The Shards Quotes

“MANY YEARS AGO I REALIZED THAT A BOOK, a novel, is a dream that asks itself to be written in the same way we fall in love with someone: the dream becomes impossible to resist, there’s nothing you can do about it, you finally give in and succumb even if your instincts tell you to run the other way because this could be, in the end, a dangerous game—someone will get hurt.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“I suddenly thought again: as a writer, you’re always hearing things that aren’t there.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“And I just stood there in the fading afternoon light, realizing at seventeen that I was already staring into my past — that the past had a meaning that would always define you. I remember this being one of my first moments nearing adulthood, when I realized how powerful memory was — or at least it was the first time it hurt the most. And there was nothing I could do about the pain of the past — it just settled over me.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“because movies were a religion in that moment, they could change you, alter your perception, you could rise toward the screen and share a moment of transcendence, all the disappointments and fears would be wiped away for a few hours in that church: movies acted like a drug for me. But they were also about control: you were a voyeur sitting in the dark staring at secret things, because that’s what movies were—scenes you shouldn’t be seeing and that no one on the screen knew you were watching.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“And then I flashed on: When you talk to me you’re really talking to yourself, dude. I was still haunted by it.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“I always brought my own tensions to wherever I went”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“fear started overriding my sadness: who deserved anything? We get what we get.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Non investivo nel mondo reale – perché avrei dovuto? Non era fatto per me o per i miei bisogni o desideri.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“And since I felt so alone that day it became a friend.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“drive past Stansbury and make a right onto Ventura and let it take me through Studio City, where the boulevard became Cahuenga, and then head into Hollywood, cruising along Sunset until I hit Beverly Glen”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“quieres guardar un secreto, también te lo tienes que esconder a ti mismo. 1984, GEORGE ORWELL”
― Bret Easton Ellis, Los destrozos

“The day really became effortless once you faked it and it actually became more real because of your changed demeanor; the act became the reality and it affected everything in what seemed like a positive way. In fact, it was preferable to reality.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“When you talk to me you’re really talking to yourself, dude,”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Walking with Debbie, our sunglasses on, I suddenly felt I was a model in a commercial, we were a couple in a travelogue who barely knew each other, which led to the notion that I was actually begin watched, that everyone was looking at me, whether they were or not, or that someone hidden, from a vantage point I couldn't see, was monitoring my movements.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Romeo Void blared out of the sunroof.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“E me ne rimasi lí nella luce del pomeriggio che sbiadiva, rendendomi conto, a diciassette anni, che stavo già guardando nel mio passato e
che il passato aveva un significato capace di definirti per sempre. Ricordo quel momento come uno dei primi in cui mi avvicinai all'età adulta, in cui compresi quanto fosse
potente la memoria o comunque fu la prima volta in cui mi fece cosí male. E non c'era niente che potessi fare riguardo al dolore del passato si posò semplicemente su di me. La dépendance e Matt erano una parte della mia vita che c'era stata e adesso non c'era piú. Ecco tutto. Nessun
altro lo sapeva. A nessun altro importava.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“The lack of engagement from the no longer tangible participant, I noted, was vast and spreading. Sex and novels and music and movies were the things that made life bearable - not friends, not family, not school, not social scenes, not interactions - and that was the summer when I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark every other week but barely had dinner with my separated parents even twice.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“And then I realized there was no other option except to approach this scene with an optimism that I might have lacked but knew I could fake.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“The rest of the afternoon happened, I suppose, and then the bells were chiming and the day was over.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Susan looked at me strangely after I said this, seemingly bothered that I was overly effusive about defending something so innocuous and vague.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Eravamo adolescenti, bambini superficialmente sofisticati, che non sapevano davvero nulla di come funzionava il mondo - lo stavamo sperimentando, immagino, ma senza averne cognizione. Almeno fino a quando non accadde qualcosa che ci proiettò in uno stato di esaltata consapevolezza.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Ricordo di aver pensato che per la prima volta in vita mia ero così disorientato da provare la sensazione di sciogliermi, di dissolvermi in me stesso, diventando un'altra persona, per poi sparire nel nulla.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Esa fue la primera ocasión que recuerdo en mi vida en que me percaté de lo perdidos que andaban los heterosexuales en lo que a hombres gais se refiere.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, Los destrozos

“Creo que hay algo muy turbio en ese tío, no creo que esté del todo… bien.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, Los destrozos

“The male fashion in that moment was still streamlined, preppie, at times vaguely Italian, more The Garden of the Finzi-Continis than The Lost Boys”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“[...] il mondo non si piegherà ai tuoi desideri - datti pace.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Ricordo quel momento come uno dei primi in cui mi avvicinai all'età adulta, in cui compresi quanto fosse potente la memoria - o comunque fu la prima volta in cui mi fece così male. E non c'era niente che potessi fare riguardo al dolore del passato - si posò semplicemente su di me.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Come avevamo fatto ad arrivare al punto in cui ciò che volevamo dirci fluttuava nelle pause che dominavano la conversazione?”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Erano il sesso e i romanzi e la musica e i film a rendere la vita sopportabile - non gli amici, non la famiglia, non la scuola, non la scena sociale, non le relazioni - e quella era stata l'estate in cui una settimana sì e una no avevo visto I predatori dell'arca perduta ma avevo cenato a stento un paio di volte con i miei genitori separati. Non investivo nel mondo reale - perchè avrei dovuto? Non era fatto per me o per i miei bisogni o desideri.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

“Steven ci raggiunse presso la piscina e su richiesta di Debbie attaccò a scattare foto. Nessuno si mise in posa sul serio - perchè stiamo già posando, mi dissi mentre scendeva dolcemente il tramonto; ci limitammo a voltarci verso di lui e sorridergli mentre rapidamente di inventariava, cercando di catturare ciascuno di noi”
― Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards