Quotes from The Problem Child

“The only bad ideas are the ones never tried.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“By the way, you don't need the makeup." Puck said.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“He did something so un-Pucklike, Sabrina couldn’t believe it. He got up sat behind her, and let his enormous fairy wings sprout from his back. Then he wrapped them around her to keep the bitter cold away. It was the first truly nice thing the so-called Trickster King had ever done for her.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“Sabrina?”
“Daphne! Are you okay?”
“Yes. Sabrina?”
“What?”
“I hate you!” the little girl screamed.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“came out to this site and do you know what I heard?” There was a brief silence and then a loud, squeaky fart. Sabrina turned and saw Puck fall over with laughter. For once, one of his childish pranks was well timed.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“Puck was a genuine pain in the butt, but he had powers and those powers made him useful.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“Sabrina shook off her surprise and together they took turns kicking the stranger.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“You want me to be your boyfriend, don’t you?” Puck taunted. His wings suddenly popped out of his back and he swooped over to Sabrina. Before she knew how to react, the boy kissed her on the lips. A million thoughts ran through Sabrina’s head at once. Puck was annoying. He had dumped her in vats of disgusting glop. He’d put creepy crawlers in her bed. But the most awful thought of them all was the one about the kiss—it was nice.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“The more the girls heard, the more it became clear that Uncle Jake and their straight-laced father had been first-class juvenile delinquents.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“The only bad ideas are the ones never tried,” Puck”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“Puck helped her out the door, wrapping his arm around her and guiding her through the snowdrifts.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“The library spilled onto the floor and into the other rooms. Some books held up wobbly tables, others were literally swept under the rug. Sabrina had once found a book inside the toilet tank.”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

“The little girl in the red cloak who had taken her parents was Little Red Riding Hood!”
― Michael Buckley, quote from The Problem Child

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Popular quotes

“Not all of the women were influenced by the pheromones, but enough of them were to elevate the findings to robust statistical significance and to demonstrate with fair firmness that human pheromones exist. What we see in this carefully controlled experiment is that women can push and women can pull, and they can respond to other women in varying ways, all unconsciously, without knowing why, without the benefit even of olfaction, for the women in the study said they smelled nothing when the swab was applied under their nose, save for the scent of rubbing alcohol used as a prep in the experiment.”
― Natalie Angier, quote from Woman: An Intimate Geography

“Human relationships are vast as deserts: they demand all daring, she seemed to suggest. ”
― Patrick White, quote from Voss

“ignition! blast off!!! the vessel needs a new name! something more appropriate to a starship.
apollo? gemini? enterprise. already taken.
millennium falcon. trademarked. all rights reserved.
no! wait, i have it! dragin star! thats it! dragon star!”
― Margaret Weis, quote from Elven Star

“But I can cite ten other reasons for not being a father."
"First of all, I don't like motherhood," said Jakub, and he broke off pensively. "Our century has already unmasked all myths. Childhood has long ceased to be an age of innocence. Freud discovered infant sexuality and told us all about Oedipus. Only Jocasta remains untouchable; no one dares tear off her veil. Motherhood is the last and greatest taboo, the one that harbors the most grievous curse. There is no stronger bond than the one that shackles mother to child. This bond cripples the child's soul forever and prepares for the mother, when her son has grown up, the most cruel of all the griefs of love. I say that motherhood is a curse, and I refuse to contribute to it."
"Another reason I don't want to add to the number of mothers," said Jakub with some embarrassment, "is that I love the female body, and I am disgusted by the thought of my beloved's breast becoming a milk-bag."
"The doctor here will certainly confirm that physicians and nurses treat women hospitalized after an aborted pregnancy more harshly than those who have given birth, and show some contempt toward them even though they themselves will, at least once in their lives, need a similar operation. But for them it's a reflex stronger than any kind of thought, because the cult of procreation is an imperative of nature. That's why it's useless to look for the slightest rational argument in natalist propaganda. Do you perhaps think it's the voice of Jesus you're hearing in the natalist morality of the church? Do you think it's the voice of Marx you're hearing in the natalist propaganda of the Communist state? Impelled merely by the desire to perpetuate the species, mankind will end up smothering itself on its small planet. But the natalist propaganda mill grinds on, and the public is moved to tears by pictures of nursing mothers and infants making faces. It disgusts me. It chills me to think that, along with millions of other enthusiasts, I could be bending over a cradle with a silly smile."
"And of course I also have to ask myself what sort of world I'd be sending my child into. School soon takes him away to stuff his head with the falsehoods I've fought in vain against all my life. Should I see my son become a conformist fool? Or should I instill my own ideas into him and see him suffer because he'll be dragged into the same conflicts I was?"
"And of course I also have to think of myself. In this country children pay for their parents' disobedience, and parents for their children's disobedience. How many young people have been denied education because their parents fell into disgrace? And how many parents have chosen permanent cowardice for the sole purpose of preventing harm to their children? Anyone who wants to preserve at least some freedom here shouldn't have children," Jakub said, and fell into silence.
"The last reason carries so much weight that it counts for five," said Jakub. "Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born and have tasted life and declare it so good that it merits being duplicated."
"And you have not found life to be good?" asked Bertlef.
Jakub tried to be precise, and said cautiously: "All I know is that I could never say with complete conviction: Man is a wonderful being and I want to reproduce him.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Farewell Waltz

“But I just couldn't seem to get excited about the fact that we were sorta having a date.I mean, he'd asked me to go skiing with him, and so here I was, and my heart should have been pounding.
But it wasn't.
I could have been going to the grocery store to pick up a bag of potatoes for all the thudding it was doing.”
― Rachel Hawthorne, quote from Love on the Lifts

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