Ashlyn > Ashlyn's Quotes

“He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learned what it came to learn, and then was free to leave.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Here's why I will be a good person. Because I listen. I cannot talk, so I listen very well. I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own. People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another's conversations constantly. It's like being a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street. For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor's yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words "soccer" and "neighbor" in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pele, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn't he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Tres Coracoes with Pele, and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length. So my initial conversational gambit - that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor's dog - would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pele. Learn to listen! I beg of you. Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“I don't understand why people insist on pitting concepts of evolution and creation against each other. Why can't they see that spiritualism and science are one? That bodies evolve and souls evolve and the universe is a fluid package that marries them both in a wonderful package called a human being. What's wrong with that idea?”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“My soul has learned what it came to learn, and all the other things are just things. We can't have everything we want. Sometimes, we simply have to believe.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“In Mongolia, when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog’s master whispers in the dog’s ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life. Then his tail is cut off and put beneath his head, and a piece of meat of fat is cut off and placed in his mouth to sustain his soul for its journey; before he is reincarnated, the dog’s soul is freed to travel the land, to run across the high desert plains for as long as it would like.

I learned that from a program on the National Geographic Channel, so I believe it is true. Not all dogs return as men, they say; only those who are ready.

I am ready.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“We had a good run, and now it’s over; what’s wrong with that?”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“I know I wrote letters to people with no address on this earth, I know that you are dead. But I hear you. I hear all of you. We were here. Our lives matter.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“What I told you about saving people isn't true. You might think it is, because you might want someone else to save you, or you might want to save someone so badly. But no one else can save you, not really. Not from yourself. [...] You fall asleep in the foothills, and the wolf comes down from the mountains. And you hope someone will wake you up. Or chase it off. Or shoot it dead. But when you realize that the wolf is inside you, that's when you know. You can't run from it. And no one who loves you can kill the wolf, because it's part of you. They see your face on it. And they won't fire the shot.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don't have to be just a character, going whichever way the story says. It's knowing you could be the author instead.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won't be as good as everyone imagines we could be.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“Sometimes when we say things, we hear silence. Or only echoes. Like screaming from inside. And that’s really lonely. But that only happens when we weren’t really listening. It means we weren’t ready to listen yet. Because every time we speak, there is a voice. There is the world that answers back.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“I wish you could tell me where you are now. I mean, I know you’re dead, but I think there must be something in a human being that can’t just disappear. It’s dark out. You’re out there. Somewhere, somewhere. I’d like to let you in.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“Nirvana means freedom. Freedom from suffering. I guess some people would say that death is just that. So, congratulations on being free, I guess. The rest of us are still here, grappling with all that's been torn up.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“she walked like she belonged in a better world,”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“I mean, words can't be good enough for a lot of things. But, you know, I guess we have to try.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“So maybe when we can say things, when we can write the words, when we can express how it feels, we aren’t so helpless.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“I think that by beauty, you don't just mean something that's pretty. You mean something that makes us human.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“We do things sometimes because we feel so much inside of us, and we don’t notice how it affects somebody else.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“You learned right away that applause sounds like love.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“I feel like I am drowning in memories. Everything is too bright.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“I think it’s like when you lose something so close to you, it’s like losing yourself. That’s why at the end, it’s hard for her to write even. She can hardly remember how. Because she barely knows what she is anymore.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“Judy, I read that you said your first memory was music. Music that fills up a home. And one day, suddenly the music could escape through a window. For the rest of your life, you had to chase it.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“The universe is bigger than anything that can fit into your mind.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“Sometimes we want our bodies to do a better job of showing the things that hurt us, the stories we keep hidden inside of us.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“Do you think that everyone gets to be a star like that? Do you think that everyone gets to be seen? Gets to be loved? Gets to glow? They don't. They don't get to do it like you did. They don't get to be as beautiful as you were. And you just wanted to burn up.”
― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead

“The place was packed as we flooded in, all the patrons freezing at the sight of an armed sheriff, two deputies, an Indian, and a construction worker; we probably looked like the Village People.”
― Craig Johnson, Death Without Company

“Henry figured that the reason the Cheyenne had always ridden Appaloosas into battle was because by the time the men got there, they were so angry with the horses they were ready to kill everything.”
― Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish

“He mulled that over. "Sheriff Connally woulda let us shoot 'em."
I reached over and took his coffee away from him. "Yep. Lucian probably would have done the job himself, but we're living in more enlightened times." I drained his cup and handed it back with a smile. "Ain't it grand?”
― Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish

“There are only three major vote getting days in Absoroka County, and I can't remember the other two. "Oh God, no. It's Pancake Day." I thought about shooting myself. I could see the headlines: Sheriff shoots self, unable to face pancakes.”
― Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish