Jac Jemc > Quotes

“The inability to trust ourselves is the most menacing danger.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“What role were we playing? The ghosts or the haunted?”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“When I was a child, I feared the day I would identify what I wanted to do. What I wanted was to stay free. The worst nightmare appeared to be recognizing how you wanted the world to change.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“In movies, everyone is always surprised the door is unlocked.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“There is no acceptable, untainted name for a wilderness of the mind. People will always wonder what to believe. They expect the stray inaccuracies to be looted out and abandoned. They expect the mind’s voice to unstitch only when alone. When the seams rip, they look away.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“I say, "This is the only way it might be," thinking of all the other ways. I'm either telling a lie or there are so many truths.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“There are times when saying nothing means nothing, and then there are times when nothing holds an answer.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“Those minutiae calcify into the bones of our intimacy.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“delicate white buds”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“Those minutiae calcify into the bones of our intimacy”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“Loneliness is keenest when in the company of others, when comparisons suggest that everyone else is relating to and forming bonds with one another ... To make a connection requires risking rejection. To share a story requires an audience trustworthy enough to receive it. The longer a person remains isolated, the more sensitive they become to potential threats. The longer a story goes untold, the harder it gets to tell.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“bouquet of jasmine”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“We run out of things to tell each other. We share second- and even third-tier stories we’d never bother other people with. Those minutiae calcify into the bones of our intimacy.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“recoiling as if their touch scalds his delicate skin.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“Here is one more thing that Sisi is allowed to look at, but not to touch, one more thing she used to hold close that is now at arm’s length.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“My wife loved the sidewalks of the city, but one summer she wanted to leave them behind so she could come back to them.”
― Jac Jemc, My Only Wife

“Sisi’s mother hugs her and tells her she’s perfect, but perfect is not what Sisi has ever wanted to be.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“The city attempts to match the beauty of its new Empress.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“That night, Julie and I play Battleship with our laptops-- that's what we call it when we sit across the table from one another with our screens open.”
― Jac Jemc

“I take a deep breath, and I swear I can fill blood pick up oxygen and carry it through me, delivering questions that blink rapidly behind my eyes like closed captions.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“his jacket turned inside out on dry land missing a bullet hole’s worth of fabric,”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“I feel incapable of facing the worry I’ve caused her. My mind insists that her recent transgressions have been more severe than my own.”
― Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

“What they see, before the body slips from their grasp, are the whites of Ludwig’s eyes, his mouth stretched into a howl.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“It’s like trying to keep a cork in a champagne bottle,”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“Sisi indicates the blousy white blossoms, shadowed in pink: “Magnolia.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“I developed moods that felt like they could be stretched forever like a piece of dirty bubblegum.”
― Jac Jemc, A Different Bed Every Time

“Sisi arrives to the family party in her new blush moire dress and a mood.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“It was like seeing someone in the middle of a snowy field with no footsteps around them. Everyone has to get to where they are.”
― Jac Jemc, A Different Bed Every Time

“The moonlight made the room bright as day.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...

“A panic blooms inside Ida.”
― Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre: or, The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty...