Eden Robinson > Quotes

“Close your eyes. Concentrate on your breath. Remember that you were not always earthbound. Every living creature, every drop of water and every sombre mountain is the by-blow of some bloated, dying star. Deep down, we remember wriggling through the universe as beams of light.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“You honkies want women to be like cookies, all sweet and dainty and easy to eat. But I'm fry bread, you bitch, and I'm proud of it.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“We are apart so that I will know the joy of being with you again. Take care of yourself, wherever you are. Take care of yourself, wherever you are.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“You can put your strength down. I'm sitting here with you at your kitchen table. You don't need to say anything.”
― Eden Robinson

“You are words," the fireflies said. "Your soul is the poem. The struggle to make mortal words say the infinite unsayable is the struggle that defines sentience.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“Names have power. This is the fundamental principle of magic everywhere. Call out the name of a supernatural being, and you will have its instant and undivided attention in the same way that your lost toddler will have yours the second it calls your name.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“I used to think that if I could talk to the spirit world, I'd get some answers. Ha bloody ha. I wish the dead would just come out and say what they mean instead of being so passive-aggressive about the whole thing.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“He didn't want to be a sucker, but he didn't want to be alone. Everything ached and all the choices felt wrong.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“You shouldn't dwell on it," Mrs. Jaks had said. "Forgive him and you'll live without his shadow on your lives."

"The world is hard," his mom had said. "You need to be harder.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“Ma-ma-oo didn't gun the motor so we puttered along. The day promised to be a scorcher, but out on the ocean with the spray cooling on my face and the wind drying it away, the heat was bearable. I wished summer would never end. I wished I could do this all year and never have to go back to school. I wished I could pick berries and go fishing with Ma-ma-oo and spend all my days wandering.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“The moon, a sliver of white light, rose a hand above the horizon, then, tired, fell back. The purple blackness overhead faded into grey, the grey into pale blue; this was followed quickly by pastel reds and oranges, and finally, yellow rays streamed through the trees as the sun climbed.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“Six crows sit in our greengage tree. Half awake, I hear them speak to me in Haisla.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“B'gwus is famous because of his wide range of homes. In some places, he's called Bigfoot. In other places, he's Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman, or Sasquatch. To most people, he is the equivalent of the Loch Ness monster, something silly to bring the tourist in. His image is even used to sell beer, and he is portrayed as a laid-back kind of guy, lounging on mountaintops in patio chairs, cracking open a frosty one.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“Hey, what’s your wi-fi password?” “Ticats suck, Argos rule,” Jared said. “One word, no caps, no spaces.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“Are you happy?” Jared said. “Mostly,” Phil said. “Better than nothing,” Jared said.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“I found a photo of Mom standing between Mick and Dad, who were both wearing basketball uniforms. Mom was perfectly groomed, of course, and looking very ladylike. I said I must have been adopted. Ma-ma-oo laughed and said that when Mom was a little girl, she was always doing things like tying two cookie sheets to her shoes and attempting to ski because she'd seen one of her movie star idols in a magazine, elegantly poised on the slopes of Switzerland. Mom flew down the hill, hit a bump and crashed into a bush. She broke her leg and earned the nickname "Crash.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“He wasn't going to be alone after she died, but the world was going to be a lonelier place without her.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“but it wiggled around the back of his mind like a melody that you hummed without thinking.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“You okay?" Jared said.

"You've never called me Aunt before. Bring it in. Come on, gimme hugs."

"Can we not make a big deal?"

"No. Deals will be big.”
― Eden Robinson, Trickster Drift

“All graveyards should have moss-covered trees creaking in the wind and the sound of the waves grating the round stones on the beach. The trees are so high and large here that under this canopy, even the brightest day is pale. Wander slowly, careful where you step. No neat row of crosses, no meticulous lawn, no carefully tended flowers will guide you. Too sterile, antiseptic. Headstones carved into eagles, blackfish, ravens, beavers appear seemingly at random. In the time of the great dying, whole families were buried in one plot. Pick wild blueberries when you’re hungry, let the tart taste sink into your tongue, followed by that sharp sweetness that store-bought berries lack. Realize that the plumpest berries are over the graves.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“My mom’s messed up,” his mom said. “The nuns messed her up. They made her think everything Indian was evil. And that includes you and me.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“The neighbourhood was silent in the early morning, aside from the guy at the end of the street who played non-stop Slayer in his garage.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“Is this Enya?” “Grimes,” Sarah said. “Sounds like Enya.” “Whatever, Nickelback.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“Realize that the plumpest berries are over the graves.”
― Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach

“Aiden, we're going to sing 'Let It Go' now. I'm not trying to rile you up. I just want to see if the octopus thing reacts, all right?" He held his hand out for Eliza.

"No," she said. "Sing something else. Please, Jared."

"Okay, no Elsa. How about Nickelback?"

"I don't think monsters are scared of Nickelback."

"You'd be surprised.”
― Eden Robinson, Return of the Trickster

“We hear the ocean in our dreams,’ ” Neeka said, “ ‘our cages of blood and bone sing her songs. Exiled on shore, our tongues caress the lost words we no longer understand, her language of salt and surging.’ ”
― Eden Robinson, Trickster Drift

“I wish you weren’t so hung up on bourgeois rituals,” Sarah said. “Decolonize, Gran.”
― Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster

“Maybe I shud’ve let Mave have u, she wrote. A good time to practise detachment, Jared thought. Separate the emotions from the conversation. Treat it like information, because that’s all this was. Information.”
― Eden Robinson, Trickster Drift

“Film crew shooting Supernatural near you tonight, Crashpad texted. Attaching map & bus routes. Take lots of pix.”
― Eden Robinson, Trickster Drift

“Mave started screaming again, pointing to the ceiling as Bob drifted down and began running his tentacles all over the stump.

"Holy crap," Hank said.

"It's okay!" Wee'git said. "It's just a transdimensional being that's gotten stuck in the liminal space between our universe and his. Hers. Theirs. I'm not really an expert on octopus genders.”
― Eden Robinson, Return of the Trickster