Wiley Demilt > Wiley's Quotes

“Consider and then act, don't react. A worthy opponent will calculate his move to entice a response from you. Make your own play.”
― R.D. Ronald, The Elephant Tree

“The ladders of life that we scale merrily
Move mysteriously around
So that when you think you're climbing up, man
In fact you're climbing down”
― Nick Cave, And No More Shall We Part Sheet Music

“You know why farmer always kills fox? Fox can never take just enough. You ever see chicken house after fox comes? Chicken house is nothing but feathers and shit. Feathers and shit everywhere. Fox sees opportunity and loses mind. Fox cannot stop killing. Fox will spend all night burying bodies. More than fox can ever eat. Why? Because fox always goes too far.”
― Tanya Thompson, Red Russia

“And the rest is rust and stardust.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

“Ordinary life goes on--that has saved many a man's reason.”
― Graham Greene, The Quiet American

“To love someone means to see them as God intended them.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“I don't remember what I said to them. I remember loneliness crushing first my lungs. Then my heart. Then my balls.”
― Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son

“I smiled as our hands pressed against one another in midair, as though we were pretending to touch through invisible glass. We managed a long stare before Jack finally blushed, retracting his hands. “How old are you, Jack Patrick?” “I turned fourteen this summer,” he said. I gave an impressed nod, indicating this was no small accomplishment. “Well you’re certainly old enough to know what you like.” Principal Deegan’s first-day speech came back to mind; I had to bite my lip not to jokingly add in, Am I right? “Here, let me give you some examples. Do you like it when girls wear lipstick?” He blushed and nodded. “Yeah.” His voice had an embarrassed tone, like he’d just made a vile confession. “Good—do you like lighter lipstick? Darker lipstick? Red?” I wanted to grab his hand again. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to slide my fingers beneath the desk and touch the bare skin of his leg. “Um,” he said. His hand began to scratch at his scalp. “Wait,” I said. “I have an idea.” I walked up to my desk and grabbed my purse and a box of Kleenex. “So what I’m wearing now is called fuchsia. Kind of a bright pink.” I sat and wiped it off, then took the fuchsia tube of lipstick out of my purse along with two others. “Okay, ready?” He nodded with sudden animation—we were about to play a game.”
― Alissa Nutting, Tampa

“I’m sorry for your wasted journey,” Jonasson said. “I’d be glad to discharge her because we certainly don’t have any beds to spare here. But—” “Could she be faking?” Jonasson smiled politely. “I really don’t think so. You see, Lisbeth Salander was shot in the head. I removed a bullet from her brain, and it was 50/50 whether she would survive.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

“When you call a ghetto a cordon, does it become a village?”
― Andri E. Elia, Borealis: A Worldmaker of Yand Novel

“5. Then on a rainy day in early July the words she was copying from one of Martha the Benevolent’s ancient sayings spoke to her:
Birds fly free until they are put in a cage, but the cage does not bind their wings
When the cage is opened, the wings spread out, and the bird flies free again
So the poor are trapped in a cage by the avarice of the rich
Not in a cage made of gold, but one of hunger, despair and need
So the prisoner dreams of the wide open spaces
Wind in her hair, breathing in the freedom, beyond the four walls of her cell
Our mission is to free the prisoner, to help the poor to spread their wings
To open the door of the oppressor’s cage, to find a way to a fairer age.”
― Robert Reid, The Empress

“Next morning, we drank endless cups of coffee in the airport restaurant…Suddenly wide-eyed, she stared past me: “Good grief, some of the people they let in here.”
― Michael Wyndham Thomas, The Erkeley Shadows

“It has returned to us. Then the end has begun…”
― Cade Mengler, The Companions

“Her husband's visage captivated her from the first moment she saw him step out of the royal carriage a hundred years ago. How could it not? Flaminius was utterly gorgeous. But once she fell in love with him, she became happily enslaved.”
― Therisa Peimer, Taming Flame

“When the hatred stops will the love begin? When there is no more greed will there then be peace?”
― Sherman Kennon, My Thoughts

“El terror que ahora le atenazaba era el de ignorar algo de sí mismo y se trataba de una especie opuesta a la anterior, ya que de este no podía escapar, sino que debía hacerle frente.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“When I asked my parents how the baby got inside Ma, they both laughed, and then Daddy told me they had made it with their bodies. I pictured them fully clothed, rubbing furiously against each other, like two sticks making fire.”
― Wally Lamb, She’s Come Undone

“The goals we pursue are always veiled. A girl who longs for marriage longs for something she knows nothing about. The boy who hankers after fame has no idea what fame is. The thing that gives our every move its meaning is always totally unknown to us.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you," said the Skin Horse. " When you are real you don't mind being hurt.
It doesn't happen all at once. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp corners. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose and very shabby. But these don't matter at all, because once you are Real, you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.
Once you are Real, you can't unreal. It last forever”
― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

“As a small child, I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings, the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.”
― Charles Baudelaire, My Heart Laid Bare