Quotes from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“I always think everything is going to last forever, but nothing ever does. In fact nothing exists longer than an instant except the thing that we hold in memory”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Unrequited love is bad, but unrequitable love can really get you down.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“I had learned from my reading that you can do really awful things when you are bored, things that are bound to make you miserable. In fact, you do them in order to become miserable, so you won't have to be bored anymore.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Sometimes the books were arranged under signs, but sometimes they were just anywhere and everywhere. After I understood people better, I realized that this incredible disorder was one of the things that they loved about Pembroke Books. They did not come there just to buy a book, plunk down some cash and scram. They hung around. They called it browsing, but it was more like excavation or mining. I was surprised they didn't come in with shovels. They dug for treasures with bare hands, up to their armpits sometimes, and when they hauled some literary nugget from a mound of dross, they were much happier than if they had just walked in and bought it. In that way, shopping at Pembroke was like reading: you never knew what you might encounter on the next page -- the next shelf, stack, or box --and that was part of the pleasure of it.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“It is practically an axiom in psychiatry that precocious intellect combined with physical weakness can give rise to many unpleasant character traits - avarice, delusions of grandeur , and obsessive masturbation, to name just a few. ”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Lives in stories have direction and meaning. Even stupid, meaningless lives, like Lenny's in "Of Mice and Men," Acquire through their places in a story at least the dignity and meaning of being Stupid, Meaningless Lives, the consolation of being exemplars of something. In real life you do not get even that.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Разликата между маската, която си надяваш, за да постигнеш свобода, и маската, която ти се натрапва, е всъщност разликата между спасението и затвора.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“I stared at the words and they did not swim or blur. Rats have no tears. Dry and cold was the world and beautiful the words. Words of good-bye and farewell, farewell and so long, from the little one and the Big One. I folded the passage up again and I ate it.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“И започнах да пътувам - в пространството и времето - чрез книгите, за да докажа това. Чрез Даниел Дефо се отбих в Лондон, за да направя обиколка с гид из чумавата година. Чух онзи, който бие камбаната, да вика "Изнесете мъртвите си" и подуших дима от подпалените трупове. Все още го усещам в ноздрите си.
Хората измират като плъхове в Лондон, всъщност плъховете също измираха - като хора. След като прекарах два часа там, усетих нужда да сменя пейзажа, при което отидох в Китай и се изкачих по стръмната, тясна пътека сред бамбук и кипариси, за да поседна на прага на малката планинска хижа заедно със стария Ту Фу. Тихо се взирах в млечната мъгла, издигаща се над долината, слушах вятъра в тръстиковите навеси и глухото ехо на камбаните в далечен храм - и двамата бяхме "всеки сам с десет хиляди неща".”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Голямата интимност се изражда в безкрайно отчуждение.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Rata que debería estar muerta y no está muerta. Débil y sucia, pero no muerta, nada muerta, ahí estaba yo, vivo, debajo de un arbusto; y tenía un plan.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“گاهی فکر می کنم تنها چیزی که آدم در زندگی نیاز دارد یک خروار پف فیل است و چندتایی دلبرک.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“А в Африка гладуващите деца ядат истински боклук. Ако си много гладен, ще си готов да изядеш всичко. Самият акт на дъвчене и поглъщане, па макар и това, което поглъщаш да не нахранва тялото ти, нахранва мечтите ти. А мечтите за храна са като всички останали мечти - можеш да живееш от тях докато не умреш.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Няма по-нормален начин да се създаде топло другарско чувство от разрушението. В продължение на няколко минути, попаднали в мелето, всички ние се чувствахме като голямо и щастливо семейство. Когато ме помолят да разкажа някоя весела случка от детството си, аз винаги изваждам тази, за да покажа колко нормални бяхме всъщност.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Malo es el amor no correspondido; pero lo que verdaderamente puede hundirlo a uno es el amor no correspondible.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Изреждаш ги, после бавно произнасяш на глас всяко едно и ги оставяш да разбият сърцето ти. "Оливър Туист", "Хъкълбери Фин", "Веилият Гетсби", "Мъртви души", "Мидълмарч", "Алиса в страната на чудесата", "Бащи и синове", "Гроздовете на гнева", "Пътят на плътта", "Американска трагедия", "Питър Пан", "Червено и черно", "Любовникът на лейди Чатърли".”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Красноречив до степен на бъбривост, аз бях обречен на мълчание.
…
На света има два вида животни - такива, които са надарени с език, и такива, които не са. Животните надарени с език, от своя страна се разделят на две групи - говорещи и слушащи. Към последните се отнасят най-вече кучетата. Кучетата обаче, бидейки извънредно глупави, понасят афазията си с някаква сервилна радост, която изразяват в помахване на опашка. Моят случай далеч не беше такъв. Аз не понасях мисълта, че е възможно да прекарам дните си в мълчание.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Въпреки това Джери никога не се вбесяваше от приказките им. Много внимателно им обясняваше, че всъщност е богат, защото е свободен, защото не е роб на заплатата си и не се блъска по осем часа на ден в някаква безмислена канцелария.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Quien no siente el deseo de volver a vivir la vida es porque la ha desperdiciado.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“در آفریقا در دوران قحطی بچه های گرسنه خاک می خورند. اگر حسابی گرسنه باشی، هرچیزی می خوری. همان جویدن و قورت دادن چیزی، حتی اگر بدن را تغذیه نکند، رویاهایت را تغذیه می کند. و رویای غذا درست مثل رویاهای دیگر است. می توانی تا لحظه مرگ با آن ها زندگی کنی.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Los sueños de comida son como cualquier otro sueño: puedes vivir de ellos, mientras no te mueras.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“Si hay algo para lo que resulte útil una formación literaria, es para dotarlo a uno de un sentido de la catástrofe. No hay nada como una imaginación vivida para desvitalizarle a uno el valor.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“La diferencia entre ponerse una máscara, que siempre es ocasión de libertad, y que le obliguen a uno a ponérsela, es la misma que hay entre refugio y cárcel.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

“E da loro appresi un insegnamento prezioso: per quanto piccolo e insignificante tu possa essere, nulla vieta che la tua follia sia tra le più grandi.”
― Sam Savage, quote from Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

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“Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren’t you working on this?’

Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. ‘Indeed. The uses of had had and that that have to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the imaginotransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.’

‘Go on.’

‘It’s mostly an unlicensed-usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim’s Progress may also be a problem due to its had had/that that ratio.’

‘So what’s the problem in Progress?’

‘That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked, but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.’

‘Hmm,’ said the Bellman, ‘I thought had had had had TGC’s approval for use in Dickens? What’s the problem?’

‘Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,’ said Lady Cavendish. ‘You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.’

‘So the problem with that other that that was that…?’

‘That that other-other that that had had approval.’

‘Okay’ said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, ‘let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC’s approval?’

There was a very long pause. ‘Right,’ said the Bellman with a sigh, ‘that’s it for the moment. I’ll be giving out assignments in ten minutes. Session’s over – and let’s be careful out there.”
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