Quotes About Paddling

“Every agent has a Sig Weiss-as a rosy dream. You sit there day after day paddling through oceans of slush, hoping one day to run across a manuscript that means something-sincerity, integrity, high word rates-things like that. You try to understand what editors want in spite of what they say they want, and then you try to tell it to writers who never listen unless they're talking. You lend them money and psychoanalyze them and agree with them when they lie to themselves. When they write stories that don't make it, it's your fault. When they write stories that do make it, they did it by themselves. And when they hit the big time, they get themselves another agent. In the meantime, nobody likes you.”

— Theodore Sturgeon

“I think this is when most people give up on their stories. They come out of college wanting to change the world, wanting to get married, wanting to have kids and change the way people buy office supplies. But they get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. They can't see the distant shore anymore, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward. None of the trees behind them are getting smaller and none of the trees ahead are getting bigger. They take it out on their spouses, and they go looking for an easier story.”

— Donald Miller

“Be like a duck, paddling and working very hard inside the water, but what everyone sees is a smiling and calm face.”

— Manoj Arora

“Along the wide curving moat surrounding the palace, rows of cherry trees announced the end of their seasonal beauty. Some of the trees were weeping: blossoms in white and palest pink, ponderous with decreptitude, eddying on the brown water, stirred by the paddling of ducks.”

— John Burnham Schwartz

“I had a dream about you. We were in a canoe, and we were paddling across the desert. You said you were thirsty, and I pointed to the sand that surrounded us and said, "No, I will not urinate in your mouth." At that point I woke up, because I realized I really had to pee-and get a drink of water.”

— Dora J. Arod

“More and more, paddling the Yellowstone feels like that bedside visit, like we are attending to a friend in dire straits, a friend whom we have seen in the full bloom of health, but with whom, now, there is little to say and only our companionship to offer.”

— Alan S. Kesselheim

“To some people, I may seem calm. But if you could peer beneath the surface, you would see that I'm like a duck
paddling, paddling, paddling.”

— Scott Stossel

“When your life feels like you're on a sailboat, with no wind to fill your sails, there are still choices. You can drop anchor and enjoy your surroundings. Start your motor, if you have one. Grab an oar and start paddling, or wait for the wind to fill your sails once again. There are always other choices while crossing the ocean of life ...”

— James A. Murphy

“Once upon a time, wasn't singing a part of everyday life as much as talking, physical exercise, and religion? Our distant ancestors, wherever they were in this world, sang while pounding grain, paddling canoes, or walking long journeys. Can we begin to make our lives once more all of a piece? Finding the right songs and singing them over and over is a way to start. And when one person taps out a beat, while another leads into the melody, or when three people discover a harmony they never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few feet higher, then they also know there is hope for the world.”

— Pete Seeger

“He doesn't respond and this is his way of punishing me. To be ignored by him is worse than a spanking or paddling, because most times a spanking is quite enjoyable. He's learned that receiving pain from him is my weakness and not really a penalty at all and so he's taken to different forms of true punishment when the situation calls for it.”

— Ella Dominguez

“The swans swam ahead, always ahead, their bodies gliding so that none could see the effort of their feet beneath the surface, paddling, moving, propelling them forward, forward, to that beautiful spot far ahead, an incandescent curtain of light, a shower of moonbeams, a heavenly constellation of stars.”

— Melanie Benjamin

“All that paddling around in the alphabet soup of one's childhood, scooping up letters, hoping to arrange them into enlightening sentences that would explain why things had turned out the way they had. It evoked a certain mutiny in me.”

— Sue Monk Kidd

“Treading water, a little dog-paddling-it's a lot like writing a novel, Clark," the dump reader told his former student. "It feels like you're going a long way, because it's a lot of work, but you're basically covering old ground-you're hanging out in familiar territory.”

— John Irving

“As an actor, what's interesting is what's hidden away beneath the surface. You want to be like a duck on a pond - very calm on the surface but paddling away like crazy underneath.”

— Alexander Skarsgard

“I believe in capitalism for everybody, not necessarily high finance but capitalism that works for the working men and women of this country who are out there paddling alone in America right now.”

— Rick Santorum

“You're off your fucking rocker!" "You have no idea. I don't have a rocker anymore. I don't even have a fucking porch to put it on. And there certainly aren't slow paddling fans or magnolia trees blossoming above aforementioned missing chair.”

— Karen Marie Moning

“You are likely to fall when you stop paddling your bicycle. Such is life. As long as you don't give up, you will never end up failing!”

— Israelmore Ayivor

“People go surfing before work and paddling afterward. My husband is from Wisconsin, and he goes to work in his Hawaiian shirt.”

— Kaui Hart Hemmings

“Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”

— Michael Caine

“Yes, during the pilot, they gave me a little toy from the shop. It's like three little moose in a boat, paddling. It's very cute. And I got to keep some of the clothes.”

— Caroline Dhavernas

“I was never looking back in regret. I never thought, Oh, why didn't I become an actress? or Why did I just go paddling along after John? I've always walked along right by his side, and he's always supported everything I do.”

— June Carter Cash

“Writing is always a restorative process. It's like paddling a kayak. When you're writing, you can't do anything else. You're in the space you're in. So, in that way, it's enormously centering and restorative.”

— Tabitha King

“The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling. (Varys)”

— George R.R. Martin

“I come to Maui and go surfing, standup paddling, slacklining, swimming, and free-diving.”

— Julia Mancuso

“Did you bring the charms?" Wulf asked Diesel.
Diesel took the charms from his pocket and held them in his palm so Wulf could see.
"They have an excellent selection of baby carriages at Target," I whispered to Diesel.
"Not now," Diesel said. "Get a grip."
"Was I bad? DO I need to get punished? Maybe I need a good paddling."
Wulf looked like he was thinking about rolling his eyes, and Diesel wrapped an arm around my shoulders and dragged me to him.
"We'll get to that later," Diesel said.
"I'd be happy to paddle the wench if you're too bust." Hatchet said.
Diesel cut his eyes to him, and Hatchet took a step back.
-Lizzy, Diesel, and Hatchet, page 304.”

— Janet Evanovich

“If you're one of the hundreds of thousands of people out there toiling over your unpublished manuscript, trying to make your way across that vast ocean in a bathtub, I can only say this to you: keep paddling. Well, either that or start vlogging.”

— John Niven

“At the window he sits and looks out, musing on the river, a little brown hen duck paddling upstream among the windwaves close to the far bank. What he has understood lies behind him like a road in the woods. He is a wilderness looking out at the wild.”

— Wendell Berry

“Self-builders are the adrenalin junkies of the DIY world; it's the equivalent of base-jumping off the top of the Gherkin to land in a paddling pool.”

— Kevin McCloud

“I am walking up and down the line of sentries, under the dark boughs of the poplars. In the flooded ditch outside the rats are paddling about, making as much noise as otters. As the yellow dawn comes up behind us, the Andalusian sentry, muffled in his cloak, begins singing. Across no-man's-land, a hundred or two hundred yards away, you can hear the Fascist sentry also singing.”

— George Orwell

“A part of me is missing when I can't ski, but I've learned there's more to define me and make me happy, like stand-up paddling and Jet Skiing - things I'd never done before. Or being with people I love and just enjoying life.”

— Lindsey Vonn

“Two hundred miles from the surface of the earth there is no gravity. The laws of motion are suspended. You could turn somersaults slowly slowly, weight into weightlessness, nowhere to fall. As you lay on your back paddling in space you might notice your feet had fled your head. You are stretching slowly slowly, getting longer, your joints are slipping away from their usual places. There is no connection between your shoulder and your arm. You will break up bone by bone, fractured from who you are, drifting away now, the centre cannot hold.”

— Jeanette Winterson

“Waterhouse's new roommate is out of town just now, but by glancing over his personal effects, Waterhouse estimates that he is paddling a black kayak from Australia to Yokosuka Naval Base, where he will slip on board a battleship and silently kill its entire crew with his bare hands before doing an Olympic-qualifying dive into the bay, punching out a few sharks, climbing back into his kayak and paddling back to Australia for a beer.”

— Neal Stephenson

“Surfing is kind of a good metaphor for the rest of life.
The extremely good stuff - chocolate and great sex and weddings and hilarious jokes - fills a minute portion of an adult lifespan.
The rest of life is the paddling: work, paying bills, flossing, getting sick, dying.”

— Jaimal Yogis

“I am paddling laps in a demitasse of home-brewed ennui”

— Michael Perry

“If anarchists are idealists, they may simply be likened to someone who finds himself swimming in a cesspool and, rather than paddling about looking for the area with the least amount of floating faeces, seeks to climb out of the pool completely.”

— Robert Higgs

“I'm like a duck: calm above the water, and paddling like hell underneath.”

— Fred Shero

“I love the ocean and have a passion for surfing, even though I'm not very good at it. I like getting out there and paddling around.”

— AnnaSophia Robb

“Well, in regards to surfing, I've learned that there is always another wave coming. Translated that means there is always tomorrow. No matter how badly you get caught inside, if you can just hang in there and keep paddling, the set is going to pass and there will be a lull afterwards. So don't give up, just take your pounding, wait until the set passes, then make your move.”

— Gerry Lopez

“Everyone gets caught inside when surfing. You have 2 options. Give up or paddle outside. Life is the same. Keep paddling!”

— Gerry Lopez

“I've always thought you should concentrate on paddling your own canoe.”

— John Dos Passos

“The water here in Cardiff is much easier than in London, so for us it is more relaxing paddling here. This race is for us a continuation of our training, we will compete in only this World cup. We don't want to travel too much before the Olympic Games and we want to focus on the Games.”

— Pavol Hochschorner

“Coaches are like ducks. Calm on top, but paddling underneath. Believe me, there's a lot of leg movement.”

— Ken Hitchcock

“Acting in a scene is like paddling a canoe from a pebbly beach on to the river, the writer builds the canoe, and the actor provides the river. The river is the actor's thoughts and emotions.”

— Sanford Meisner

“In modern times we are often encouraged to protect our ego-force and individuality by securing a private world in which to develop our unique artistic voice. Many artists find themselves solo-paddling along a private and unchallenging river ... Could rivalry be a productive system?”

— Sara Genn

“The secret of success is to be like a duck, Smooth and unruffled on top, But paddling furiously underneath.”

— Bill Cosby

“Lord Maccon, being Lord Maccon and good at such things, then changed, right there in the Thames, from dog-paddling wolf to large man treading water. He did so flawlessly, so that his head never went under the water. Professor Lyall suspected him of practicing such maneuvers in the bathtub.”

— Gail Carriger

“The danger with the internet is that you don't need to think about music, you just search for it and you find the answer. Singing used to be part of everyday life. Women sang while pounding corn. Men sang while paddling canoes.”

— Pete Seeger

“Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal.”

— Pierre Trudeau

“In a bull market, one must avoid the error of the preening duck that quacks boastfully after a torrential rainstorm, thinking that its paddling skills have caused it to rise in the world. A right-thinking duck would instead compare its position after the downpour to that of the other ducks on the pond.”

— Warren Buffett

“I'm a legend because I've survived over a long period of time and still seem to be master of my fate - I'm still paddling the goddamned boat myself.”

— Katharine Hepburn