Friday, September 28, 2012
Song of Myself - Pg 54
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you
Song of Myself - Pg 52
Toss, sparkles of day and dusk . . . . toss on the black stems that decay
in the muck,
Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs.
in the muck,
Toss to the moaning gibberish of the dry limbs.
Song of Myself - Pg 52
And as to you life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths,
No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.
No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.
Song of Myself - Pg 52
I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed
by God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will
punctually come forever and ever
by God's name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will
punctually come forever and ever
Song of Myself - Pg 51
No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and
about death.
I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in
the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
about death.
I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in
the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.
Song of Myself - Pg 51
And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the
learning of all times
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the
learning of all times
Song of Myself - Pg 50
I swear I will never mention love or death inside a house,
And I swear I never will translate myself at all, only to him or her who
privately stays with me in the open air.
And I swear I never will translate myself at all, only to him or her who
privately stays with me in the open air.
Song of Myself - Pg 50
First rate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull's eye, to sail a skiff, to sing a
song or play on the bajo,
Preferring scars and faces pitted with smallpox over all latherers and
those that keep out of the sun.
song or play on the bajo,
Preferring scars and faces pitted with smallpox over all latherers and
those that keep out of the sun.
Song of Myself - Pg 49
Sit awhile wayfarer,
Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink,
But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes I will
certainly kiss you with my goodbye kiss and open the gate for
your egress hence.
Here are biscuits to eat and here is milk to drink,
But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes I will
certainly kiss you with my goodbye kiss and open the gate for
your egress hence.
Song of Myself - Pg 49
If you tire, give be both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on
my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me;
my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me;
Song of Myself - Pg 49
My left hand hooks you round the waist,
My right hand points to landscapes of continents, and a plain public
road.
My right hand points to landscapes of continents, and a plain public
road.
Song of Myself - Pg 47
All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me,
Now I stand on this spot with my soul.
Now I stand on this spot with my soul.
Song of Myself - Pg 46
Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me,
Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, the vapor from the nostrils
of death
Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, the vapor from the nostrils
of death
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Song of Myself - Pg 45
The past is the push of you and me and all precisely the same,
And the day and night are for you and me and all
And the day and night are for you and me and all
Song of Myself - Pg 43
They who piddle and patter here in collars and tailed coats . . . . I am
aware who they are . . . . and that they are not worms or fleas,
I acknowledge the duplicates of myself under all the scrape-lipped
and pipe-legged concealments.
aware who they are . . . . and that they are not worms or fleas,
I acknowledge the duplicates of myself under all the scrape-lipped
and pipe-legged concealments.
Song of Myself - Pg 43
Ever love . . . . ever the sobbing liquid of life,
Ever the bandage under the chin . . . . ever the trestles of death.
Ever the bandage under the chin . . . . ever the trestles of death.
Song of Myself - Pg 43
Ever the eaters and drinkers . . . . ever the upward and downward
sun . . . . ever the air and the ceaseless tides
sun . . . . ever the air and the ceaseless tides
Song of Myself - Pg 40
Man or woman! I might tell how I like you, but cannot,
And might tell what it is in me and what it is in you, but cannot,
And might tell the pinings I have . . . . the pulse of my nights and
days.
And might tell what it is in me and what it is in you, but cannot,
And might tell the pinings I have . . . . the pulse of my nights and
days.
Song of Myself - Pg 40
Behaviour lawless as snow-flakes . . . . words simple as grass . . . .
uncombed head and laughter and naivete;
Slowstepping feet and the common features, and the common modes
and emanations,
They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,
They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath . . . . they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
uncombed head and laughter and naivete;
Slowstepping feet and the common features, and the common modes
and emanations,
They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,
They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath . . . . they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
Song of Myself - Pg 39
I see you
understand yourselves and me,
And know that they who have eyes are divine, and the blind and lame
are equally divine,
And that my steps drag behind yours yet go before them,
And are aware how I am with you no more than I am with everybody.
understand yourselves and me,
And know that they who have eyes are divine, and the blind and lame
are equally divine,
And that my steps drag behind yours yet go before them,
And are aware how I am with you no more than I am with everybody.
Song of Myself - Pg 38
Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them,
I project my hat and sit shamefaced and beg.
I project my hat and sit shamefaced and beg.
Song of Myself - Pg 36
A youth not seventeen years old seized his assassin till two more came
to release him,
The three were all torn, and covered with the boy's blood.
to release him,
The three were all torn, and covered with the boy's blood.
Song of Myself - Pg 35
Hear now the tale of a jetblack sunrise,
Hear of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young
men.
Hear of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young
men.
Song of Myself - Pg 34
Distant and dead resuscitate,
They show as the dial or move as the hands of me . . . . and I am the
clock myself.
They show as the dial or move as the hands of me . . . . and I am the
clock myself.
Song of Myself - Pg 34
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels . . . . I myself become the wounded person
Song of Myself - Pg 32
The white-topped mountains point up in the distance . . . . I fling out
my fancies toward them;
my fancies toward them;
Song of Myself - Pg 31
Where burial coaches enter the arched gates of a cemetery;
Where winter wolves bark amid wastes of snow and icicled trees;
Where the yellow-crowned heron comes to the edge of the marsh at
night and feeds upon small crabs;
Where winter wolves bark amid wastes of snow and icicled trees;
Where the yellow-crowned heron comes to the edge of the marsh at
night and feeds upon small crabs;
Song of Myself - Pg 30
At apple-peelings, wanting kisses for all the red fruit I find,
At musters and beach-parties and friendly bees and huskings and
house-raisings;
Where the mockingbird sounds his delicious gurgles, and cackles and
screams and weeps
At musters and beach-parties and friendly bees and huskings and
house-raisings;
Where the mockingbird sounds his delicious gurgles, and cackles and
screams and weeps
Song of Myself - Pg 27
A minute and a drop of me settle my brain;
I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps
I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps
Song of Myself - Pg 26
Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture
fields,
Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,
They bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me
fields,
Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,
They bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me
Song of Myself - Pg 24
I hear the violincello or man's heart complaint,
And hear the keyed cornet or else the echo of sunset.
And hear the keyed cornet or else the echo of sunset.
Song of Myself - Pg 24
I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,
And accrue what I hear into myself . . . . and let sounds contribute
toward me.
And accrue what I hear into myself . . . . and let sounds contribute
toward me.
Song of Myself - Pg 22
Hands I have taken, face I have kissed, mortal I have ever touched, it shall be you.
Song of Myself - Pg 18
The pleasures of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are
with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself . . . . the latter I translate
into a new tongue.
with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself . . . . the latter I translate
into a new tongue.
Song of Myself - Pg 17
I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
Song of Myself - Pg 17
I know I am august,
I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by
after all.
I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
I see that the elementary laws never apologize,
I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by
after all.
Song of Myself - Pg 16
This is the press of a bashful hand . . . . this is the float and odor of
hair,
This is the touch of my lips to yours . . . . this is the murmur of
yearning,
This is the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face,
This is the thoughtful merge of myself and the outlet again.
hair,
This is the touch of my lips to yours . . . . this is the murmur of
yearning,
This is the far-off depth and height reflecting my own face,
This is the thoughtful merge of myself and the outlet again.
Song of Myself - Pg 12
The youth lies awake in the cedar-roofed garret and harks to the
musical rain
musical rain
Song of Myself - Pg 11
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my goodwill,
Scattering it freely forever.
Not asking the sky to come down to my goodwill,
Scattering it freely forever.
Song of Myself - Pg 11
The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections,
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
Song of Myself - Pg 10
. . . . i believe in those winged purposes,
And acknowledge the red yellow and white playing within me,
And consider the green and violet and the tufted crown intentional;
And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something
else,
And the mocking bird in the swamp never studied the gamut, yet
trills pretty well to me,
And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.
And acknowledge the red yellow and white playing within me,
And consider the green and violet and the tufted crown intentional;
And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something
else,
And the mocking bird in the swamp never studied the gamut, yet
trills pretty well to me,
And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.
Song of Myself - Pg 9
Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,
You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.
Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather,
The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.
You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.
Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather,
The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them.
Song of Myself - Pg 7
The impressive stones that receive and return so many echoes,
The souls moving along . . . . are they invisible while the least atom of the stones is visible?
The souls moving along . . . . are they invisible while the least atom of the stones is visible?
Song of Myself - Pg 6
Who need be afraid of the merge?
Undrape . . . . you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded
Undrape . . . . you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded
Song of Myself - Pg 6
I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe . . . .
and am not contained between my hat and boots
and am not contained between my hat and boots
Song of Myself - Pg 6
All goes onward and outward . . . . and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
Song of Myself - Pg 3
Trippers and askers surround me,
People I meet . . . . the effect upon me of my early life . . . . of the
ward and city I live in . . . . of the nation,
The latest news . . . . discoveries, inventions, societies . . . . authors
old and new,
My dinner, dress, associates, looks, business, compliments, dues,
The real of fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
The sickness of one of my folks . . . . or of myself . . . . or ill-doing . . . .
or loss or lack of money . . . . or depressions or exaltations,
They come to me days and nights and go from me again,
But they are not the Me myself.
People I meet . . . . the effect upon me of my early life . . . . of the
ward and city I live in . . . . of the nation,
The latest news . . . . discoveries, inventions, societies . . . . authors
old and new,
My dinner, dress, associates, looks, business, compliments, dues,
The real of fancied indifference of some man or woman I love,
The sickness of one of my folks . . . . or of myself . . . . or ill-doing . . . .
or loss or lack of money . . . . or depressions or exaltations,
They come to me days and nights and go from me again,
But they are not the Me myself.
Song of Myself - Pg 3
Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less
familiar than the rest.
familiar than the rest.
Song of Myself - Pg 3
Lack one lacks both . . . . and the unseen is proved by the seen,
Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.
Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.
Song of Myself - Pg 2
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them for yourself.
You shall listen to all sides and filter them for yourself.
Song of Myself - Pg 2
Have you practiced so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of
all poems
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of
all poems
Song of Myself - Pg 1
I will go to the bank, by the wood and become undisguised and
naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 180 : How to Tell Stories to Children
"Tom began screaming, and I wondered if the baby's soft brain was, in this moment, changing shape in response to the violent stimuli. I tried to intellectualize the noise to protect the baby's psyche. I whispered: Isn't that interesting to hear a man scream? Doesn't that challenge our stereotypes of what men can do? And then I tried, Shhhhhhhhh."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 178 : How to Tell Stories to Children
"I wondered if perhaps our last conversation had been an overture. Not the conversation, exactly, but the silences within it. There had been many dark pits of tea-sipping silence; looking back, I could imagine placing my hand on his hand while kneeling in one of these dark pits. And in such a pit could one even be sure what one was doing? One might seek solace in a friend and literally go inside this friend to get the solace; and the friend, being old and familiar, might give especially good solace."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 177 : How to Tell Stories to Children
"There was almost nothing to say that the universe had not said already."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 172 : Birthmark
"She felt a real sense of loss. Even though she knew she had never had an accent. It was the birthmark, which in its density had lent color even to her voice. She didn't miss the birthmark, but she missed her Norwegian heritage, like learning of new relatives, only to discover they have just died."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 171 : Birthmark
"As the illusion of prettiness and horribleness flipped back and forth, we flipped wiht it. We were uglier than her, then suddenly we were lucky not to be her, but then again, at this angle she was too lovely to bear. She was both, we were both, and the world continued to spin."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 165 : Mon Plaisir
"Carl's new sense of humor flourished in silence, he made subtly absurd gestures that surprised me into almost audible laughter. And I could not make a move without making love. Every time I shifted in my chair, lifted my fork, brushed my hair from my eyes, I seemed to be pushing through the motions as through honey, slowly and with all kinds of implications."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 139 : Ten True Things
"For how long can you behold another person? Before you have to think of yourself again ,like dipping the brush back in for more ink. For a very long time; you didn't need to get more ink, there was no reason to get anything else, because she was as good as me, she lived on earth like me, she suffered as I did."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 136 : Ten True Things
"I went home early to study my apartment before the class. I wanted to look at everything though her eyes. I do this before I bring someone new into my life; I try to get a sense of who I am so that I can make it easier for them to know me."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 128 : Making Love in 2003
"I wept and curled and uncurled myself in a way I couldn't control. I was actually writhing in heartache, as if I were a single muscle whose purpose was to mourn."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 128 : Making Love in 2003
"I pressed my hot face against the chalkboard for a few seconds and then I wrote the word PEACE. That is the only good thing about being the special-needs assistant. you can write "peace" on the chalkboard any time you want. Who could complain? It was peace. It can only ever help to write it."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 115 : Making Love in 2003
"I looked out the windows and tried to see who the pedestrians thought I was when they looked at my car. But they didn't look at my car; they looked inward. They considered themselves and their own cars; they made love with their hurrying. They took each step as if it would not be their last, and it wasn't."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 113 : Making Love in 2003
"Our conversations happened in my blood, or if I wanted to hear its voice, I could hold down F-sharp and middle C on my plastic Casio, and from underneath these notes came a far-off staticky voice, like a truck driver on CB, just out of range."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 110 : Making Love in 2003
"I wondered if I would spend the rest of my life inventing complicated ways to depress myself, now that I had finished my book and gone to meet the man who said I had promise a year ago but wasn't home today."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 110 : Making Love in 2003
"Sometimes I would make left turns all the way around a block, and when I returned to original intersection, I would feel disappointed to find all the drivers were new. It wasn't like a square dance, where you miraculously end up with your original partner, laughing and feeling giddily relieved to find him after dancing with everyone else in the world. Instead, they swung around and kept on going, some people were at work by now, or halfway to the airport. In fact, driving might be the thing most opposite of dancing."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 66 : Something That Needs Nothing
"I looked at Pip and for a split second I felt as though she was nobody special in the larger scheme of my life. She was just some girl who had tied me to her leg to help her sink when she jumped off the bridge. Then I blinked and was in love with her again."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 64 : Something That Needs Nothing
"We needed time to consider ourselves, to come up with a theory about who we were and set it to music."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 64 : Something That Needs Nothing
"We were anxious to begin our life as people who had no people."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 61 : It Was Romance
"There were things of this general scale to cry about. But the biffest reason to cry was to drench the air in front of our faces. It was romance. Not the falling-in-love kind but the sharing of air between our shoulders and chests and thighs."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 61 : It Was Romance
"It was a place of overflowing collaborative misery, and we cried together. We could smell each other's shampoo and the laundry detergents we had chosen, and I smelled that she didn't smoke but someone she loved did, and she could feel that I was large but not genetically, not permanently, just until I found my way again. The snaps on our jeans pressed into each other and our breasts exchanged their tired histories, tales of being over- and underutilized, floods and famines and never mind, just go. We wetted each other's blouses and pushed our crying ahead of us like a lantern, searching out new and forgotten sadnesses, ones that had died politely years ago but in fact had not died, and came to life with a little water."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 60 : It Was Romance
"I rubbed her back, and then I stopped because I thought it might be too familiar, but that felt cold, so I patted her shoulder, which meant I was only touching her a third of the time. The other two thirds, my hand was either traveling toward her or away from her. The longer I patted, the harder it became; I was too aware of the intervals between the pats and couldn't find a natural rhythm. I felt like I was hitting a conga drum, and then as soon as I thought of this, I had to beat out a little cha-cha-cha, and Theresa began to cry."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 35 : The Man on the Stairs
"There are three main things that make me a drag:
I never return phone calls.
I am falsely modest.
I have a disproportionate amount of guilt about these two things, which makes me unpleasant to be around."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 31 : Majesty
"It was the earthquake that shook the whole world, and every single thing was destroyed. But this isn't the scary part. That part always comes right before I wake up. I am crawling, and the suddenly, I remember: the earthquake happened years ago. this pain, this dying, this is just normal. This is how life is. In fact, I realize, there never was an earthquake. Life is just this way, broken, and I am crazy to hope for something else."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 28 : Majesty
"I wondered how many other things had flown past me into death. Perhaps many. Perhaps I was flying past them, like the grim reaper, signaling the end. This would explain so much."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 21 : Majesty
"That day I carried the dream around like a full glass of water, moving gracefully so I would not lose any of it."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 20 : Majesty
"We come from long lines of people destined never to meet."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 16 : The Swim Team
"He was precocious, to say the least. He actually moved across the floor, bowl of salt water and all. He'd come pounding back into the kitchen from a bedroom lap, covered with sweat and dust, and Kelda would look up at him, holding her book in both hands, and just beam. Swim to me, he'd say, but she was too scared, and it actually takes a huge amount of upper-body strength to swim on land."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 16 : The Swim Team
"I was looking down at my shoes on the brown linoleum floor and I was thinking about how I bet this floor hadn't been washed in a million years and I suddenly felt like I was going to die. But instead of dying, I said: I can teach you how to swim."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 8 : The Shared Patio
"Did you ever really love her?
Not really, no.
But me?
Yes.
Even though I have no pizzazz?
What are you talking about, you perfect thing.
You can see that I'm perfect?
It's in each thing that you do. I watch you when you hang your bottom over the side of the bathtub to wash it before bed."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 6 : The Shared Patio
"We fell into silence then; he did not ask me any more questions. I was still happy to sit there beside him, but that is only because I have very, very low expectations of most people, and he had now become Most People."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 2 : The Shared Patio
"If you are sad, ask yourself why you are sad. Then pick up the phone and call someone and tell him or her the answer to the question. If you don't know anyone, call the operator and tell him or her. Most people don't know that the operator has to listen, it is a law. Also, the postman is not allowed to go inside your house, but you can talk to him on public property for up to four minutes or until he wants to go, whichever comes first. "
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 2 : The Shared Patio
"One reason Helena and I would never be close friends is that I am about half as tall as she. People tend to stick to their own size group because it's easier on the neck."
No one belongs here more than you - Pg 1 : The Shared Patio
"It still counts, even though it happened when he was unconscious. It counts doubly because the conscious mind often makes mistakes, falls for the wrong person. But down there in the well, where there is no light and only thousand-year-old water, a man has no reason to make mistakes. God says do it and you do it. Love her and it is so."
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 157
"Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin."
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 145
You're arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that's a lie, and you know it.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 137
Mom insisted that we eat breakfast with Dad, although I had a moral opposition to eating before dawn on the grounds that I was not a nineteenth-century Russian peasant fortifying myself for a day in the fields.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 124
"'Mother's glass eye turned inward,'" Augustus began. As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 120
It sounded like a dragon breathing in time with me, like I had this pet dragon who was cuddled up next to me and cared enough about me to time his breaths to mine. I was thinking about that as I sank into sleep.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 100
She seemed to be mostly a professional sick person, like me, which made me worry that when I died they'd have nothing to say about me except that I fought heroically, as if the only thing I'd ever done was Have Cancer.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 45
I liked my mom, but her perpetual nearness sometimes made me feel weirdly nervous.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 44
"I mean, I would just die--" and then stopped short, looking at me as if to say I'm sorry, as if it were a crime to mention death to the dying.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 40
IT'S ARBOR DAY! LET'S HUG TREES AND EAT CAKE! COLUMBUS BROUGHT SMALLPOX TO THE NATIVES; WE SHALL RECALL THE OCCASION WITH A PICNIC!
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 35
Suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not in any way affect the taste of chocolate.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 34
It was just that the author, Peter Van Houten, seemed to understand me in weird and impossible ways. An Imperial Affliction was my book, in the way my body was my body and my thoughts were my thoughts.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 33
Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 31
I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really, really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially fraught free throws. I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin.
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 16
"I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence."
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg 3
(Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is, really.)
The Fault In Our Stars - Pg -1 (Authors Note)
Neither novels or their readers benefit from attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story. Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 324
I cried some more. I wanted to tell her all of the lies that I'd told her. And then I wanted her to tell me that it was OK, because sometimes you have to do something bad to do something good. And then I wanted to tell her about the phone. And then I wanted her to tell me that Dad still would have been proud of me.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 316
I invented a book that listed every word in every language. It wouldn't be a very useful book, but you could hold it and know that everything you could possibly say was in your hands.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 314
I thought about waking her.But it was unnecessary.There would be other nights.And how can you say I love you to someone you love?I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her.Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.It's always necessary.I love you.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 309
I think about all of the things I've done, Oskar. And all of the things I didn't do. The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the thinks I never did.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 290
Maybe it's true that you can use up all of your tears. Maybe Grandma's right about that. It was nice to think about, because what I wanted was to be empty.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 257
"If I could know how he died, exactly how he died, I wouldn't have to invent him dying inside an elevator that was stuck between floors, which happened to some people, and I woulnd't have to imagine him trying to crawl down the outside of the building... There were so many different ways to die, and I just need to know which was his."
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 256
Maybe he didn't say he loved me because he loved me. But that wasn't a good enough explanation. I said, "I need to know how he died." He flipped back and pointed at, "Why?" "So I can stop inventing how he died. I'm always inventing." He flipped back and pointed at, "I'm sorry." "I found a bunch of videos on the Internet of bodies falling. They were on a Portuguese site, where there was all sorts of stuff they wern't showing here, even thoug it happened here. Whenever I want to try to learn about how Dad died, I have to go to a translator program and find out how to say things in different languages, like 'September,' which is 'Wrzesien,' or 'people jumping from burning buildings,' which is 'Menschen, die aus brennenden Gebäuden springen.' Then I Google those words. It makes me incredibly angry that people all over the world can know things that I can't because it happened here, and happened to me, so shouldn't it be mine?
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 254
" I wouldn't make you go down," Mr. Black said. "We could spend the afternoon up here." "I'm awkward," she said. "So am I," Mr. Black said. "I'm not very good company. I just told you everything I know." "I'm terrible company," Mr. Black said, although that wasn't true. "Ask him," he said, pointing at me. "It's true," I said, "he sucks." "You can tell me about this building all afternoon. That would be marvelous. That's how I want to spend my time." "I don't even have any lipstick." "Neither do I." She let out a laugh, and then she put her hand over her mouth, like she was angry at herself for forgetting her sadness.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 252
"When he died, I came back up here. It's silly." "No," I said. "It isn't." "I wasn't looking for him. I'm not a girl. But it gave me the same feeling that I'd had when it was daytime and I was looking for his light. I knew it was there, i just couldn't see it."
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 252
"He was always coming up with wonderful, crazy ideas. A bit like you," she said to me, which gave me heavy boots, because why couldn't I remind people of me?
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 250
"I know about this building because I love this building." That gave me heavy boots, because it reminded me of the lock that I still hadn't found, and how until I found it, I didn't love Dad enough.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 245
Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 244
I squeezed Mr. Black's hand, and I couldn't stop inventing: the elevator cables snapping, the elevator falling, a trampoline at the bottom, us shooting back up, the roof opening like a cereal box, us flying toward parts of the universe that not even Stephen Hawking was sure about...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 239
I asked him did he really love New York or was he just wearing the shirt. He smiled, like he was nervous. I could tell he didn't understand, which made me feel guilty for speaking English, for some reason. I pointed at his shirt. "Do? You? Really? Love? New York?" He said, "New York?" I said, "Your. Shirt." He looked at his shirt. I pointed at the N and said "New," and the Y and said "York." He looked confused, or embarrassed, or surprised, or maybe even mad. I couldn't tell what he was feeling, because I couldn't speak the language of his feelings. "I not know was New York. In Chinese, ny mean 'you.' Thought was 'I love you.'" It was then that I noticed the "I<3NY" poster on the wall, and the "I<3NY" flag over the door, and the "I<3NY" dishtowels, and the "I<3NY" lunchbox on the kitchen table. I asked him, "Well, then why do you love everybody so much?"
