Michael Rutger > Quotes

“Whose side are you on?

The side of not getting killed. For future reference, that's the side I'm always on.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“Nobody gets through life without being an asshole...Once in a while you're going to dig in over something and get it wrong and make a scratch on the world you'll never polish off. Those scratches will define you more than anything else.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“The past is full of if-onlys and they're all bullshit.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“Wake me up, make me think, or buy me a drink. Otherwise, fuck off.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“It's never the world at large you want to prove yourself to. It's someone in particular. Doesn't matter how old you get, you're still hoping for Mom or Dad to kiss you on the head.
And yes, that person should ideally be yourself, just as the answers to all our questions and the objects of our quests should most likely be found within our own souls. But they're not. We need more. Someone or something bigger than us. A magical other.
And that's why we reach for the gods.
Or for someone to love.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“... truth is for teenagers and hippies. We're too old and ugly for that crap. Wake me up, make me think, or buy me a drink. Otherwise, f*** off.”
― MICHAEL RUTGER (author), The Anomaly

“Thirty-five is not the first draft of being a human. There are editorial marks in your margins.”
― Michael Rutger, The Possession

“You know this already. You'll have bodies stashed in tunnels of your own. Things you've done, mistakes you've made, secrets you hold—the guilt you carry for moments that stick out in your past like black stars in the firmament of your inner life. The outlier occurrences. The anomalies. The events you look back upon in disbelief, wondering how the hell they could have come to pass, and if they can be made to fit in a story you are prepared to own.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“She considered throwing the phone to the ground, stamping on it. But what a pain it would be to get a replacement. That's how you know you're a grown-up. You only allow the emotions that are convenient. You carry on.”
― Michael Rutger, The Possession

“The thing that has kept me from going crazy at certain periods in my life is the ability to let the future be.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“But my point is I get how corrosive lies become. I understand the need to be able to live with yourself, to not have something lurking back in the dark of your mind, stopping you from being at peace. Are you going to be able to live with that?”
― MICHAEL RUTGER (author), The Anomaly

“She stared him down, and in that moment I saw something I recognized from my own childhood. The moment when a long-held power balance shifts, when a kid gets old enough to question whether they actually have to do what a parent tells them, and lets that doubt be known. Puts it right there on the table, where it can’t be ignored. I imagine it’s a strange and perhaps even disturbing moment for a parent, a cold wind blowing across everything that’s come before. Because yes, this is the harbinger of the adult who may one day be looking after you, but wrapped in the disguise of someone who’s still a child: poised on the boundary between one world and another.”
― Michael Rutger, The Possession

“I stepped into the passage.
I was aware of...a reluctance. Nothing major. Not a big don't for God's sake go in there siren. Merely a note of caution, spiraling up from the deep back brain, a little like the feeling I'd had while sitting along early the previous morning.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“The data is not in, and someone, somewhere, does not yet believe it's time to wipe the board and start again. I don't know whether that's because that person or culture still has faith in us, despite the violence in our hearts and the mistakes we seem intent on making, or if they are working to a subtler agenda then we can begin to comprehend. But look at the world, in the state it's in. I'm not sure we've got much time left to prove the worth of the current round of the experiment.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“That's nice."

"It is. And so I did not tell her that I'd written most of it while taking a shit. My point is neither you nor I know what will matter to the audience in the long run. The truth? Who gives a fuck? The Bible's full of utter cock and there are ten thousand wankers out there using it as an excuse to behave like total fucking arseholes. Same as the Koran and the Talmud and probably whatever the fuck it is that Buddhists get their spells out of. But on the other hand there's been millions of people, over thousand of years, who've got through the day because of that bullshit, or had their heart lifted, or looked at the world differently for ten minutes.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“The problem with seeing a lot of places is they all start to seem the same, especially the ones that are trying to be different.”
― Michael Rutger, The Possession

“Most writers are lazy asses, physically at least. Sure, there are exceptions, like Hemingway, who'd leave the house to shoot something or get macho on a big fish, but I'll bet even he was far happier back at home propping up the bar or on the porch communing with his cats in short, declarative sentences”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“I'm fine,"she said, keeping her head down,wiping the back of her hand across her eyes.It was probably too late,but she didn't want him to see she'd been crying.She was fourteen.That's not a child anymore, whatever dumbass old people might think.Parents and teachers,every-one---but friends most of all.All they ever want to do is keep you small.
They're scared of who you are becoming.
Of what you know.Of who you are.”
― Michael Rutger, The Possession

“Time may help you turn a blind eye, but guilt is the stain that never goes away.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“Some people are only happy when they’ve got something to disbelieve.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“Nobody gets through life without being an asshole,” I said. “Once in a while you’re going to dig in over something and get it wrong and make a scratch on the world you’ll never polish off. Those scratches will define you more than anything else.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“In silence this profound you felt different. Some deep, rusty, older part of your brain urged you to remain quiet, to avoid being noticed.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“it’s not the content of the particular lie you told me that’s the problem; it’s that I can’t believe you anymore. That’s what destroys everything.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“with me.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“It’s never the world at large you want to prove yourself to. It’s someone in particular. Doesn’t matter how old you get, you’re still hoping for Mom or Dad to kiss you on the head.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“...aliens are never the answer to any sensible question.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“Nobody gets through life without being an asshole,”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“no longer having the counsel of your wife is akin to losing contact with the fellow war correspondent with whom you spent years deep in-country, witnessing the bad times but also the good, together with the long, rich quiet of just-another-day.”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“someone”
― Michael Rutger, The Anomaly

“The lights were low. The music was not. Right now it was Joni Mitchell-who always sounded to Kristy like a cat trying to communicate that it was dying, and said about it.”
― Michael Rutger, The Possession