Hanif Kureishi Quotes

Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.

He that speakes sowes, and he that holds his peace, gathers.

Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.

Know that a word suddenly shot from the tongue is like an arrow shot from the bow. Son, that arrow won't turn back on its way; you must damn the torrent at its source.

Action hangs, as it were, dissolved in speech, in thoughts whereof speech is the shadow; and precipitates itself therefrom. The kind of speech in a man betokens the kind of action you will get from him.

The tongue talkes at the heads cost.

Words are like arrows, Arianne. Once loosed, you cannot call them back. - Areo Hotah

But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again.

It's too late to correct it: when you've once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.

A goal without real consequences is wishful thinking. Good follow-through doesn't depend on the right intentions. It depends on the right incentives.

Action can give us the feeling of being useful, but only words can give us a sense of weight and purpose.

If we say a little it is easy to add, but having said too much it is hard to withdraw and never can it be done so quickly as to hinder the harm of our success.

Better the feet slip then the tongue.

It's not what enters men's mouth that is evil," said the alchemist. It's what comes out of their mouths that is.

The words that are coming out of my mouth and how I mean them, it's so much different.

You don't deserve words, Sky. You deserve actions.

Things are so easy to do, so hard to undo.

Once sent out, a word takes wings beyond recall.

If you're not gonna pull the trigger, don't point the gun.

I have often regretted having spoken, never having kept silent.

From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things.

It's better to recall something you wish you'd said than something you wish you hadn't.

We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it.

All of life is a risk; in fact we're not going to get out alive. Casualness leads to casualties. Communication is the ability to affect other people with words.