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 232
When we got to the grave and they lowered the empty coffin, you let out a noise like an animal. I had never heard anything like it. You were a wounded animal. The noise is still in my ears. It was what I had spent forty years looking for, what I wanted my life and life story to be.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 232
But I knew the truth, and that's why I was so sad.Every moment before this one depends on this one.Everything in the history of the world can be proven wrong in one moment.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 230
I lowered the volume until it was silent.The same pictures over and over.Planes going into buildings.Bodies falling.People waving shirts out of high windows.Planes going into buildings.People covered in gray dust.Bodies falling.Buildings falling.Planes going into buildings.Planes going into buildings.Building falling.People waving shirts out of high windows.Bodies falling.Planes going into buildings.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 226
What happened to your arm?I looked at my arm. It was bleeding through my shirt. Had I fallen and not noticed? Had I been scratching it? That was when I knew that I knew.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 226
She said, I love you.She had been married to your father for twelve years. I had known her for fifteen years. It was the first time she told me she loved me.That was when I knew that she knew.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 215
I kissed her belly, even though there was nothing yet to kiss, I told her, "I love our baby." That made her laugh, I hadn't heard her laugh like that since the day we walked into each other halfways between our houses, she said, "You love an idea." I told her, "I love our idea." That was the point, we were having an idea together.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 201
"My insides don't match up with my outsides." "Do anyone's insides and outsides match up?" "I don't know. I'm only me." "Maybe that's what a person's personality is: the difference between the inside and outside."
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 200
On Tuesday afternoon I had to go to Dr. Fein. i didnt' understand why I needed help, because it seemed to me that you should wear heavy boots when your dad dies, and if you aren't wearing heavy boots, then you need help. But I went anyway, because the raise in my allowance depended on it.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 195
A couple of old men were sitting in chairs in front of a store. They were smoking cigars and watching the world like it was TV.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 183
He promised us that everything would be OK. I was a child, but I knew that everything would not be OK. That did not make my father a liar. It made him my father.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 181
But the weeks have had wings. Anyone who believes that a second is faster than a decade did not live my life.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 179
The laughter sent my thoughts to our kitchen table, where we would laugh and laugh. That table was wehre we were close to each other. It was instead of our bed. Everything in our apartment got confused. We would eat on the coffee table in the living room instead of at the dining room table. We wanted to be near the window. We filled the body of the grandfather clock with his empty daybooks, as if they were time itself. We put his filled daybooks in the bathtub of the second bathroom, because we never used it. I sleepwalk when I sleep at all. Once I turned on the shower. Some of the books floated, and some stayed where they were. When I awoke the next morning I saw what I had done. The water was gray with all of his days.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 170
"Mom?" "Yes." "Nothing.""What is it, baby?" "Well it's just that wouldn't it be great if mattresses had spaces for your arm, so that when you rolled onto your side, you could fit just right?" "That would be nice." "And good for your back, probably, because it would let your spin be straight, which I know is important." "That is important." "Also, it would make snuggling easier. You know how that arm constantly gets in the way?" "I do." "And making snuggling easier is important." "Very."
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 160
I was impressed by how much life Mr. Black had lived, and how much he wanted to have his life around him.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 127 (NSFW)
Anna started kissing me, "But what if they come out?" I whispered, she touched my ears, which meant their voices would keep us safe. She put her hands all over me, I didn't know what she was doing, I touched very part of her, what was I doing, did we understand something that we couldn't explain? Her father said, "You can stay for as long as you need. You can stay forever." She pulled her shirt over her head, I held her breasts in my hands, it was awkward and it was natural, she pulled my shirt over my head, in the moment I couldn't see, Mr. Goldberg laughed and said, "Forever," I heard him pacing in the small room, I put my hand under skirt, between her legs, everything felt on the verge of bursting into flames, without any experience I knew what to do, it was exactly as it had been in my dreams, as if all the information had been coiled within me like a spring, everything that was happening had happened before and would happen again, "I don't recognize the world anymore," Anna's father said, Anna rolled onto her back, behind a wall of books through which voices and pipe smoke escaped, "I want to make love," Anna whispered, I knew exactly what to do, night was arriving, trains were departing, I lifted her skirt, Mr. Goldberg said, "I've never recognized it more," and I could hear him breathing on the other side of the books, if he had taken one from the shelf he would have seen everything. But the books protected us. I was in her for only a second before I burst into flames, she whimpered, Mr. Goldberg stomped his foot and let out a cry like a wounded animal, I asked her if she was upset, she shook her head no, I fell onto her, resting my cheek against her chest, and I saw your mother's face in the second-floor window, "Then why are you crying?"
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 124
I thought it was a way to touch me, another figure of speech, why didn't she ask for help, why, instead, did she ask for all of those magazines and papers if she couldn't see them, was that how she asked for help? Was that why she held so tightly to railings, why she wouldn't cook with me watching, or change her clothes with me watching, or open doors? Did she always have something to read in front of her so she wouldn't have to look at anything else?
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 114
The books had been buried, so I hid this time behind a group of trees, I imagined their roots wrapped around books, pulling nourishment from the pages, I imagined rings of letters in their trunks... A leaf fell, it was yellow like paper.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 106
Also I designed a pretty fascinating bracelet, where you put a rubber band around your favorite book of poems for a year, and then you take it off and wear it.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 74
I woke up once in the middle of the night, and Buckminster's paws were on my eyelids. He must have been feeling my nightmares.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 69
That night when I decided that finding the lock was my ultimate raison d'être -- the raison that was the master over all other raisons -- I really needed to hear him.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 52
Every time I left our apartment to go searching for the lock, I became a little lighter, because I was getting closer to Dad. But I also became a little heavier, because I was getting farther from Mom.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 43
"Mom?" "Yes?" "It doesn't make me feel good when you say that something I do reminds you of Dad." "Oh. I'm sorry. Do I do that a lot?" "You do it all the time." "I can see why that wouldn't feel good." "And Grandma always says that things I do remind her of Grandpa. It makes me feel weird, because they're gone. And it also makes me feel unspecial."
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 36
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes, but I couldn't sleep, not after hours, and it made my boots lighter to be around his things, and to touch stuff that he had touched, and to make the hangers hand a little straighter, even though I knew it didn't matter.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 36
Even though Dad's coffin was empty, his closet was full. And even after more than a year, it still smelled like shaving.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 35
I wanted to tell her she shouldn't be playing Scrabble yet. Or looking in the mirror. Or turning the stereo any louder than what you needed just to hear it. It wasn't fair to Dad, and it wasn't fair to me.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 18
Instead of singing in the shower I would write out the lyrics of my favorite songs, the ink would turn the water blue or red or green, and the music would run down my legs.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 17
I went to a tattoo parlor and had YES written onto the palm of my left hand, and NO onto my right palm, what can I say, it hasn't made life wonderful, it's made life possible, when I rub my hands against each other in the middle of winter I am warming myself with the friction of YES and NO, when I clap my hands I am showing my appreciation through the uniting and parting of YES and NO, I signify "book" by peeling open my clapped hands, every book, for me, is the balance of YES and NO, even this one, my last one, especially this one.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 12
I loved having a dad who was smarter than the New York Times, and I loved how my cheek could feel the hairs on his chest through his T0shirt, and how he always smelled like shaving, even at the end of the day. Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn't have to invent a thing.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Pg 2
I desperately wish I had my tambourine with me now, because even after everything I'm still wearing heavy boots, and sometimes it helps to play a good beat.
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