes

#21. The sky was a flawless blue, the color of surgical gloves.

Mira Grant

#22. Martyrs are needed to create incidents. Incidents are needed to create revolutions. Revolutions are needed to create progress.

Chester Himes

#23. The negative screams at you but the positive only whispers.

Barbara Fredrickson

#24. Our highest ambition is to be included in the stream of American life, to be permitted to "play the game" as any other American; and is opposed to anything that aids in the exclusion; the face may be Africa, but the heart has the beat of Wall Street.

Chester Himes

#25. I make a wicked clam chowdah, and linguine with clam sauce. Oysters I like to eat raw, and mussels in either a white wine sauce or in beer with paprika.

Jim Himes

#26. For humans, the challenge is to unite soul and role, to discover the hidden wholeness that enables us to be in the world who we are in our souls, and to act in accordance with our deepest and truest natures.

Andrew Himes

#27. I was kind of reflecting on my life and certain experiences, and you know, when I'm teaching and coaching my partners on 'Dancing With the Stars,' I sort of use those stories and anecdotes to help them sort of overcome certain fears.

Derek Hough

#28. I would sit in my room and become hysterical about the wild incredible story I was writing. And I thought I was writing realism. It never occurred to me that I was writing absurdity. Realism and absurdity are so similar in the lives of American blacks one cannot tell the difference.

Chester Himes

#29. At no time are people so sedulously careful to keep their trifling appointments, attend to their ordinary occupations, and thus put a commonplace aspect on life, as when conscious of some secret that if suspected would make them look monstrous in the general eye.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

#30. It felt like fate. That if Gray Shadow and Caius could not find their way to each other, their bloodlines eventually did.

S.J. Himes

#31. The discussion of derivatives in the political world has become a zero sum game.

Jim Himes

#32. I've got a sister who races motorcycles and another sister who's a Holy Roller preacher.

Billy Carter

#33. When you get to mixing sex and religion, it will make anybody crazy.

Chester Himes

#34. Man cannot live without some knowledge of the purpose of life. If he can find no purpose in life he creates one in the inevitability of death.

Chester Himes

#35. Democracy is not tolerance. Democracy is a prescribed way of life erected on the premise that all men are created equal.

Chester Himes

#36. New England oysters are better than Chesapeake. But Chesapeake blue crabs are unbeatable.

Jim Himes

#37. Gerald smiled down at her, and she relaxed, leaning on them both. "I'm glad I came in for a sandwich," Gerald whispered, and Royrick laughed, tossing back his head.

S.J. Himes