“I'm tired of people who have not been at war who know all about it.”
― The Moon Is Down
― The Moon Is Down
“For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. The last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.”
― Cannery Row
― Cannery Row
“Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears that the solar system of stars.”
― Cannery Row
― Cannery Row
“How can the poem and the stink and the grating noise - the quality of light, the tone, the habit and the dream - be set down alive? When you collect marine animals there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book - to open the page and let the stories crawl in by themselves.”
― Cannery Row
― Cannery Row
“In marching, in mobs, in football games, and in war, outlines become vague; real things become unreal and a fog creeps over the mind. Tension and excitement, weariness, movement--all merge in one great gray dream, so that when it is over, it is hard to remember how it was when you killed men or ordered them to be killed. Then other people who were not there tell you what it was like and you say vaguely, "yes, I guess that's how it was.”
― The Moon Is Down
― The Moon Is Down
Bruce’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Bruce’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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