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Never Quotes

Quotes on what never happens.

This page gathers quotes centered on absence and limits - books that stayed unpublished, and a pointed line arguing that secrecy is fundamentally undesirable, merely tolerated when unavoidable. Related reading includes Life Quotes.

I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself.

Quotes by Alice Hoffman

I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal novelist.

Quotes by Alice Hoffman

I grew up in South Africa without a television; there was no television, and the year after I left, television arrived in South Africa, so I have never really acquired a taste for watching television.

Quotes by Alice Krige

I never stop getting nervous. I'm nervous before every single show.

Quotes by Alice Levine

I was born in Brooklyn, but I never lived there.

Quotes by Alice McDermott

In grammar school I read 'Act One' by Moss Hart, and being a playwright struck me as the most magical and romantic career anyone could have... But I never did write a play.

Quotes by Alice McDermott

I always wanted to do something with music, but to be honest, I never thought I'd be good enough.

Quotes by Alice Merton

I started quite late. I only discovered that I could write a song when I was, like, 17... some musicians, they're starting out, writing songs when they're, like, 12, 13. I never thought I would go into songwriting when I...

Quotes by Alice Merton

Baking is more like chemistry, following certain instructions and knowing what comes out in the end. It's almost reassuring! Songwriting is a creative process where you go into a session with nothing and can come out of it with something...

Quotes by Alice Merton

I would bake for my grandma because she has never had anything I've baked.

Quotes by Alice Merton

A child too, can never grasp the fact that the same mother who cooks so well, is so concerned about his cough, and helps so kindly with his homework, in some circumstance has no more feeling than a wall of...

Quotes by Alice Miller

In twenty years I've never had a day when I didn't have to think about someone else's needs. And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.

Quotes by Alice Munro

'Royal Beatings' was my first story, and it was published in 1977. But I sent all my early stories to 'The New Yorker' in the 1950s, and then I stopped sending for a long time and sent only to magazines...

Quotes by Alice Munro

I have never kept diaries. I just remember a lot and am more self-centered than most people.

Quotes by Alice Munro

I never start out with any kind of connecting theme or plan. Everything just falls the way it falls. I don't ever think about what kind of fiction I write or what I am writing about or what I am...

Quotes by Alice Munro

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn't intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to...

Quotes by Alice Munro

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as 'the little wife.' You don't know what it was like then! I'd never even written a cheque. I had to ask...

Quotes by Alice Munro

I've lived in a big showplace house, and I never want to live again in a house that overshadows me.

Quotes by Alice Munro

I never meant to be a full-time poet: I started out as a gardener, an ideal job for a poet because your head is left free.

Quotes by Alice Oswald

I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.

Quotes by Alice Paul

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of quotes are gathered under "Never"?
These quotes explore things that haven't happened, aren't wanted, or weren't anticipated — unpublished books that never found a marketing angle, the idea that secrets are "never desirable" even when needed, and a reflection on how it "never occurred" to anyone that private conversation might need protecting.
Are these quotes mostly about regret?
Not exactly regret, more observation — noticing gaps, oversights, or things that didn't come to pass, like unpublished books or an unanticipated need for privacy protections.
Is there a quote about problem-solving here?
Yes — one notes that "people constantly face problems they've never seen before" and have to improvise solutions, which is a nice contrast to the other, more resigned quotes on this page.
How is "Never" different from <a href="/always-quotes">Always</a> quotes?
They're natural opposites — "Always" quotes are about consistency and long-held habits, while "Never" quotes are about absence, gaps, and things that haven't happened.
What should I read if I want something more upbeat?
Good quotes or Like quotes lean lighter, while "Never" quotes tend to be more contemplative. For a broader reflective read, Life quotes is also worth checking.

Other quotes touch on constitutional rights never explicitly written down, and the constant stream of new problems people have never faced before. See also Always Quotes and Good Quotes.