Pagan Kennedy > Quotes

“She'd spent years trying to explain herself to me (and I to her), but in the end, it had all been for nothing. I could recite her memories, but I could not feel them. She was another country, and I would never travel there.”
― Pagan Kennedy, Confessions of a Memory Eater

“Though we possess the brainpower, the talent, and the tools to solve our most worrying problems, it's enormously difficult to organize ourselves around the big questions.”
― Pagan Kennedy, Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World

“We talk about certain statements as having a “ring of truth” to them, as if a sentence is a tuning fork, something that we can tap and listen to for its tone. And I think that’s right. Truth has a hum to it. You can tell.”
― Pagan Kennedy, The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories

“When someone tells you, 'I don't need your idea,' you must not fling your drink in his or her face; instead, you must ask, 'Why?' It's the most difficult—and ego-bruising—part of the creative process.”
― Pagan Kennedy, Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World

“The imagination can become our own free and wild territory. When all else fails, it can offer a refuge.”
― Pagan Kennedy, Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World

“Now, in a growing number of cities across the country, when a victim testified, she no longer did so alone. Doctors, nurses, and forensic scientists were there to lend validity to her version of events. And the kit itself became a character in the trials.”
― Pagan Kennedy, The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story

“Sean had shaken his head when he heard. 'That girl's a lunatic,' he's said. 'Man, you got to cut her loose. Her mood ring's gone permanently black, you know what I mean?”
― Pagan Kennedy, The Exes

“Hank stared off at the weeping cement wall of their underground room; under the glare of the bare bulb, it reminded him of sweaty skin. Why didn't he ever think about stuff like that? He always assumed people were as plain and straight as he was. Why did everyone else have these dark folds, these wrinkles and kinks to them?”
― Pagan Kennedy, The Exes