Shaping 2024 – Hunting for Quotes with The Word “Shape”

As you know my word of the year was shape. And so I sat out to find quotes with the word shape in them. Of course shape is a rather common word when you need to describe something. So I could find a million quotes which were more or less meaningless. I was hunting for quotes with the word shape that had another layer. A meaning or were just wonderfully poetic. Here are the ones that made that cut.

1. Unsettling thoughts, moving like shapes underwater.
   Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo, p. 261
2. I knew the shape and size of that bottle well by now.
   Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo, p. 192
3. I thought about the blackness in the river of my dreams, that ominous shape that stirred underwater.
   Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo, p. 178
4. Somewhere, a midnight shape stirred, shadow rising from the depths of a river.
   Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo, p. 120
5. What new shapes might the shadows be that those lights threw onto the city streets.
   Immortality, Dana Schwartz, p. 120
6. When I was a child, he would sneak me up through the nursery window onto the roof and teach me the shapes in the stars.
   Anatomy, Dana Schwartz, p. 206
7. …the spell was rising out of her body like a serpent made of steam, writhing into its new shape…
   Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher, p. 85
8. His half of the bed is still faintly warm, indented by the shape of his body, but Arthur is gone.
   Starling House, Alix E. Harrow, p. 246
9. It was difficult to make out the true shape of the river beneath the weight of its own ghosts.
   Starling House, Alix E. Harrow, p. 153
10. From the sour shape of his mouth I get the impression he dislikes not knowing things.
    Starling House, Alix E. Harrow, p. 23
11. She peered at the crescent-shaped lesion running from her little finger to the base of her thumb.
    Echo of old books, Barbara Davis, Position 259
12. It’s only fair to him, and to me, for us to find a new shape to things between us.
    The night we lost him, Laura Dave, p257
13. Much still eluded him, but he could feel the shape of ideas in his head, and it was wonderful.
    Quantum Curators, book four, p. 941
14. He has nice teeth and a nice mouth with a lot of shape to it.
    I Capture the Castle, Dotie Smith, p. 61
15. Trust is faith, that to trust someone is to believe in the goodness of people and in the world that shapes them.
    The girl who fell beneath the Sea, Axie Oh, p. 51
16. Faintly, she recognized the tall shape and circular face of a grandfather clock in the background – the ticking that had been calling to her – but not much else
    The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd, p. 211
17. A basket knows the dual powers of destruction and creation that shape the world. 
    Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, p. 256
18. The water was cold and murky, but the late-afternoon illuminates the shape of his body. 
    When we believed in mermaids, Barbara O‘Neill, p.116
19. I focus on the shape of his fingers, the tidiness of his nails. 
    When we believed in mermaids, Barbara O‘Neill, p.121
20. His buttocks, strong and high, are in my reach, and as he explores my curves, I shape my palm around his and slide down the back of his thighs, dipping between his legs to hear his rumbling.
    When we believed in mermaids, Barbara O‘Neill, p.141
21. He lit a joint, and the smoke made shapes against the night. 
    When we believed in mermaids, Barbara O‘Neill, p.197
22. And overhead, the patterns of stars, slowly changed, assuming unfamiliar shapes.
    To sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini, p. 134

I think my overall top 3 quotes are #1 #12 and #13. They just speak to me.

What quote is your favorite in my list above? Did you have a word you hunted for in your reading (I know Engies is “hat”). Do you think shape a strange word? Do you plan on picking word of the year for 2025?