Quotes from Far Far Away

Tom McNeal ·  384 pages

Rating: (7.4K votes)


“He says that all that happens when you go far, far away is that you discover you've brought yourself along.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“One does not know love until it arrives, and it's arrival will always surprise.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“He turned toward my voice. "Am I well?" His mocking tone was unmistakable. "Am I well? Why can't you just talk like everyone else? Why can't you just say, 'How you doin'? You doin' good?'"

Very well, then, I said. I look forward to the day when every schoolchild will read Shakespeare's great comedic play All's Good That Ends Good.
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“Distance means so little, when someone means so much.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“It was as Ginger's grandfather had said. It did not matter how far you go, you always take yourself with you.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away



“When my nephew passed beyond, Wilhelm comforted himself that a child in his innocence would be delivered speedily to heaven, and there be given an honored place. “In this small, simple throne,” Wilhelm said, and I said, “With secret compartments for his bird’s nests and smooth stones.” Wilhelm believed this. He had to believe this. I, too, repeated this conception to myself again and again, trying harder to harder to believe it. But a Creator who takes a child so small, so kind, so tender? What can be made of that? The tales we collected are not merciful. Villains are boiled in snake-filled oil, wicked Steifmutter-stepmothers-are made to dance into death in molten-hot shoes, and on and on. The tales are full of terrible punishments, yes, but they follow just cause. Goodness is rewarded; evil is not. The generous simpleton finds more happiness and coin than the greedy king. So why not mercy and justice to sweet youth from an omnipotent and benevolent Creator? There are only three answers. He is not omnipotent, or he is not benevolent, or-the dreariest possibility of all-he is inattentive. What if that was what happened to my nephew? That God’s gaze had merely strayed elsewhere?”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“Well, it is true. Sometimes avoiding something can give it more and more meaning rather than less and less.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“And then, before I could shout in alarm, the tear spilled free—and there was nothing for me to do but rush past and, with the smallest draft, ever so slightly alter its flight. The tear landed, safely, on her cheek. Her eyes snapped open in surprise.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“You can't let buffoons rule your life.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away


“The studies, Jeremy, I said. The studies, the studies, the studies.”
― Tom McNeal, quote from Far Far Away



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Popular quotes

“Le persone si riconoscono nelle loro merci; trovano la loro anima nella loro automobile, nel giradischi ad alta fedeltà, nella casa a due piani, nell'attrezzatura della cucina. Lo stesso meccanismo che lega l'individuo alla sua società è mutato, e il controllo sociale è radicato nei nuovi bisogni che esso ha prodotto.”
― Herbert Marcuse, quote from One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society


“Trust my folly then, since it is best
for a man truly wise to be thought a fool.”
― Aeschylus, quote from Prometheus Bound


“They traveled deep into far-flung regions of their own country and in some cases clear across the continent. Thus the Great Migration had more in common with the vast movements of refugees from famine, war, and genocide in other parts of the world, where oppressed people, whether fleeing twenty-first-century Darfur or nineteenth-century Ireland, go great distances, journey across rivers, desserts, and oceans or as far as it takes to reach safety with the hope that life will be better wherever they land.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, quote from The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration


“الأمر يشبه أن تقع في الحب كل ليلة ويتحطم قلبك كل صباح . للأبد مثل برومثيوس .. فقط ننسى كم أن ذاكرتنا غير دقيقة . الاحتفاظ بذاكرة طيبة معناه تدمير قدر عظيم من الماضي .”
― Craig Clevenger, quote from Dermaphoria


“Randall kept his eyes glued to the computer screen as she approached. A stranger might have mistaken him for a dedicated Information Sciences professional getting an early start on some important research, but Ruth knew that he was actually scouring eBay for vintage Hasbro action figures…”
― Tom Perrotta, quote from The Abstinence Teacher


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