Turn Of Phrase Quotes

#1. But it is a very difficult thing to change the future.
The slightest turn of phrase ... action and the human soul.
The future changes direction based on those things.

CLAMP

#2. A man who can seduce with a turn of phrase will not disappoint in the bedroom.

Adriana Trigiani

#3. To be described is to be seduced. Shit. One turn of phrase. One thing noticed that she'd never noticed. It works always.

Dave Eggers

#4. Blake . . . it's inevitable," I said, repeating the words I'd learned. "You've seen it on the horizon. You know what's coming. Paradise is always lost."
"That's a convenient turn of phrase," he said. "But paradise is never lost. Only destroyed.

Heidi Heilig

#5. I was obsessed with country music when I was a kid, and it's definitely had a huge influence on the way I write songs. I was always attracted to songs that had a brilliant pun or a clever turn of phrase, but came from a dark, bitter place. As a writer, I've always gravitated towards that feeling.

Teddy Thompson

#6. Chaler, who had finished his ale, left the cup where it was, making no effort to procure more, indicating that he was capable of what the natural philosopher calls "learning behaviour," which turn of phrase pleases us so much that we cannot resist making use of it.

Steven Brust

#7. Jack watched Tara glide around the dance floor with the best man, a knot of jealousy threatening to strangle him. Just the phrase 'best man' raised his ire. Who had come up with that turn of phrase anyway?

Dawn M. Turner

#8. To a literate reader, a crisp sentence, an arresting metaphor, a witty aside, an elegant turn of phrase are among life's greatest pleasures. And

Steven Pinker

#9. Which means you have to have a good vocabulary to do magic. And you have to be able to think on your feet. And be brave enough to speak up. And have an ear for a solid turn of phrase.

Rainbow Rowell

#10. Bryan finds that appeals to character are effective for adults as well. His team was able to cut cheating in half with the same turn of phrase: instead of "Please don't cheat," they changed the appeal to "Please don't be a cheater." When

Adam M. Grant

#11. The niftiest turn of phrase, the most elegant flight of rhetorical fancy, isn't worth beans next to a clear thought clearly expressed.

Jeff Greenfield

#12. Pleased as punch. That's an odd-sounding turn of phrase, isn't it? How can a punch be pleased? It's punch. Rum and lemons and such. And if it's the other sort of punch they mean, a punch in the face- well that doesn't sound very pleasing at all, does it?

Gail Dayton

#13. Taste speaks through a turn of phrase, a curl of the lip, a shrug of the shoulder: it makes an atmosphere.

Irving Howe

#14. They say some people ' cast a thin shadow', a turn of phrase that fitted my father like a glove. Too weak, too kind, he couldn't even say goodbye to my mother and me when he left. Weak and pathetic, pathetic and sad - that Dad.

Rika Yokomori

#15. I always have a pad of paper and a pencil within reach, to catch on the wing this turn of phrase which strikes me as felicitous, that idea which I hope to be able to examine more closely in the light of day.

Roger Martin

#16. After all, if you're going to kick authority in the teeth, it helps to have a manic smile on your face and a middle finger outstretched. Or, at the very least, armed with an ironic turn of phrase. Just ask any well meaning punk. Or Bob Dylan.

Unknown

#17. I come from a land afar and a land up high. My abilities are only eclipsed by my excellent turn of phrase and if you open your mind, they could be your abilities too.

Thomas William Shaw

#18. Style, not least, adds beauty to the world. To a literate reader, a crisp sentence, an arresting metaphor, a witty aside, an elegant turn of phrase are among life's greatest pleasures.

Steven Pinker

#19. If I hear an interesting turn of phrase on TV, I'll repeat it back - I just like to roll it around on my tongue. The same goes for dialog: I'll either speak it aloud or whisper it. I definitely sit in front of my computer and mutter. People have mentioned it.

Terence Winter

#20. Thomas Teal, a luminous translator of Jansson's twin talent for surface and depth, simplicity and reverberation in language, and someone who knows exactly how to convey her gift for sensing the meaning embedded in the most mundane act or turn of phrase.

Ali Smith

#21. With every line he teaches her, the world grows a little wider. She had never known before how words could sing,how a turn of phrase could unlock a window in her mind.

Rosamund Hodge

#22. You have to have a good vocabulary to do magic. And you have to be able to think on your feet. And be brave enough to speak up. And have an ear for a solid turn of phrase. And you have to actually understand what you're saying - how the words translate into magic.

Rainbow Rowell

#23. Al shook his head. "Honestly," he said. "How can you use such things?"
Mary Frances finished her thought. Use was an interesting word, the word for tools, talents, whores. She wanted to say, At least I'm using something, but she looked at his face, and she couldn't.

Ashley Warlick

#24. Standing at the original Victorian counter was a man in a long black leather coat. His hair had been grown to counteract its unequivocal retreat from the top of his head, and was fashioned into a mean, frail ponytail that hung limply down his back. Blooms of acne highlighted his vampire-white skin.

Julia Stuart

#25. A war, or any wild-goose chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of keeping himself in place.

Mary Wollstonecraft

#26. We can go somewhere more private if you'd like ... Buck I whisper softly in his ear, pulling back almost as slowly as the wicked grin spreads across my face. His perverse smile hides nothing. I have him now, hook, line and zipper.

Dennis Sharpe

#27. Pandora, possessed by the unleashed contents of her box.

Salman Rushdie

#28. Until the thirst for power parched his throat, he was a fearless and noble lord.

Lloyd Alexander

#29. I watched her face switch among the radio stations of memory

Diane Ackerman

#30. Solomon counted out the coins very slowly and in silence, and then said, "Are you certain you weren't born Jewish?"
"No," said Dodger. "I've looked. I'm not, but thanks for the compliment.

Terry Pratchett

#31. Grandma Harken was sharpening her garden shears. Her hands slowed on the file and she said finally, "He'll get in trouble and he'll figure it out. Best to do it without us standing over him. It's the only way anybody ever learns to clean up after themselves.

Ursula Vernon

#32. You know why I've survived in this job, year after year, lousy assignment after lousy assignment, with no counseling whatsoever? Because I have a keen appreciation of the ludicrous. Also because I have no choice.

Kage Baker

#33. When in Rome; burn it.

Iain M. Banks

#34. At these moments I need my reading easy and quick; I need to turn the pages without knowing it. I don't have the bandwidth to wonder about the underlying meaning of the exact word chosen to phrase how one turned around or analyze just why an object was described in a certain

Lauren Leto

#35. The men were less interesting to look at, but nearly all had that air about them that I could sometimes detect in Will
of wealth and entitlement, a sense that life would settle itself agreeably around them.

Jojo Moyes

#36. Being surrounded by toadies does not mean you are respected; it means you are the head toad.

Jo Goodman

#37. The only talents he possessed were delusions of adequacy.

Jodi Taylor