“In this age, lies were the universal lubricant of the culture. A love of Truth and commitment to it were seldom rewarded and were often punished.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“Out of sight above the house, the mirror moon reflected the sun of a day not yet dawned, shining the pale light of tomorrow on the yard and on the paper birches.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“Although he was a young and virile man at 37, he was not inexhaustible. In addition to food and drink, he had better lay in a couple thousand tablets of viagra. The drug would probably remain potent if he vacuum packed the pills in groups of 10 and kept them in a freezer. That would work unless civilization completely collapsed and power companies were unable to function. Fortunately, Jim had a propane-powered backup generator with half a dozen tanks of fuel already on hand. If Henry added to the propane supply, and he used the generator only for essential maintenance like keeping the viagra freezer operating in warm weather, he would be happy here on the farm for a looong, looong time. Unless, even now, dead Jim was out there in the generator shed sabotaging the machinery.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“If this was the best wine that Jim and Nora could afford or, worse, if this was their idea of a good wine - well, sadly, then they were better off dead.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“All will be well, if we do what is right”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“After his dinner, the wolfhound liked to prowl the grounds, sniffing the grass to learn what creatures of field and forest had recently visited. The yard was Merlin's newspaper.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“Believing isn’t wishing, Grady. What you know with your heart is the only thing you really ever know.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“People think power makes them big, but it brings out their inner bratty child and makes them small." - Grady Adams - "Breathless by Dean Koontz pg 287 chapter 59”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“If we aren't here for one another, why are we here?" - Grady Adams”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“But by nature, the human heart yearns most for what it cannot have.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from Breathless
“This woman was eighteen years old. With eyes as old as stones.”
― Herbjørg Wassmo, quote from Dina's Book
“These are among the people I've tried to know twice, the second time in memory and language. Through them, myself. They are what I've become, in ways I don't understand but which I believe will accrue to a rounded truth, a second life for me as well as them.
Cracking jokes in the mandatory American manner of people self-concious about death. This is the humor of violent surprise.
How do you connect things? Learn their names.
It was a strange conversation, full of hedged remarks and obscure undercurrents, perfect in its way.
I was not a happy runner. I did it to stay interested in my body, to stay informed, and to set up clear lines of endeavor, a standard to meet, a limit to stay within. I was just enough of a puritan to think there must be some virtue in rigorous things, although I was careful not to overdo it.
I never wore the clothes. the shorts, tank top, high socks. Just running shoes and a lightweight shirt and jeans. I ran disguised as an ordinary person.
-When are you two going to have children?
-We're our own children.
In novels lately the only real love, the unconditional love I ever come across is what people feel for animals. Dolphins, bears, wolves, canaries.
I would avoid people, stop drinking.
There was a beggar with a Panasonic.
This is what love comes down to, things that happen and what we say about them.
But nothing mattered so much on this second reading as a number of spirited misspellings. I found these mangled words exhilarating. He'd made them new again, made me see how they worked, what they really were. They were ancient things, secret, reshapable.The only safety is in details.
Hardship makes the world obscure.
How else could men love themselves but in memory, knowing what they know?
The world has become self-referring. You know this. This thing has seeped into the texture of the world. The world for thousands of years was our escape, was our refuge. Men hid from themselves in the world. We hid from God or death. The world was where we lived, the self was where we went mad and died. But now the world has made a self of its own.”
― Don DeLillo, quote from The Names
“We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.”
― J.M. Barrie, quote from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens / Peter and Wendy
“For when all is equilibrated, when all is beheld from without all, there is joy, joy, joy that is but one facet of a diamond, every other facet whereof is more joyful than joy itself.”
― Aleister Crowley, quote from The Book of Lies
“I feel like there's something terrible and wonderful and amazing that's just beyond my grasp. I have dreams about it. I do dream, by the way. It hovers over me at odd moments. And then it's gone. I feel like I'm always on the brink of something that never arrives. I want to either have it or be free of it.”
― Michael Cunningham, quote from Specimen Days
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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