Ryan Chapman > Quotes

“Was it a fraud from the beginning? There must have been a decision. Some crossing of the Rubicon. He couldn’t see her launching the company—the cause—knowing it would never work. The sheer amount of labor. Of passion! What was the point if it was all a lie? Maybe the point was never the point. The point was to simply keep going. This was what alpinists and Ponzi schemers shared: the commitment to continue on, despite all.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“The scotch was peaty, acerbic. He coughed and Wright patted him on the back. “Easy, tiger. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends.” “What’s the Russian proverb? ‘Eating increases the appetite’?” “That’s about abstention.” “Respectfully disagree.” Guy pointed his glass at the yacht. “Are you going tonight?”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“Daily am I myself the stakes and I win myself every night. —Walter Serner, Last Loosening”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“I noticed a return of my natural smile while performing my A.M. routine. That’s a positive sign. It has been, what, eight years. The media trainer cycled through all those clips, pointing to the lines in my cheeks. A marionette’s mouth, she said. And nobody controls Victoria Stevens. She made me say it, over and over. Nobody controls Victoria Stevens.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“Averman caught his expression. “I recorded them before everyone arrived. Just a little mantra to keep us focused. When it’s difficult to see the trees for the forest as we get into the weeds.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“I did play hooky that one afternoon, at Guy’s urging. A matinee near the Emeryville campus. I don’t remember the movie. I do know that I was halfway through the red-carpeted lobby when one of the assistants texted that AmEx flagged the ticket purchase for possible fraud. That was my sign from above. The algorithms were telling me to go back to the office.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“Jessica uncapped a marker and wrote ILLS at the top of the whiteboard. “Right,” Averman said. “I thought we’d begin with an overview of the problems at hand. This is a brainstorm. There’re no bad suggestions. We’ll prioritize and organize in the second session.” Four men spoke at once and then deferred to Roark. “We’re to list, what? Global pandemics?” “Everything. Like heart disease, for example.” Averman replied. Jessica wrote HEART DISEASE in the top left corner. A voice from the third row. “World hunger?” Jessica wrote WORLD HUNGER. Guy figured he’d come this far. “Jingoism!” JINGOISM. Benatti yelled, “Famine!” “Isn’t that the same as world hunger?” Roark asked. A chorus of assenting murmurs. Wright called up from the second row. “World hunger is a distribution problem. Famine is agricultural.” “Gentlemen.” Averman put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. “Again, there are no bad suggestions. We’ll sort everything in the second session.” FAMINE. “SIDS!” Mary Ellen yelled. “Malaria!” someone shouted. Momentum gathered: “Alzheimer’s! Influenza! Cerebral palsy! Women’s education! Recidivism! Rising oceans! The migrant crisis! Diabetes! Earthquakes! Wage disparity! Racism! Blindness! Domestic abuse! Nuclear armament! Nuclear stockpiling! Opportunity for the less affluent! Drug patents! Ennui! Urban zoning! High-speed internet access! The Great Barrier Reef! Food deserts! Healthcare reform! Religious extremism! Crohn’s disease! Meningococcemia! Carbon emissions! AIDS! Female genital mutilation! Apathy! Child labor! Deafness! Corporate monopolies! Tax reform! Flesh-eating viruses! Infrastructure! University endowments! River-borne diseases! Mudslides! Marfan syndrome! Wildfires! Sexism! Opioids! Locked-in syndrome! Gambling addiction! Lyme’s! Lack of potable water! Tuberculosis! COPD! Syphilis! Deaths of despair! Mass transportation! High blood pressure! Bee extinction! Monogamy! Pneumonia! Mass incarceration! Mass migration! Pornography! Fibromyalgia! Diarrhea! Cirrhosis! Bacterial infections! Poor hygiene! Illiteracy! E. coli! Car accidents! School shootings! Xenophobia! Holy wars! Preterm birth complications! Sugar! Terrorism! Diabetes! Unemployment! Depression! Norovirus! Fracking! Oxygen depletion in the oceans! Nuclear waste! Mortality! . . .”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“He wasn’t so naïve as to believe couples shared a single reality. Every relationship held a few grenades of truth in abeyance.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“On the porch Juan monologued about the age of dinosaurs. I thought of my last birthday present for Guy: an ancient cricket—a katydid—preserved in amber. Scientists say its wings produced an E natural, the planet’s first musical note, over 150 million years ago. He was very impressed, though he suggested we donate it to the Museum of Natural History. As if he was ashamed to own it. I told him shame blunts ambition.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“Could it not be argued the truly innovative organization falters in equally innovative ways.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“After his commitments—a ho-hum German program with a pinch of Ligeti—he tried talking a bartender into a to-go bottle of Riesling. Victoria appeared at his side in a navy knee-length dress and asked for another seltzer with lemon. She turned to him and complimented his “performance.” Then she said he slouched during the Bach, and, when it became clear to Guy he was being flirted with—which Victoria later told him anyone else would have gathered immediately—she held a hand to her mouth, mock-conspiratorial, and said her paperwork with the Universal Life Church had been lost in the mail. The marriage she had officiated wasn’t officially valid. An exchange of secrets is the quickest method of seduction; Guy swooned. It wasn’t until years later when he shared the story with Wright that he learned Pennsylvania didn’t require an ordained minister. The Quakers had ensured witnesses sufficed.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“He said he might be in love. When I asked what that word meant to him, he paused for a bit. Said it’s a language with endless idiolects. You can never attain full fluency with another person, but you can share productive miscommunication.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“He thought of the Quorum’s whiteboard. There was generational culpability in nearly every item. Maybe he’d been born at the wrong time. The two kids moved on to discussing a herpes outbreak among the grounds crew. They might be the last generation. How freeing, to feel so doomed. To justifiably blame everything on one’s elders.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“His mother had gone peaceably. Dinner with friends, then a bit of television with a cup of decaf. She passed in her brand-new recliner, a brown leather number paid all-cash that enveloped her small frame. In her white pajamas, like a baseball tucked in a fresh mitt.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“It’s a nice thought. I told him he should also be clearheaded about it. In a long-term relationship, one defines the terms and settles the territories. And then sticks to them. Things collapse when one partner redraws the boundaries.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity

“The crowd gave Roark deference, allowing him to exit first. Guy positioned himself near the bed and touched the handrail to feign steering.”
― Ryan Chapman, The Audacity