M. Rickert > Quotes

“The dead are jealous, jealous, jealous and they will do anything to keep you from the living, the lucky living. They will argue with you, and distract you, and if that doesn't work, they will even let you hug them, and dance for you, and kiss you, and laugh, anything to keep you. The dead are selfish. Jealous. Lonely. Desperate. Hungry. ("The Chambered Fruit")”
― M. Rickert, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now

“All life is death. You don't fool yourself about this anymore. You slash at the perfect canvas with strokes of paint and replace the perfect picture of your imagination with the reality of what you are capable of. From death, and sorrow, and compromise, you create. This is what it means, you finally realize, to be alive. ("The Chambered Fruit")”
― M. Rickert, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now

“Life is what you remember, Nan thinks as she shoves dirt into the old sneaker. Who can remember everything? Well, no one, and that’s a blessing. Life is and always has been a composition, much like this garden; it will not be contained and cannot be determined.”
― M. Rickert, The Memory Garden

“Wasn’t that the terrible lesson of her life? Who can ever really know anyone?”
― M. Rickert, The Memory Garden