Jonathan Evison > Quotes

“Listen to me: everything you think you know, every relationship you've ever taken for granted, every plan or possibility you've ever hatched, every conceit or endeavor you've ever concocted, can be stripped from you in an instant. Sooner or later, it will happen. So prepare yourself. Be ready not to be ready. Be ready to be brought to your knees and beaten to dust. Because no stable foundation, no act of will, no force of cautious habit will save you from this fact: nothing is indestructible.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“I'll never stop caring. But the thing about caring is, it's inconvenient. Sometimes you've got to give when it makes no sense to at all. Sometimes you've got to give until it hurts.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“I know I've lost my mind. But I'm not concerned, because it's the first thing I've lost in a long time that actually feels good.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“We are born haunted, he said, his voice weak, but still clear. Haunted by our fathers and mothers and daughters, and by people we don't remember. We are haunted by otherness, by the path not taken, by the life unlived. We are haunted by the changing winds and the ebbing tides of history. And even as our own flame burns brightest, we are haunted by the embers of the first dying fire. But mostly, said Lord Jim, we are haunted by ourselves.”
― Jonathan Evison, West of Here

“Can we really be whoever we want to be, now that we’ve collected all that we are?”
― Jonathan Evison, West of Here

“People really do change. Don't let anyone tell you differently. That the future does not conform to the past is not the exception, but the rule.”
― Jonathan Evison, All About Lulu

“We cleave our way through the mountains until the interstate dips into a wide basin brimming with blue sky, broken by dusty roads and rocky saddles strung out along the southern horizon. This is our first real glimpse of the famous big-sky country to come, and I couldn't care less. For all its grandeur, the landscape does not move me. And why should it? The sky may be big, it may be blue and limitless and full of promise, but it's also really far away. Really, it's just an illusion. I've been wasting my time. We've all been wasting our time. What good is all this grandeur if it's impermanent, what good all of this promise if it's only fleeting? Who wants to live in a world where suffering is the only thing that lasts, a place where every single thing that ever meant the world to you can be stripped away in an instant? And it will be stripped away, so don't fool yourself. If you're lucky, your life will erode slowly with the ruinous effects of time or recede like the glaciers that carved this land, and you will be left alone to sift through the detritus. If you are unlucky, your world will be snatched out from beneath you like a rug, and you'll be left with nowhere to stand and nothing to stand on. Either way, you're screwed. So why bother? Why grunt and sweat and weep your way through the myriad obstacles, why love, dream, care, when you're only inviting disaster? I'm done answering the call of whippoorwills, the call of smiling faces and fireplaces and cozy rooms. You won't find me building any more nests among the rose blooms. Too many thorns.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“Reading is, at its best, not an escape; it is genuine experience. A novel is not a monologue, but a conversation, a collaboration between writer and reader, an invaluable exchange of human conditions.”
― Jonathan Evison

“Friends,” Andrew says, the candlelight hitting his braces just so. “It’s true, we all rage. We all hate. We all fail. But . . .” And here, he raises a finger, pausing for dramatic effect, something he learned at his Toastmasters group. “That rage and contempt, that disappointment, that’s what makes us yearn so hard. Those deficits, they make us reach, they stretch us. They make us fight back when it matters.”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“It’s a cruel process, aging. Take my advice, dear, maintain your independence as long as possible.”
― Jonathan Evison, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

“I don't like it,' said Pigott. 'This is a well-established neighborhood. These families go back generations.'

'Don't all families go back generations?”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“And furthermore, it's my opinion that those who claim their accomplishments al to themselves, those who are the heroes of their own stories, are liars".”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“I’m just trying to figure out how to be happy without being the best at anything, you know?”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“He prayed for clear skies and discovery, for danger and heartache and laughter, for a life beyond fear, a life that got bigger, really got bigger, as it receded.”
― Jonathan Evison, West of Here

“First, I'm going to give you all the Copperfield crap, and I'm not going to apologize for any of it, not one paragraph, so if you're not interested in how I came to see the future, or how I came to understand that the biggest truth in my life was a lie, or, for that matter, how I parlayed my distaste for hot dogs into an '84 RX-7 and a new self-concept, do us both a favor, and just stop now.”
― Jonathan Evison, All About Lulu

“Freddy, what if I told you I was gay?” He pursed his lips thoughtfully, considering the information for a few seconds as his fried egg shimmied in the pan. “Are you tellin’ me you are?” “Yeah.” “Hmph,” he said. “Didn’t see that one comin’.” Removing the skillet from the burner, he clapped me on the shoulder. “Look at the bright side: at least you ain’t black.”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“I remember us saying that we liked small houses, that proximity engendered closeness in a family. That nobody should be raised by a nanny or in day care. I remember us saying that time, not money, was the greatest resource. That everything would be all right. That the universe would provide. That belief was a force more powerful than gravity itself.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“And I touched her with the strongest, most delicate touch in the world--like the thumb of God running down the spine of a baby bird.”
― Jonathan Evison, All About Lulu

“And most of us feel powerless. Motivated but powerless. Entertained but powerless. Informed but powerless. Fleetingly content, most of the time broke, sometimes hopeful, but ultimately powerless. And angry. Don't forget angry.”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“If we’ve learned one thing digging up all these old bones, dusting them off, and holding them to the light, we’ve learned this: While the days unfold, one after the other, and the numbers all move in one direction, our lives are not linear, Harriet. We are the sum of moments and reflections, actions and decisions, triumphs, failures, and yearnings, all of it held together, inexplicably, miraculously, really, by memory and association.”
― Jonathan Evison, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

“This newfangled country is starting to grow on me, the adult despair of it all. Stuff I can relate to: lost loves, lost houses, lost dogs.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“Maybe the biggest lesson I've learned, in art and in life, is that when the questions become too numerous and the considerations begin to feel a little overwhelming, you just have to look away for a minute and regather your vision for the thing, try to see it the way it originally came to you. Ask yourself, how did I arrive here? What was I trying to accomplish?”
― Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy

“Sometimes you lie, Forest. Sometimes its the right thing to do."
"I don't believe that, Ben."
"And why is that?"
"Because it always catches up with you."
"It doesn't, not always."
"It does."
"Bullshit."
"It's the truth, Ben."
"No, Forest, it's another kind of lie. If Lizzie draws you a picture of a catfish and it looks like a big hairy turd, what do you tell her? That it looks like shit? That you could draw a better fucking catfish with a crayon up your asshole? No, Forest, you tell her it's the most beautiful catfish you ever saw, don't you? Of course you do. Truth's a slippery slope sometimes.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

“But you can see it, Harriet, a look in his eyes, an alertness, as if somewhere behind the disease, behind the scar tissue, behind the fog of disassociation, Bernard is all there, he's just lost his ability to communicate. Like somebody turned off his volume. You're certain he can see everything that is transpiring with crystal clarity, and he can't do a goddamn thing about it.”
― Jonathan Evison, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

“A man’s destiny is not in the eyes of others. It’s in his own. And that, my young friend, is as good as any bank note.”
― Jonathan Evison, West of Here

“While the days unfold, one after the other, and the numbers all move in one direction, our lives are not linear, Harriet. We are the sum of moments and reflections, actions and decisions, triumphs, failures, and yearnings, all of it held together, inexplicably, miraculously, really, by memory and association. Yes, Harriet, our lives are more sinew than bone.”
― Jonathan Evison, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

“wine is a much better salve than anything the medical profession has ever prescribed. Even the Bible condones it!”
― Jonathan Evison, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

“He threw himself headlong at a job as if were he to stop the job would throw itself headlong back at him.”
― Jonathan Evison, West of Here

“I've been thinking about the cruel mathematics of my life, looking at my sums & wishing I'd shown my work.”
― Jonathan Evison

“To live fully was to recognize and acknowledge the tiniest of beauties, those ever-present, immutable though often elusive truths, pure and simple as a raindrop on a daisy.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter