Quotes from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Perhaps in time, Ella, the words we have lost will fade, and we will all stop summoning them by habit, only to stamp them out like unwanted toadstools when they appear. Perhaps they will eventually disappear altogether, and the accompanying halts and stammers as well: those troublesome, maddening pauses that at present invade and punctuate through caesura all manner of discourse. Trying so desperately we all are, to be ever so careful.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Lately, I haph startet painting my torso in pretty, motley hews. I sit in phront oph the mirror in the sleepy-room. I atmire my hantyworg. I am a hooman apstrat paining.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter "Z" constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter "Z" should be utterly excised--fully extirpated--absolutively heave-ho'ed from our communal vocabulary!”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Would you mind doing this last thing for me? Pack my box with fivedozen liquor jugs?”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Love one another, push the perimeter of this glorious language. Lastly, please show proper courtesy; open not your neighbor's mail.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Hundreds of words await ostracism from our functional vocabularies: waltz and fizz and squeeze and booze and frozen pizza pie, frizzy and fuzzy and dizzy and duzzy, the visualization of emphyzeema-zapped Tarzans, wheezing and sneezing, holding glazed and anodized bazookas, seized by all the bizarrities of this zany zone we call home. Dazed or zombified citizens who recognize hazardous organizations of zealots in their hazy midst, too late - too late to size down. Immobilized we iz. Minimalized. Paralyzed. Zip Zap. ZZZZZZZZZ.

Crazy.
Crazy.
Did I say crazy?”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“U" is gone. I suppose you're aware. The 1st aeiouy to go. Up until now the other graphemes were not aeiouys. When the aeiouys start to go, Ella, writing to you turns exponentially more grueling. I will not throw in the towel, though. I trust that you won't either. I truly relish our partnership.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“We appreciate your coming to us with a copy of your letter to your sister, but it was unnecessary. Your offense was known to us even before the letter's receipt by your sister. Effective as of September 15 the primary responsibility of our isle's new assistant chief postal inspector has been to scan all post for use of illegal letters of the alphabet, then to make nightly reports to the Council. A report has been put on file on your behalf, your official sentence to be forthwith in issuance.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“The Council is wrong. Yet, observe that none of us will risk telling it so, for fear of the consequences.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Instead of the calendrical terms Monday, Tuesday and so forth, we cheerfully offer the following surrogates. Use them freely and often, for their use honors us all. For Sunday, please use Sunshine. For Monday. pleasy use Monty. For Tuesday, please use Toes. For Wednesday, please use Wetty. For Thursday, please use Thurby. For Friday, please use Fribs. For Saturday, please use Satto-gatto.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“His countenance, dear Ellakins, is no strain upon young female eyes!”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“Today we queried, questioned, and inquired. Promise me that come tomorrow, we will not stop asking why.”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

“[Slipped beneath the minnow Pea front door]
Nollopton
Monty No-way 6
Insane woman named Ella:
Retreat is what we want. Go away. Let we alone.
Anonymess”
― Mark Dunn, quote from Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

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Popular quotes

“Always leave a way out, unless you really want to find out how hard a man can fight when he’s nothing to lose.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from The Fires of Heaven

“I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.

I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."

I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.”
― Frederick Douglass, quote from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

“A pentagram is burning
in your eyes
and soft, pale twists of wolfbane
squeeze your heart.
A grinding pain
is writhing in your thighs
the crunch of bones
proclaims the changes start.”
― Annette Curtis Klause, quote from Blood and Chocolate

“Jeśli dobrze rozumiem - powiedział - mam stanąć do pojedynku, bo jeżeli odmówię, to mnie powieszą. Jeśli będę walczył, to mam pozwolić, by przeciwnik mnie okaleczył, bo jeśli ja go zranię, to mnie połamią kołem. Same radosne alternatywy. A może zaoszczędzić wam kłopotów? Huknę głową o pień sosny i sam się obezwładnię.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, quote from The Last Wish

“He felt as though he were hailing a ship.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Garden of Eden

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