Simon Jimenez > Quotes

“This is a love story to its blade-dented bone.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“I have lived a long time," she said. "And the longer I live, the more it surprises me, and saddens me, how wise the young must become to live in this world.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“If only there were a way to hold a moment in your hands and keep it alive forever.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“This body holds the body. This arm holds the spear. And the spear cuts through water.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“The stories are everywhere, you cannot avoid them. Every day you tell a story to yourself; the details of your day become a part of your myth. It is reordered. It is made sense of.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“If on listened, one could hear it in their voices. One can tell a lot, even in such a state, by the way someone speaks another's name.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“He wanted to warn these children that time was not their friend; that though today might seem special, there would be a tomorrow, and a day after that; that the best-case scenario of a well-spent life was the slow and steady unraveling of the heart’s knot.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“The people who leave always forget that the world doesn't end once they've gone," she said. "They forget about the decay.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Some days you are so alone, you think you will collapse into a hard and dense rock. You tell him that you wish things were different. That you feel as though you have a sack over your shoulder, heavy and dragging, but you have no idea what’s inside the sack, or who gave it to you. It’s just there. It’s just yours. And you regret so many things. You’ve hurt people, you’ve embarrassed them, you’ve embarrassed yourself.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“Take my day, they sang, but give me the night. Feed the hearth and ready the brew, for I am coming home to you.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“Keema stepped toward Jun, and touched him. His arm, his bony cheek, his lips, and Jun received that touch as he would the water from a waterfall, with eyes closed and face upturned. "You feel like the sun," Jun said.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“From far away, the laughter was a crackle of noise, like some distant fireworks lit in honor of a hero’s passing—and up close, it was almost overwhelming, a bright and wincing joy that would make one realize there is no correct way to shake hands with pain.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“They fought for nothing, which is why you see yourself in them.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“Blame is an endless circle.

And I seemed to be standing in the center of it.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“They fought because it was the easiest language they spoke.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“If one listened, one could hear it in their voices. One can tell a lot, even in such a state, by the way someone speaks another's name.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“Dana nestled into the crook of Fumiko’s neck and whispered, “If we can’t have what is ours, then no one can.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“The body holds the body. The arms hold the spear. And the spear cuts through water.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“Fathers leave in all sorts of ways. Some of them leave in the dark. Some leave only in their heads, while their bodies remain, staring at the world around them forever distantly. Others fade out over time, like an old photo rubbed raw. Many, gone in an instant.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“Memory is water through fingers.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“There is no correct way to shake hands with pain.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“People died so that we could live. Others suffered so that we may prosper. That is the way of the world. To believe otherwise is to never grow up.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“I heard him call the Daware man’s name. The Daware man was on a skiff he had cut free from Luubu’s disintegrating ship. The Daware man called his name back. If one listened, one could hear it in their voices. One can tell a lot, even in such a state, by the way someone speaks another’s name.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“You can fault the dancer, but more often than not, it is the dance itself that has to change.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“even now it remains hard for me to determine how I feel about the men who had sprung from me—what to do about my deep hatred, and my bottomless love, for them.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“And the longer I live, the more it surprises me, and saddens me, how wise the young must be to live in this world.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“But a part of me still revolts against the notion that this is our basic nature; that we are, in essence, self-serving creatures. That love is an explainable construct and souls are a pretty feint to distract ourselves from our own cruel emptiness.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

“I thought how strange it was that I ever feared the end. That I had ever tried to escape it. And like that, it was done. My hand releasing from its fist. The battle fought. The life slipped from this old tether”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“His voice is small when he says, out loud, “I was so close.” He is looking at Jun when he says this. Jun refuses to look at him; he knows that if he does, he will change his mind. Keema is looking at Jun and he is crying. I was so close.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Spear Cuts Through Water

“I was happy, but I also wasn’t. Something was missing, here,” she said, tapping her chest, her heart. “Or not missing, but sleeping. But nothing here could wake it up. It made me feel alone. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
― Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds