Marc Arginteanu > Quotes

“Time is brain, I thought. And Penelope’s hourglass was quickly running out of sand.”
― Marc Arginteanu, Lazarus Dot: A short story: A Felix Hoenniker Medical Murder Mystery

“Nowadays, Staten Island teenagers are glued to smartphones and huddled in cool, dark hideouts, like albino bats

Nowadays, if no one's posted it online, it's not real”
― Marc Arginteanu, Azazel’s Public House

“You don’t want to let Preta in your head. He promises the world but delivers only misery”
― Marc Arginteanu, Azazel’s Public House

“Even when it feels like everything is standing still, time invisibly flows onward and destroys all”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“She wondered how her girlhood home had fared. Did the walls (a combination of mud and plywood) still smell like life? Did vivid leaves still shimmer through the windows (little more than pane-less holes) like hope? Did rain still tap-dance on the roof (a rusty sheet of corrugated metal) like joy?”
― Marc Arginteanu

“If you're searching for the meaning OF life, find meaning IN your own life. The everyday things.”
― Marc Arginteanu

“There’s nothing quite so exhilarating as being shot at without effect.”
― Marc Arginteanu, Lazarus Dot: A short story: A Felix Hoenniker Medical Murder Mystery

“Low hanging willow branches swayed in the breeze like a restless heart.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“Little Tommy Clancy, he thought. A big, fancy neurosurgeon. It seemed almost pretend sometimes. But you become who you pretend to be.”
― Marc Arginteanu, Azazel’s Public House

“Routine lends a veneer of normalcy to even the most terrible situation.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“You never know when the best day of your life will come... or when it has passed.”
― Marc Arginteanu

“Try to fix someone you love and you're likely to break them worse... fix yourself first.”
― Marc Arginteanu

“Where does one draw the line between optimism and self delusion?”
― Marc Arginteanu, Bullet to the Brain

“Paul sat in the gazebo and polished off half the bottle. With each sip, his mind drifted further back, until it rested on a girl he’d known in his youth. He sang, in perfect pitch, the Pink Floyd song, Vera. His voice mingled with the wind and sailed off, seeking a nighttime solidarity with all the lonely lovers whose passion had long since grown cold.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“He squeezed the telephone receiver until his knuckles were white. He wanted to smash it on the desk. Is this really how I want to be spending the limited time I have on this Earth? He gently lowered the phone into the cradle.”
― Marc Arginteanu, Azazel’s Public House

“Sometimes, I feel like they’re—Like I’ve gotta—Like I’m just pretending.”
“If you pretend to be something long enough, that’s what you become.”
― Marc Arginteanu

“It was that which emboldened the shadowy part of myself and lured me to darkness’ embrace. Its sirens’ song echoed louder and louder in my heart. How could I resist? My strength was stretched and stretched, like a rubber band about to snap.”
― Marc Arginteanu, Lazarus Dot: A short story: A Felix Hoenniker Medical Murder Mystery

“You never know when the happiest day of your life will come.” The furrows on his forehead deepened and he added, “Or when it has passed.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“He hummed Under the Boardwalk and watched a log twisting in the foamy surf, unable to make up its mind whether to head out to sea. No one intentionally ends up in New Jersey, Mike thought. We all somehow just wash up on the shore.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“A mark you leave on the world washes away like footprints on the beach.

A mark you leave on a loved one lasts a lifetime”
― Marc Arginteanu

“He was as solid as a coral reef and she smashed over him like tempest-whipped waves. Then the seabed began to quiver. Then quake. Then there was nothing solid nor liquid, just the rocking emptiness, which needed to be filled for one moment and all eternity.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“Seeking Frustration?
Try to control others.

Want Peace?
Learn to control yourself”
― Marc Arginteanu

“A little while later, they were roaring down the Garden State Parkway. He maneuvered into the left lane, where he found some open road. The asphalt rushed under their wheels, flying by like squandered youth.”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes

“Bearing false witness was the only one of the ten commandments that I hadn't yet broken. If I could hold the line on that one, maybe I still had a shot at heaven.”
― Marc Arginteanu, Bullet to the Brain

“Even when it looks like everything is standing still, time invisibly flows forward and destroys all”
― Marc Arginteanu, of Paint and Pancakes