Kim Barnes > Quotes

“I carry it all with me, in the quiet pools and strong currents of my being. I fill my hands with the black dirt left by the river's birth. I believe that what I hold in my hands is memory: like the river, it takes what it touches, carrying it along until all that remains is the bed over which the water flows.”
― Kim Barnes, In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country

“Doesn’t really matter how old you are or how many times, every decision is a new one. You just got to go with it sometimes, right or wrong. Find a way.”
― Kim Barnes, A Country Called Home

“How many times had he listened to the death song of Cio-Cio-San and cried as though it were a new sadness just visited upon him?”
― Kim Barnes, A Country Called Home

“Maybe that’s the way to go, Manny thought. Your body snatched up and spirited away. Your last memory a dream of flight.”
― Kim Barnes, A Country Called Home

“All the world was made of nothing more or less than the simple blaze.”
― Kim Barnes, A Country Called Home

“Contained in the raven’s untold tale was some knowledge, some wisdom the bird had gathered in his flight. Secret even from God. Perhaps the birds were telling it still, and no ears to hear.”
― Kim Barnes, A Country Called Home

“The shack, the long hours of darkness illuminated by nothing but candles and moonlight, even the spider—he missed it all. He missed that boy he once was and could never be again. That time when the only life that mattered was his own.”
― Kim Barnes, A Country Called Home