"You Never Realize How Strong You Are Until Being Strong is Your Only Choice."
Do you know who said that line? Have you seen it on a random inspirational poster and thought they made it up? How about this one:
"It is What a man Thinks of himself that Truly Determines his Fate."
-or-
"No Fate But What We Make."
Okay, those last two were from wildly different sources, saying the same thing. The second one is from Sarah Connor, but from the second Terminator movie when the annoying son quotes her. It's the quote that kept running through my head as perfect for my WIP character to spout, except... well, it's a Terminator reference and would take more explaining than I wanted to get into for the story. So I looked up quotes about fate and found the other, which is from Henry David Thoreau and the character would've studied it in high school. Same idea, easier to slip into the narrative.
Do you use quotes in your writing? In GHOSTS DON'T LIE I had two character arguing over the famous "of Mice and Men" quote, which actually originated with a poem by Robert Burns and was originally "schemes" and not "plans" ...
“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.”
but colloquially we often hear, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."
I'm not even sure if John Steinbeck even uses the entire quote in his novel OF MICE AND MEN but everyone knew what he meant. And it signaled to the reader that things were not going to go according to plan for the main characters.
In my own work, I was going for literary foreshadowing. The character's mother had schemes that didn't work out the way she planned. The abusive husband made plans to kill his wife that went horribly wrong.
I like it when a character quotes a book or movie or song, with a line that adds meaning and depth to what's going on in the bigger picture of the novel. But I draw the line at the in-depth quotes. If you can't do it with a phrase or a sentence, should you be adding the quote at all?
It was popular for a while in romance novels to have song lyrics running through chapters, you know, where the rock star hero is writing and singing songs about the protagonist, trying to win her heart. Or maybe it's just that string of New Adult rock star books I binged on last spring... but it didn't work for me. I tended to skip over the paragraphs of lyrics. If they were there to further the plot, I skipped right over it anyway and don't feel like I missed something.
What about you? Do you use quotes or phrases in your own writing? Do you like reading them in other people's work? How long is too long? What's your favorite source for finding the perfect quote?
And who wrote the quote at the top of the page? I already answered the question on Peggy Jaeger's Facebook page, since she posted one of those "inspirational poster" memes this morning to start off my rant. So I know. Do you?
Happy Writing!
