Felix Blackwell > Quotes

“I suppose that if you speak long enough into the void, someone is bound to start listening.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“With her eyes still closed, she looked right into my face, and said, “Tell the man in the hall…he needs to leave.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“Whatever it was that had found us at the cabin had followed us home.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“A man can only stare at the shadows for so long before they drive him insane.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“There is a brief moment at night when the brain is neither awake nor asleep, but somewhere in between. In that moment, I sometimes hear things – distant voices or odd sounds.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“Don’t!” she yelled, slapping the back of my head. “Aren’t you the one who loves horror movies? You’re gonna get cursed or something, stupid.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“Terror is a curious thing. In short bursts it can give strength, speed, or heightened awareness. It can elicit a scream or stop a man dead in his tracks. But when applied over many hours, it can break down the mind and render the body catatonic. It weakens the spirit and puts every flaw on stark display, so as to salt the wounds it inflicts at its onset.”
― Felix Blackwell, The Cold People: and Other Fairy Tales from Nowhere

“The believer and the atheist live inside of me together.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“they leave behind the places where their dead are buried – their mothers and fathers. The dead are bound to that place, and have returned to the land there. Because of this, Natives who are forced out of their homelands no longer have connections to their ancestors, and thus, to the spirit world. Their medicines no longer work. Their prayers are no longer”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“not”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“You know when you’re a kid and you see a shadow on your wall at night, and it looks like a monster? Or when you see animals in the clouds? That’s pareidolia. And it happens with sound, too. The wind blows through a cave or something just right, and people think they hear a voice. Your brain even makes words out of it, in the language you know best.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“I tended to group people into two groups: one that values politeness over honesty, and the other exactly opposite.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“when a Native group is forced out of its homeland, the people sometimes forget their stories. History itself is lost. “What’s worse, they leave behind the places where their dead are buried – their mothers and fathers.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“Faye rolled toward me so that our noses touched. Her eyes were open and rolled far back in her head. She smiled and ran a fingernail across my cheek, pretending to carve ribbons of flesh. She reminded me of a butcher delicately assessing a filet. “They’re gonna kill you,” she whispered–then licked my face.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“mortifying.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“Faye rolled toward me so that our noses touched. Her eyes were open and rolled far back in her head. She smiled and ran a fingernail across my cheek, pretending to carve ribbons of flesh. She reminded me of a butcher delicately assessing a filet. “They’re gonna kill you,” she whispered – then licked my face.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“But hours later, near the approach of dawn, Faye sat straight up in bed and sucked in a huge breath. The sound woke me up, and I instinctively grabbed the trashcan I'd set near the bed, preparing to catch a volley of barf. Instead, she grabbed my arm with surprising strength. With her eyes still closed, she looked right into my face, and said,
"Tell the man in the hall...he needs to leave."
Petrified, I slipped away from her grasp and peeked out the door into the long hallway. There was no one.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“He knew not to trust the voices. He called them ‘stolen tongues.”
― Felix Blackwell, The Church Beneath the Roots

“Our rental car was now encased in a brick of ice, waiting to be chipped free by future archaeologists.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“The wind howled for my blood all night.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“She was crawling around on the floor, laughing and smiling with her eyes rolled back in her head. She gurgled and hacked a clot of phlegm from her throat, then stuck her tongue out and flicked it around, mouthing words I couldn’t begin to understand. “Faye?” I called. “What the fuck are you doing?” She loosed a wet cough, then dashed out from the room and zig-zagged her way toward me. Her arms and legs flailed wildly in exaggerated lunges and her head rolled about like a bowl on a stick.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“The moment I cracked the door open, a blast of frigid mountain air stung my face. It burned the last bit of sleep from my eyes and sharpened all my senses.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“As the shadowy figure beat down on me, I freed a hand and clawed at his face, searching for eyes to gouge out. A row of teeth caught my fingers and bit down hard on them, and then I felt a mixture of blood and saliva drip down my forearm. I screamed and threw a wild elbow, rallying my strength as it collided with a wet smack against the creature’s jaw. He howled in pain and relented just long enough for me to get to my feet.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“I feel my soul imperiled. I feel the mountain's shadow on me, even at night.”
― Felix Blackwell, The Church Beneath the Roots

“Why should one of us suffer in order for the other to be happy? Maybe instead of trying to put out fires all the time, I should instead let everything burn to ash.”
― Felix Blackwell, In the Devil's Dreams

“There is a brief moment at night when the brain is neither awake nor asleep, but somewhere in between.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“My dreams have always tended to be elaborate and fantastical. They brim with surreal creatures, Dali-esque landscapes, impossible situations.”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“You know when you’re a kid and you see a shadow on your wall at night, and it looks like a monster? Or when you see animals in the clouds? That’s pareidolia. And it happens with sound, too. The wind blows through a cave or something just right, and people think they hear a voice. Your brain even makes words out of it, in”
― Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues

“There is something at work in my soul”
― Felix Blackwell, The Sorrowstones

“The stone had opened a door into the mountain, and Onwé worried it had also opened a door into himself, through which monstrous things could pass.”
― Felix Blackwell, The Church Beneath the Roots