The Best 100 Closing Lines From Books - Life - Stylist Magazine

Animal Farm

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Memoirs of a Geisha

"Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper."

Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden

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The Catcher in the Rye

"It's funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Where the Wild Things Are

"Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him—and it was still hot."


Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

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Origin of Species

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

Origin of Species, Charles Darwin

Little Women

"Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this."

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

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The Beach

"I'm fine. I have bad dreams but I never saw Mister Duck again. I play video games. I smoke a little dope. I got my thousand-yard stare. I carry a lot of scars. I like the way that sounds. I carry a lot of scars."

The Beach, Alex Garland

The Handmaid's Tale

"Are there any questions?"

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

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Of Mice and Men

"Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, 'Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?'"

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

The Age of Innocence

"At that, as if it had been the signal he waited for, Newland Archer got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel."

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

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The Fiery Cross

"'When the day shall come, that we do part,' he said softly, and turned to look at me, 'if my last words are not ‘I love you’ – ye’ll ken it was because I didna have time.'"

The Fiery Cross, Diana Gabaldon

The Long Goodbye

''I never saw any of them again — except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them."

The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

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A Hundred and One Days

"The white floodlight shines through the wispy tule and makes thin shadows. A sudden breeze over the Tigris forms a tiny whirlwind. It floats through the balcony doors and makes the curtains dance."

A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Asne Seierstad

A Thousand Splendid Suns

"But the naming game involves only male names, because if it's a girl, Laila has already named her."

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

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The Kitchen God's Wife

"Of course, it's only superstition, just for fun. But see how fast the smoke rises--oh, even faster when we laugh, lifting our hopes, higher and higher."

The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan

Brave New World

"Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east ... "

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

"Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead."

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce

Emma

"But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union."

Emma, Jane Austen

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