Galt Niederhoffer > Quotes

“The map was just an accessory. She knew exactly where she was.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“There was something horribly depressing, she felt, about watching the weather report. That life could be planned like the perfect summer picnic drained it of spontaneity.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Technically, on the spectrum of very bad things, they did nothing truly wicked. But of course, that spectrum has no measure for the greatest of all carnal sins, the kind that occurs before skin touches skin, before wondering turns to yearning, yearning to having, having to holding for dear life, when two people cling to each other so desperately that even when they lie, inches apart, neither is fully satisfied until the light between them turns to darkness.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“It was understood that they shared the same thresholds--the same inexhaustible appetite for wasting time, for discussing lofty ideas, for dissecting trivial things, for driving to nowhere in particular, for listening to music, for talking about books, for obsessing over pop culture, but mostly for laughing, talking, and simply being together. There was nothing one could say that the other would find too cruel or too kind. And on those rare occasions when they did tire of each other, they needed only go a day without talking before they yearned to reconnect.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“She was not brokenhearted because the relationship had ended suddenly; she was brokenhearted because it had never truly ended.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Time passed at an accelerated pace. They could be sitting in traffic or talking on the phone or waiting in line for a movie, and their time felt precious, important, worthwhile.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Not to speak would have infused the moment with more meaning than it deserved.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Was it possible there was some fatal flaw in their matching, that they were ultimately, impossibly different--dissimilar enough to fall in love, but too fundamentally distinct to stay together?”
― Galt Niederhoffer

“Physical attraction did its part to glue them together, but something stronger than sexual attraction sealed the bond. When men and women grow apart, it is for the same reason they are drawn together; because they are finally, inherently too different. Friendships among women, on the other hand, were burdened by similarity.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“If anything was, that the world will always--it can only--disappoint.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Love and hysteria are easily mistaken.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“And she had been in love enough times to rule out the possibility that this was merely some feat of nostalgia.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“The sound of his voice was an overwhelming relief, like remembering the name of a beloved song or returning to a childhood haunt to find it totally unchanged. Did he not fee the same swell of relief? Or was he just better at hiding it?”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Betrayal lived in a separate realm than sex, a realm that was far more innocent, and far more erotic.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Assigning degrees of blame to betrayal is a difficult project, much like deciding which of two murderers has the more wicked heart. With murder, there are tangible distinctions. First degree is intentional; second degree, irresponsible; third degree, accidental. But with crimes of the heart, the distinctions are more subtle. Who is it to say when a secret turns into a sin? With a daydream, a kiss, a confession? Who is to say which transgression is worse: sexual or emotional, coveting or caressing?”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“We live in a world that hates women so much that they would sooner blame a woman for reporting a crime than punish a man for committing it.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, Poison

“He began to view writing as a petty ambition, a frivolous and indulgent whim, creativity itself as the pathology of the very young or very stupid.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Occasionally, she wondered if all couples struggled so much to understand one another, spoke so little at dinner together, spent so much time camped out in front of the TV. Did all women sometimes feel distanced from their man while they were making love?”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“But as always, the distance between them gave way to a need to be closer.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“I don't think I have some special gift for knowing what's in your heart. I think we both do.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“There was no one--nothing else in the world--that had this unbelievable effect on him: thrilling electrification. But just as soon as he acknowledged this gift, he sought to destroy it.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“The state of being lost, he seemed to imply, granted him a kind of freedom.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“If something terrible happens to me, it's not my job to spare you from my pain.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“Their looks and personalities were still intact, but some thing had atrophied ever so slightly. Their faces bore the distinct wear of goals gone too long unfulfilled.”
― Galt Niederhoffer

“Rivalry glued the girls together in a way that regular contact could not.”
― Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics

“The crux of the problem was this: He was at once everything and nothing she needed. Seen from afar, they were picturesque, a symphony of superior genes, a study in storybook promise. But when they were alone together, they were curiously ill suited, sometimes mortifyingly lacking in secrets to share and things to talk about. But common wisdom condoned this, did it not? Was this not the basis of a great partnership: opposition, difference of opinion. Pairing up with someone as practical as she would be terribly boring, just as coupling Tom with another dreamer would result in incompetence; that pair would never make it out of the house. Both combinations would amount to deadening and impractical redundancy. But what if it was equally dangerous to pair up two people who were so different? Were they not signing up for a lifetime of silent dinners or, worse, after-dinner spats?”
― Galt Niederhoffer