Rob Port

“So many of the bad things that happen in the world come from people pretending to be something they’re not.”
― Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

“do you know what a cliché is? It’s a story so fine and thrilling that it’s grown old in its hopeful retelling.”
― Patrick deWitt, French Exit

“To “toe the line” derives from when boys on a ship were forced to stand still for inspection with their toes on a deck seam. To “pipe down” was the boatswain’s whistle for everyone to be quiet at night, and “piping hot” was his call for meals. A “scuttlebutt” was a water cask around which the seamen gossiped while waiting for their rations. A ship was “three sheets to the wind” when the lines to the sails broke and the vessel pitched drunkenly out of control. To “turn a blind eye” became a popular expression after Vice-Admiral Nelson deliberately placed his telescope against his blind eye to ignore his superior’s signal flag to retreat.”
― David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

“It’s not that I’m unaware of the suffering and the soon-to-be-more suffering in the world, it’s that I know the suffering exists beside wet grass and a bright blue sky recently scrubbed by rain. The beauty and the suffering are equally true.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake