Quotes from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Philip K. Dick ·  204 pages

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“Reality denied comes back to haunt.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“To live is to be haunted.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Grief causes you to leave yourself. You step outside your narrow little pelt. And you can’t feel grief unless you’ve had love before it - grief is the final outcome of love, because it’s love lost. […] It’s the cycle of love completed: to love, to lose, to feel grief, to leave, and then to love again. Grief is the awareness that you will have to be alone, and there is nothing beyond that because being alone is the ultimate final destiny of each individual living creature. That’s what death is, the great loneliness.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Fear can make you do more wrong than hate or jealousy. If you’re afraid you don’t commit yourself to life completely; fear makes you always, always hold something back. You shouldn’t be alone. It’s killing you; it’s undermining you. All the time, every day, you should be somewhere with people.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Why is love so good...? You love someone and they leave. They come home one day and you say "What's happening?" and they say, "I got a better offer someplace else," and there they go, out of your life forever, and after that until you're dead you're carrying around this huge hunk of love with no one to give it to. And if you do find someone to give it to, the same thing happens all over.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said



“Why does a man cry? he wondered. Not like a woman; not for that. Not for sentiment. A man cries over the loss of something, something alive. A man can cry over a sick animal that he knows won't make it. The death of a child: a man can cry for that. But not because things are sad.
A man, he thought, cries not for the future or the past but for the present.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Because her general taste appalled him, it annoyed him that he himself constituted one of her favorites. It was an anomaly which he had never been able to take apart.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Whatever you fear will happen to you, booze will make it happen.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Love isn't just wanting another person the way you want to own an object you see in a store. That's just desire. You want to have it around, take it home and set it up somewhere in the apartment like a lamp.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“No rational response was possible. Her irrationality made it so. The terrible power, he thought, of illogic.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said



“Ruth said, "Love isn't just wanting another person the way you want to own an object you see in a store. That's just desire. You want to have it around, take it home and set it up somewhere in the apartment like a lamp. Love is"-she paused, reflecting-"like a father saving his children from a burning house, getting them out and denying himself. When you love you cease to live for yourself; you live for another person.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Nobody named Cheerful Charley is tuned in on my wavelength”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“He felt the pressure of her love as she squeezed his fingers, and then there was nothing. Except the pain. But nothing else, no Heather, no hospital, no staff men, no light. And no sound. It was an eternal moment and it absorbed him completely.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Ruth said, "Love isn't just wanting another person the way you want to own an object you see in a store. That's just desire. You want to have it around, take it home and set it up somewhere in the apartment like a lamp. Love is"-she paused, reflecting-"like a father saving his children from a burning house, getting them out and dying himself. When you love you cease to live for yourself; you live for another person.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Fear,” Jason said, “can make you do more wrong than hate or jealousy. If you’re afraid you don’t commit yourself to life completely; fear makes you always, always hold something back.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said



“She sighed. "Oh, God, to be in the flyship cruising through the void. That's what I long for: an infinite void. With no human voices, no human smells, no human jaws masticating plastic chewing gum in nine iridescent colors.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“This kind of neighborhood did not please him; he had seen it a million times, duplicated throughout the face of the earth. It had been from such as this that he had fled, early in his life, to use his sixness as a method of getting out. And now he had come back.

He did not object to the people: he saw them as trapped here, the ordinaries, who through no fault of their own had to remain. They had not invented it; they did not like it; they endured it, as he had not had to. In fact, he felt guilty, seeing their grim faces, their turned-down mouths. Jagged, unhappy mouths.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Grief causes you to leave yourself. You step outside your narrow little pelt. And you can’t feel grief unless you’ve had love before it – grief is the final outcome of love, because it’s love lost. You do understand; I know you do. But you just don’t want to think about it. It’s the cycle of love completed: to love, to lose, to feel grief, to leave, and then to love again. Jason, grief is awareness that you will have to be alone, and there is nothing beyond that because being alone is the ultimate final destiny of each individual living creature. That’s what death is, the great loneliness.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“You never see the ones who really love you and help you; you're always involved with strangers.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Am I being paid back for something I did? he asked himself. Something I don't know about or remember? But nobody pays back, he reflected. I learned that a long time ago: you're not paid back for the bad you do nor the good you do. It all comes out uneven at the end. Haven't I learned that by now, if I've learned anything?”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said



“You shouldn't be frightened so easily. Or life is going to be too much for you.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“But look at the aspirations of that rabbit and look at his failing. A little life trying. And all the time it was hopeless. But the rabbit didn't know that. Or maybe did know and kept trying anyhow. But I think he didn't understand. He just wanted to do it so badly. It was his whole life, because he loved the cats.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Spegnetevi, vane luci, più non brillate!
Non v'è notte nera a sufficienza per chi,
In preda alla disperazione, piange la persa fortuna.
La luce altro non fa che svelare la vergogna.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


“Certa gente perde una creatura amata e tira dritto e sposta il proprio affetto su un'altra. Ma è doloroso. Troppo doloroso. L'amore supera l'istinto. Quando ami smetti di vivere per te stesso. Vivi per un'altra persona. La sofferenza è l'emozione più forte che un uomo o un bambino o un animale possano provare. E' una buona sensazione. La sofferenza ti spinge a lasciare te stesso. Esci dal tuo piccolo e limitato guscio. E non puoi soffrire se prima non hai amato. La sofferenza è l'esito finale dell'amore, perché è amore perduto. È il completamento del ciclo dell'amore: amare, perdere, soffrire, lasciare e lasciarsi, poi amare di nuovo. Soffrire è la consapevolezza che dovrai essere solo, e al di là di questo non c'è nulla, perché essere solo è il destino ultimo, definitivo di ogni creatura vivente. Ecco cos'è la morte: la grande solitudine. La conoscenza della mancanza di coscienza. Quando moriremo non ce ne accorgeremo, perché morire è perdere tutto quanto. Ma soffrire è morire ed essere vivi allo stesso tempo. L'esperienza più assoluta, più totale che si possa provare. È troppo. Il corpo arriva quasi a distruggersi, con tutti quei sussulti, quelle contorsioni. Ma io voglio provare dolore. Versare lacrime. La sofferenza ti unisce di nuovo a ciò che hai perso. E' una fusione. Te ne vai anche tu con la cosa o la persona amata che scompare. In un certo senso, ti dividi da te stesso e l'accompagni, fai con lei una parte del viaggio. La segui sin dove ti è concesso spingerti. Ma alla fine, la sofferenza se ne a e tu torni in sintonia con il mondo. Senza l'altro. E riesci ad accettarlo. Che altra scelta abbiamo? Piangi, continui a piangere, perché non torni mai del tutto indietro dal posto in cui sei andato con l'altro. Un frammento che si è staccato dal tuo cuore pulsante è ancora là. C'è una lesione. Una ferita che non guarisce mai. E se ti succede una volta e un'altra e un'altra volta ancora, col tempo se ne va una parte troppo grande del tuo cuore e non riesci più a soffrire. E allora tu stesso sei pronto a morire. Salirai la scala in diagonale e qualcun altro resterà indietro a soffrire per te.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said


About the author

Philip K. Dick
Born place: in Chicago, Illinois, The United States
Born date December 16, 1928
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“Because I sincerely hate and despise them. Not pity them, no—only hate and despise. I can justify the stupidity and brutality of the kid I just passed all I want— the social conditions, the appalling upbringing, anything at all—but I now clearly see that he’s my enemy, the enemy of all that I love, the enemy of my friends, the enemy of what I hold most sacred. And I don’t hate him theoretically, as a “typical specimen,” but him as himself, him as an individual. I hate his slobbering mug, the stink of his unwashed body, his blind faith, his animosity toward everything other than sex and booze. There he goes, stomping around, the oaf, who half a year ago was still being thrashed by a fat-bellied father in a vain attempt to prepare him for selling stale flour and old jam; he’s wheezing, the dumb lug, struggling to recall the paragraphs of badly crammed regulations, and he just can’t figure out whether he’s supposed to cut the noble don down with his ax, shout “Stop!” or just forget about it. No one will find out anyway, so he’ll forget about it, go back to his recess, stuff some chewing bark into his mouth and chew it loudly, drooling and smacking his lips. And there’s nothing that he wants to know, and there’s nothing he wants to think about.”
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“It’s time to go big or go home. I want everyone to know you’re mine, Taryn.”
― Tina Reber, quote from Love Unrehearsed


“When I finished, Dr. Fellows said, "And this was a vision you had Corey?"
"Right."
"Are you sure?"
"Huh?"

She lowered her voice. "Is it possible that Derek... influenced this vision of yours?"
"What? No."
"Absolutely not,"
I said. "Derek's the one who cut it short. Accidentally, but still. And if by influence, you mean 'talked us into telling a lie to get everyone out tonight,' then I don't appreciate the insinuation, Dr. Fellows."
Her brows shot up to meet her hairline. Tori smirked and leaned back onto her pillow.
"Well, Maya, I don't know you yet, so you'll forgive me if I question you."
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“But if a peacock dances in the jungle, there is nobody to see its tail.”
― Salman Rushdie, quote from Shame


“LUCIUS. Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON. Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day- and yet, I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse-
Wherein I did not some notorious ill;
As kill a man, or else devise his death;
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
Accuse some innocent, and forswear myself;
Set deadly enmity between two friends;
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' door
Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly;
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.”
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