Patrick Ryan > Quotes

“What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we’ve done with it. We give it away. We want it back. We say “time and again” when something is bothering us and “it’s time” when something is supposed to end. Felix saw it so clearly: all we should ever want of time is more of it. Life was so simple when it was reduced to the barest of necessities: more time; more air; more Duke Ellington.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“This is why old people seem distant and distracted, he thought. We aren’t living in the past; the past is living in us.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Over and over, she’d learned that what the dead most often conveyed was love and forgiveness. She could only conclude that these were the two most important things in the world—so important that people carried them into the afterlife for the sole purpose of being able to hand them back to the living.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“The things that we love tell us what we are.’ If I ever get a tattoo, it’s going to be that, right across the top of my chest.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“This is why old people seem distant and distracted, he thought. We aren’t living in the past; the past is living in us. And it’s talking. We get old to be able to recalibrate everything we thought was going to be important. We get old just to hear it. It says, the days, the days, the days.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“The wisdom that comes with age was needling, he found, because it brought the clarity of hindsight without the means to change anything.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“The whole reason you build a bridge together is so the water can run under it, right? And not wash the two of you away? Sometimes one of you makes it flood, and then the water recedes.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Forgiveness wasn’t so great if you were the forgiver, Becky discovered. Forgiveness was supposed to be the high road, but it was low and bumpy—and long. Still,”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Because they had to go to a wife, or to work, or to a war, or to that secret place of stoic brooding all men were given the key to at birth. Had any mother ever had the time for stoic brooding?”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Wasn’t it a fair measure of a person, what they did with their mistakes?”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“They were, Felix thought, like a plant that could only get as big as its pot, no shaping or pruning allowed. Still, a healthy plant.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“She smiled at the memory.
"Yes, I'm glad I stayed. The whole reason you build a bridge together is so the water can run under it, right? And not wash the two of you away? Sometimes one of you makes it flood, and then the water recedes. Your father could infuriate me, but I loved him, and he was always going to be the one I gave it a go with. So, no, I don't regret it. I'm glad I stayed.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“the person who was stupid enough to do what he’d done wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to fix it.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“When he read, heard, and watched the news, he wondered how many people were out there doing the same thing he was—scratching their heads as they tried to figure out how to prioritize their worries and confront their prejudices; drawing their own maps with their fingers crossed.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Capitalism only works if people are out there selling what they don’t own.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“You want me to lie to her.” Roman’s eyes dollied forward under his brow. “If it means living in peace? Absolutely. That’s one of the reasons we have lies.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we’ve done with it. We give it away. We want it back. We say “time and again” when something is bothering us and “it’s time” when something is supposed to end. Felix saw it so clearly: all we”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Calling this new weapon “a harnessing of the basic power of the universe” was, he knew, horseshit. It was a harnessing of the hubris of men.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“They disappeared into the task, shoveled themselves night and day into the furnace of their intention to keep Skip safe and healthy.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Wasn’t it a fair measure of a person, what they did with their mistakes? How they managed to stumble into some of the right steps, after taking all the wrong ones?”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“all we should ever want of time is more of it.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“What was becoming clearer, however—and had probably always been clear to her mother—was that she was looking for understanding where there was none to be found.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Tell him only Goofus lays his bicycle down in the middle of people’s walkways. Gallant parks his bicycle to the side, and uses his kickstand.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“so the water can run under it, right? And not wash the two of you away?”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“Everett just never knew what to do with someone else’s good news.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“This is why old people seem distant and distracted”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“was step one in your experiment? This is my life, Felix. This is all I have.” She huffed out the breath she’d been holding. “I never stood a chance.” “That’s not true. It’s just not the case. We’ve stayed together. We’re still here, still us.” “We’ve never been us,” she said. “There is no us. We were both pretending.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“A weapon without shape that moved with the breeze and took down every living thing in its path wasn’t warfare. It was extermination.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye

“The world wanted a baby, it seemed; it just hadn’t wanted her.”
― Patrick Ryan, Buckeye