John Patrick Shanley > Quotes

“I am not a courageous person by nature. I have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. It is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap.”
― John Patrick Shanley, 13 by Shanley

“Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite – it is a passionate exercise. You may come out of my play uncertain. You may want to be sure. Look down on that feeling. We’ve got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That’s the silence under the chatter of our time. ”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“If I could, Sister James, I would certainly choose to live in innocence. But innocence can only be wisdom in a world without evil. Situations arise and we are confronted with wrongdoing and the need to act.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and *die*. The storybooks are *bullshit*. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and *get* in my bed!”
― John Patrick Shanley

“Father Brendan Flynn: "A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man whom they hardly knew - I know none of you have ever done this. That night, she had a dream: a great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O' Rourke, and she told him the whole thing. 'Is gossiping a sin?' she asked the old man. 'Was that God All Mighty's hand pointing down at me? Should I ask for your absolution? Father, have I done something wrong?' 'Yes,' Father O' Rourke answered her. 'Yes, you ignorant, badly-brought-up female. You have blamed false witness on your neighbor. You played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed.' So, the woman said she was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. 'Not so fast,' says O' Rourke. 'I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me.' So, the woman went home: took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed. 'Did you gut the pillow with a knife?' he says. 'Yes, Father.' 'And what were the results?' 'Feathers,' she said. 'Feathers?' he repeated. 'Feathers; everywhere, Father.' 'Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind,' 'Well,' she said, 'it can't be done. I don't know where they went. The wind took them all over.' 'And that,' said Father O' Rourke, 'is gossip!”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“dear god, whose name i do not know. thank you for my life. i forgot... how BIG... thank you. thank you for my life.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Five Corners

“I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.”
― John Patrick Shanley

“I want to say to you: Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“I have doubts”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and they live in a state of constant total amazement.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Five Corners

“i don't know what your situation is but i wanted you to know what mine is not just to explain some rude behavior, but because we're on a little boat for a while and... i'm soul sick. and you're going to see that.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Five Corners

“Life happens when the tectonic power of your speechless soul breaks through the dead habits of the mind.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“Walk towards the good. Don't be distracted by fear, by rage. Walk towards the good. In places, that path is wide. In places, perilous. Walk.”
― John Patrick Shanley

“Look at you. You'd trade anything for a warm look. I'm telling you here and now, I want to see the starch in your character cultivated. If you are looking for reassurance, you can be fooled. If you forget yourself and study others, you will not be fooled.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“You have no right to act on your own! You have taken vows, obedience being one! You answer to us! You have no right to step outside the church!”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“It is Doubt (so often experienced initially as weakness) that changes things. When a man feels unsteady, when he falters, when hard-won knowledge evaporates before his eyes, he's on the verge of growth. The subtle or violent reconciliation of the outer person and the inner core often seems at first like a mistake, like you've gone the wrong way and you're lost. But this is just emotion longing for the familiar. Life happens when the tectonic power of your speechless soul breaks through the dead habits of the mind. Doubt is nothing less than an opportunity to reenter the Present.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“If you close your eyes, you will be a party to all that comes after.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“I think [doubt is] perceived in this culture as something weak or denatured, and that’s a huge mistake. Conviction is what you do to be comfortable, to write The End on thinking. Doubt keeps you in the present, it keeps you conscious and reacting to and acting on what is going on now. It’s work, and people like to avoid work.”
― John Patrick Shanley

“I still long for a shared certainty, an assumption of safety, the reassurance of believing that others know better than me what's for the best. But I have been led by the bitter necessities of an interesting life to value that age-old practice of the wise: Doubt.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite - it is a passionate exercise.”
― John Patrick Shanley

“God gave you a brain and a heart. The heart is warm, but your wits must be cold.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, a Parable

“Rose: Cosmo, I just want you to know that no matter what you do, you’re going to die, just like everybody else.

Cosmo: Thank you, Rose!”
― John Patrick Shanley, Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Five Corners

“– Thinking’s worse than February.”
― John Patrick Shanley, Outside Mullingar