“You see, the what ifs are as boundless as the stars.”
“I collect words--they are sweets in the mouth of sound.”
“Doubt is a great worm in a crispy, red apple.”
“There are train-track thinkers, then there's you, Standish, a breeze in the park of imagination.”
“Colecciono palabras: son golosinas en la boca del sonido.”
“Tú me diste botas espaciales para que pudiera caminar por otros planetas. Sin ti me siento perdido. No sé si tirar a la derecha o la izquierda. No veo el mañana, sólo kilómetros y kilómetros de ayeres. Ahora que te he encontrado, ya no me importa lo que ocurra. Por eso he venido hasta aquí. Por ti. Porque te quiero.”
“He says nothing but I know he is listening. Words are the only medicine I have.
‘You make sense of a world that is senseless. You gave me space boots so that I could walk on other planets. Without you, I’m lost. There’s no left, no right. No tomorrow, only miles of yesterdays. It doesn’t matter what happens now because I’ve found you. That’s why I’m here. Because of you. You who I love. My best friend. My brother.”
“He coughs. Not a good sound. Too deep, too full of coffins.
Why is mankind so fucking cruel?
Why?”
“Creo que lo mejor que tenemos en la vida es la imaginación y tú de eso tienes a montones.”
“Por un lado están los que piensan linealmente, y por otro lado estás tú, que eres como un golpe de brisa en el parque de la imaginación”
“In another country where the buildings don't stop rising until they pinthe clouds to the sky.”
“Stay calm. Don't go getting moon mad. Moon sad.
Moon morons.”
“It's the fricking reality that destroys plans.”
“¿Por qué el ser humano es tan cruel,joder?
¿Por qué?”
“¿Qué ocurriría si nos quedáramos aquí quietos sin movernos, sin hacer nada? ¿Acaso el tiempo se olvidaría de nosotros, pasaría de largo? Que bajen el telón. Que salgan los créditos. Fin.”
“No se le permitió a nadie perderse el parestésico paréntesis de aquel histórico día en que los despiadados seres puros de la raza inhumana enviaban un hombre a la luna.”
“El planeta Juniper lo localicé yo solo. Lo encontré en mi cabeza.”
“Un médico sin medicinas es como un pianista sin piano.”
“Ya no soñaba despierto. Había demasiada realidad alrededor.”
“I’m wondering what if. What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. What if Hector had never gone looking for it. What if he hadn’t kept the dark secret to himself. What if . . . Then I suppose I would be telling myself another story. You see, the what ifs are as boundless as the stars.”
“Puse cara de no entender nada. Si eres inteligente, si sabes más de lo que debes, destacas como un cielo verde sobre un campo azul, y, como es bien sabido, la Presidenta de la Patria opina que los artistas que pintan ese tipo de paisajes deberían ser esterilizados.”
“Well, you could have knocked me sideways with a feather.”
“That summer, in the wilderness of crumbling bricks and mortar, white roses had appeared in those derelict suburbs. Gramps said that if man was mad enough to destroy itself, at least the rats and cockroaches would have front-row seats, be able to enjoy the sight of Mother Nature reclaiming the earth. Outside”
“No matter how bad things looked, Gramps had always seemed a giant to me. He wasn’t made up of any monstrous parts.”
“You make sense of a world that is senseless. You gave me space boots so that I could walk on other planets. Without you, I’m lost. There’s no left, no right. No tomorrow, only miles of yesterdays. It doesn’t matter what happens now because I’ve found you. That’s why I’m here. Because of you. You who I love. My best friend. My brother.” Hector”
“Gramps had the radio on, tuned to the only station that the authorities allowed us mere lava mites to listen to. Dripple for the workers of the Motherland. They sang it loud, they sang it clear: “And once those feet did tread upon silver sand And footprints deep marked out new moons of Motherland Which all salute with upraised hand.” I went upstairs and put on my school uniform. Every part of me dead. Limp. Dead.”
“am driving us home to Mrs. Lush in her shiny kitchen with a checked tablecloth in a house where the grass looks as if it’s been Hoovered. You see, only in the land of Croca-Colas does the sun shine in Technicolor. Life lived at the end of the rainbow.”
“Él era quien llevaba la coz cantante.”
“But that’s her problem, not mine. No, my problem is elephantine. How do you eat an elephant, sir? Bit by tiny bit.”
“Handsome boy that you are…aren’t you…yes, you are.” She smooshes his face in her hands, and I actually find myself jealous of my dog.
I’m jealous of my dog.
I really need to get laid.”
“However,” as Ed notes, “apart from any one Scriptural interpretation, vile, inhuman spirits do roam the earth today. And when commanded to speak, the spirits’ reply is a grave one: My name is Legion: We Are One. It is also true that these spirits possess overwhelming powers, and work with a ferocious rage, malice, and spite against mankind. Oddly, the only protection man can summon against these negative forces is mention of the name of God—though more particularly Jesus—and the presentation of blessed objects. Otherwise, nothing will stay these bizarre spirit entities.”
“Max's lips part slightly, and mine do the same. His tongue inside my mouth makes fireworks of color burst behind my closed eyelids. We explore and taste each other again and again, until Max finally pulls away. I want more-- I think I could survive on nothing but his mouth for weeks--but I try not to let it show too much.”
“Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content. —Paul Valéry”
“If you were offered the chance to live your own life again, would you seize the opportunity? The only real philosophical answer is automatically self-contradictory: 'Only if I did not know that I was doing so.' To go through the entire experience once more would be banal and Sisyphean—even if it did build muscle—whereas to wish to be young again and to have the benefit of one's learned and acquired existence is not at all to wish for a repeat performance, or a Groundhog Day. And the mind ought to, but cannot, set some limits to wish-thinking. All right, same me but with more money, an even sturdier penis, slightly different parents, a briefer latency period… the thing is absurd. I seriously would like to know what it was to be a woman, but like blind Tiresias would also want the option of re-metamorphosing if I wished. How terrible it is that we have so many more desires than opportunities.”
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