Scot Gardner > Quotes

“It gets easier when you've met and dealt with your own grief. It gets easier, but it'll probably never be easy.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“It wasn’t hard to imagine them surrounded by their families as they did the last of their breathing. Said their goodbyes. Kissed cheeks. No luggage to check in. Leave your body with us, I thought. We’ll look after that.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know: A Dark Young Adult Psychological Drama About Funeral Homes and Lost Memory

“Hold on, don't skip all the good bits, I thought. Don't dream me a life without the romance. Let me do the coloring in myself.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“My words dried up. I'd already used more than my daily quota, and the dull ache in my head was a warning not to overdo it. I shrugged.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“There's no shame," John Barton said quietly. "Funerals are the place for letting it out. They're the last free-for-all in our society. Without them we would all turn to stone from unexpressed emotion.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“The tiny conversation they'd had would reveal no evidence of her frayed edges.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“Something was stretched to the point of irreparable damage, and I wanted to bounce on it until it broke.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“To truly know death, you'd have to have loved.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“The parts of my new job that filled me with abject and irrational fear, that twisted me into all kinds of knots, were the raw emotions of those left alive. It was the living who were the great unknown.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“Was it courage that made her take the last step, or weakness? Was it loss that walked her to the edge, or a search for freedom?”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“When sleep is not a sanctuary, darkness sometimes is. When the mess of human activity nags at you, the ocean can make you deaf with its rhythmic wash.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“The sounds were trapped in the tank with him. His fingers pawed at the wet plastic but could find no hold.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“I wanted to tell him more. I had the fleeting desire to tell him a lot more, but old habits and the fear of revealing too much made the words congeal in my throat.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“ The sharks that you need to fear are the ones inside your head -- Grandad”
― Scot Gardner, Changing Gear

“He felt on the edge of something vast and dark. He stared at the infinity growing deeper above them and felt that at any moment he might fall off the planet.”
― Scot Gardner, Sparrow

“The police protected the living, ambulance officers protected the injured, and we protected the dead. All as it should be.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know: A Dark Young Adult Psychological Drama About Funeral Homes and Lost Memory

“I'm the drowning boy. I've been drowning for years.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“Sometimes death is a gift. Sometimes it's like the end of a good book. You turn the last page and think, jeez that was a great story.
You don't want it to end. You never want it to end. When a boy dies... when a boy drowns it's like the pages have been torn from the book and you feel ripped off. The story doesn't make any sense. It might take ages for you to realise that it was meant to be a short story. A sad story.
Eddy's death was the perfect end to an amazing story. The story of her life. I guess you're all part of the story, like me. I guess some of you are even feeling the same way I do. Bit sad. Bit hollow inside and so, so happy that Eddy was part of my life. Could you think of a more beautiful, peaceful way to die? To just go to sleep and never wake up? Wouldn't surprise me if she'd planned it.
She taught me so many things. So many things about life. About fear and courage and being yourself and love. She taught me about love. She taught me these things without trying. Every day. She lived every day like it mattered. She wasn't perfect. Who is? ...
I hope it's okay to feel a bit happy as well as a bit sad. The book of Eddy had some beautiful moments and a lovely ending. I'll keep it in the library of my heart just in case I need a bit of laugh or some wisdom.”
― Scot Gardner, Burning Eddy

“She stared at me with that questioning look people often get when I open my mouth.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know

“Deal with death every day of my life... in one way or another. You can never tell when it's going to bring you undone.”
― Scot Gardner

“That last thread of real family had snapped. It hadn't been torn apart with the calamity of a cyclone but unravelled in increments, over years.”
― Scot Gardner, Sparrow

“ Your mind is a horse you ride, Merrick. No one can hold the reins for you -- Grandad”
― Scot Gardner, Changing Gear

“There was a peaceful rhythm to the cleaning and polishing. I was unrecognizable to myself.”
― Scot Gardner

“Here was a task with boundaries and purpose, a small thing that made sense. A small thing I could do well.”
― Scot Gardner, The Dead I Know