“Time is a river, I've learned. Always moving forward. But for people like me, people who have loved and lost, the river is something we fight. We swim against the current, trying to get back to the way we once were, trying to hold onto anything to keep us from getting swept away. It's exhausting and eventually we tire. Still we push on.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“Sometimes I float along the river
For its surface I am bound
And there are times stones done fill my pockets
And it's into this river I drown”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“I asked him once why he wanted to see the sun rise every morning, what it was that caused him to be out here at the crack of dawn every day.
He watched me for a moment before looking back at the horizon. “Its beauty,” he said. “It reminds me every day that there is beauty in the world. That even though it may feel like we are alone sometimes, we are never truly alone.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“Everyone grieves differently. No one handles the loss of a loved one the same. Some put on a brave face for others, keeping everything internal. Others let it all out at once and shatter, only to pick up the pieces just as quickly as they came apart. Still others don't grieve at all, implying they are incapable of emotion.
Then there are the ones like me, where grief is a badge we wear, where it's hard to let go because we don't want to. We probably wouldn't know how even is we wanted to. There's unanswered questions, unresolved feelings. Tere is anger that this person could even conceive of leaving us behind. We are the furious ones, the ones that scream at the injustice and the pain. We are the ones who obsess and slowly lose rational thought, knowing it is happening but unable to find a way to care. We are the ones who drown.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“The measure of a man, she said finally, is not the words that mark his end, but everything he’s done since his beginning.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“I've raised you to be honest and kind. I've raised you to be brave and strong. If you become the man I think you'll be, then you and me will always be eye to eye.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“Had I known then what I know now, I would have clung to him. I would have looked him in the eyes to see that spark of mischief, that undying intelligence that belied his gruff exterior. If I'd known the inevitable, I would have said everything I felt in my heart and soul. I would have told him thank you for being my father. I would have said that if I'm ever going to be a good man, it's going to be because of the way he'd raised me...
...I would have told him I loved him.
But I didn't. I didn't because I didn't know. I didn't even say goodnight. Or goodbye.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“I squeeze his hand and give him fifteen words that mean everything. "It's okay to sleep now, Dad. I know that one day, we'll be together again.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“... once something is shattered, it can never be put back together in its original shape. Undoubtedly some pieces are lost or fit into incorrect places. The whole will never be as strong as it was once before.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“It’s better, Benji, to have something burn brightly for a short time than to never have it at all.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“But he came, when I was at my darkest. I prayed him down from the sky, and he came in a flash of blue fire that lit up the heavens. I know he came by his own choice, but he came because I called him. He came when I could no longer take the weight of the world on my own. He came when I needed him the most. He came and saved me from myself, saved me from the waters that rose up to my chest and over my head.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“I was reading on the computer that you have to keep your man interested, so it's always good to make sure he knows others are."
I frown at him. "Angels are not allowed to go on the Internet."
He winces. "Probably a good idea. That place has so much porn."
I don't want to know. Okay, I do...
...Cal kisses me gently before walking out of our room. "Sure thing," he calls over his shoulder. "I did learn some things on the Intenet that I want to try on you. It's not all bad."
I stare after him as his laughter floats back to me.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“ 'God help me, yes. I don't want anything more than you. I want nothing less than you.' ”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“He said… he said he wants you to know that those we love are never really gone.” Michael closes his eyes. “We may not get to see them like we used to, and we may not even remember what they sound like, but they will always be with us.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“How do you say what's in your heart if your heart is something you haven't known for years? How do you give yourself completely when all you've done is bury yourself in grief? How do you come back from the dar when it's all you can remember?”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“For want of my father, I was lost.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“Even after two days, I can see that there are so many sides to him...There's times he exudes such strength that it threatens to knock me flat...Those are the times that I do believe he is an angel, that I do believe he guards us as he says he does. Then there are his other sides, most specifically when he seems unsure, hesitant...His wonder is almost childlike in its mien. He sees things I no longer can because it is as if he's experiencing everything for the first time...And then there's the darker part of him. I will send you and yours into the black. I don't want to think about that part. I don't want to know what "the black" is. It's only been two days since he fell from the sky, but those two days have shown just how little I really know about the world.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“He shakes his head miserably. “If only I’d gotten here sooner….”
“You got here in plenty of time,” I say with a snort. “We’re okay.”
“But the truck!” he says as he turns back to us. “It was so cherry.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“When Big Eddie left, I only worried about how it affected me. I didn't worry about the others. I was selfish. Self-centred. I took to the river and let myself float on its waters. I didn't care if I drowned. I didn't care what became of me. I was hurt, I was angry, and I didn't care what that meant for the future. I just wanted everything to stop.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“The bastard. How dare he? I was drowning in a fucking river that he was still attempting to save me from, and he was telling me he was going to push me back in and hold me under. My father's death had nearly destroyed me. Cal's death would finish me.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“This is my family, and the noise around me is soothing in a way it hasn't been in quite a long time. That's mostly my doing, I know, given my self-imposed exile in the Land of Sorrow. But hearing the overlapping voices and laughter, seeing the bright eyes and smiles, does more for me than I thought it could.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“I can’t do this anymore, I think, my own voice almost lost in the storm. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t face this on my own. I am drowning in this river and I am haunted in this house my father built and my mind is breaking.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“Michael doesn't flinch. 'You can't know,' he says quietly, 'how much you truly love something until it's gone.'
'That's not fair,' I say as I tremble.
'No one said it would be. He tests you, Benji, and he tests Calliel for a supremely simple reason. You are tested because if you aren't, how could you know what you believe in?' ”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“I can't do it. I can't get into a philosophical debate with an archangel, knowing how ridiculous it is and how unprepared I am.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“ 'I wish someone had told you that you're a terrible liar so I wouldn't have to be the first one. I feel bad now.' ”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“You are my son,” my father said, ignoring my fierce blush. “The only one God saw fit to give me. As long as you grow up to be a good man, the rest doesn’t matter. We clear?”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
“He frowns. “How else am I supposed to be? If there’s one thing I’ve learned about human nature, is that it is imperative to be who you are.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown
T.J. Klune
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