Quotations Weblog

American Book Review has published their list of 100 best first lines from novels. There’s something about a good first line–if it’s done right, it draws you into the novel, setting the scene and giving you an idea of what to expect from the rest of the book. Some of them, like my favorite from Anna Karenina above, do that amazingly well in a short sentence or two. Here are a few more:

• See the complete list at American Book Review

I laughed out loud when I saw this comic for Groundhog Day this year. It’s probably the most up-to-date Groundhog Day comic ever!

• The Joy of Tech – Groundhog Day

Here are my favorite Groundhog Day Quotations:

Today is Self Portrait Tuesday. Many artists with weblogs are participating in this weekly exercise.

“Self Portrait Tuesday is about self expression and exploration. The idea is each Tuesday you post a self portrait on your blog, give a brief explanation of the picture – you may include your state of mind, what you were trying to do, technical information about the image etc. Link back to the list of other SPT people – thus enabling everyone to share and explore each others self portrait experience.”

As you are going through your day, ask yourself, “What is it that I do that paints a portrait of myself to the world?”

For the last couple of years, I have been reading Margaret Cho’s weblog. I knew her as an actress in a horrible movie I had seen called, Sweethearts. Margaret played the smart-mouthed barrista at the coffee shop. It was a minor role that kept me from rewinding the video and returning it unwatched. I guess I should be angry at her for making the poorly written movie watchable enough to see it all the way through, but I’m not. I just wish she had more scenes.

Margaret Cho is an activist first and an actress second. She has a wide variety of standup comedy DVDs to see, but she rarely talks about them on her blog. She talks instead about her life, struggles with weight, and her fight for equality.

Here are some of my favorite quotes I’ve gathered from her writings over the years:

You can read all her quotations here:

• Margaret Cho Quotes – The Quotations Page

I was surprised at how many quotations I’ve collected from For Better or For Worse. It’s a comic that has been around for as long as I have been reading a newspaper. Now, of course, I read Lynn Johnston’s comics online:

• For Better or For Worse Comics

Lynn has done a phenomenal job building up a body of work and I really feel that she deserves a lot more attention than she gets. (Why don’t they televise an award show for comic strips? I might actually watch that just to see what the authors look like.) She has been working on For Better or For Worse since 1978. Every time web comic authors fail to up date like clockwork, I remember the greats like Lynn Johnston who has been updating every day for almost thirty years.

Here are some quotes I’ve gathered from For Better or For Worse:

All the quotes from Lynn Johnston:

• Lynn Johnston Quotes – The Quotations Page