Quotes from Numbers

325 pages

Rating: (20.7K votes)


“You get use to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.”
― quote from Numbers


“Life's not that simple. Not so easy to move on when the anger you've got is what keeps you going.”
― quote from Numbers


“Nothing makes any sense. Nothing means anything. You're born, you live, you die. That's it.”
― quote from Numbers


“Part of me wanted this more than anything else in the world—to have someone to hang out with, be like everyone else for a while. The rest of me screamed to get the hell out of there, not to get sucked in.”
― quote from Numbers


“And just when I though things were starting to get better, everything had gone wrong again.”
― quote from Numbers



“And then, a strangely comforting thought trickled through me—I had nothing, so I could do anything now. Anything I wanted. I had nothing left to lose.”
― quote from Numbers


“People just don't seem to get me. Don't understand that I need my space. Always telling me what to do. They think rules and routines and clean hands and your p's and q's will make everything all right. They haven't got a clue.”
― quote from Numbers


“I don't understand, Jem. I don't understand why you'd leave me. Why would you that?”
― quote from Numbers


“You're mental. I always knew you were.”
― quote from Numbers


“Do you know what it's like to hear those words? To hear the person you love telling you they love you, too? If you don't now, I hope you do one day.”
― quote from Numbers



“If you’ve found someone who loves you – that’s the most important thing of all. If you’ve got that, then you should appreciate every damn second with them.”
― quote from Numbers


“Are you the same? Is it only afterward that you think of what you should have said, the killer response,the put-down that would make them stay put down?”
― quote from Numbers


“Todos sabemos que todo tendrá fin algún día, pero no podemos dejar que eso nos frene. No debemos dejar que nos impida vivir.”
― quote from Numbers


“We know it, but chose forget it. Is too much hard to bear. Yesterday, you made me realize that: we chose forget.”
― quote from Numbers


“Spider?” I’d said, with a question mark in my voice.
“Yeah.”
“You know at school . . . what did you do that for? Wade in like that?”
Spider frowned. “He was disrespectful, Jem. What you said—I could tell it was real. It was what you were really feeling. He had no right to make a joke of it.”
“Yeah, I know, he’s a tosser, but it’s nothing to do with you. You made a right show of yourself. You made a show of me.”
“I didn’t want him to get away with it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t need a knight in shining armor. I can look after myself.” He was smiling a bit now. I paused. “It’s not funny, man. It’s made everything worse,” I said quietly. “I’ve got comments all the time now, ‘bout you and me. Sly comments.”
He looked away, studied his hands. The knuckles on the right one were nearly healed up now.
My mouth had gone dry, but I had to get this clear with him. “You do know there’s no ‘you and me,’ don’t you, Spider?”
He looked up. “What?”
“We’re not like . . . together. Just mates.”
There was something about his sullenness when he said, “Yeah, ‘course. Just mates. Mates is good,” that made me think he felt the exact opposite. I was churning inside, cursing that day under the bridge. People were so bloody difficult. Why had I ever got involved?
He stood up, came toward me, putting an arm out. I thought, Shit, he’s going to hug me. Hasn’t he listened to anything? But his hand formed a fist, and he lightly punched my arm. “Listen, man, I know what you’re like. I’ve told you I’ll never say nothing nice to you. And now you’ve put my straight, I’ll never do nothing nice for you, either. OK? If someone disrespects you, I’ll let them. If you’re being mugged on the street, I’ll walk on by. If I see you on fire, I won’t even piss on you. OK?”
― quote from Numbers



“Sometimes, when things are confusing, we try and make sense of it our own way; we find ways of coping up.”
― quote from Numbers


“ " But we are starting again, Jem. If I hadn't met you, it probably would have been dope and pills and smoking crack and shooting up junk. Prison. Hospitalization. That's how it would have been for me, but you saved me from that. It's going to be different for us now." ”
― quote from Numbers


“ "Are you awake?" I whispered, my voice nearly disappearing in the darkness of the huge barn.
"Yeah."
"I'm freezing."
"I know. Me, too" A pause. A long, long pause. "Come here, then." ”
― quote from Numbers


“No se puede escapar a la muerte: al final siempre te alcanza.”
― quote from Numbers


“ I reached up and cupped the back of his neck and drew him down to me, and we kissed again. ”
― quote from Numbers



“Bloody Mike Tyson'd have trouble with you.”
― quote from Numbers


“ Lovers, yes, we're lovers now.”
― quote from Numbers


“Allí de rodillas lo abracé, le acaricié la espalda y el pelo y ambos lloramos juntos. No había palabras para expresar lo que sentíamos; las lágrimas lo decían por nosotros: el terror, el alivio, el amor y la pena todo mezclado en la sal.”
― quote from Numbers


Popular quotes

“The rocking of the boat by the waves was soothing but unknown. The men on the shore were asleep. Not the twelve-year-old, though. He shifted and lay on his back and decided to look up at the sky. What he saw took him by surprise. He was basically a city kid. He had never really seen the night sky for what it is. As he stared up at millions of stars, he was filled with a dread he had never known before.
I was just a boy, I said to my wife in a hotel room in Cornwall. I was just a boy on a boat in the universe.”
― Joseph O'Neill, quote from Netherland


“Human existence must be a kind of error. It is bad today and every day it will get worse, until the worst of all happens.” My own philosophy was a little cheerier than Schopenhauer’s,”
― James Patterson, quote from Violets Are Blue


“La desgracia de Adam Appleby era que, en cuanto despertaba del sueño, su conciencia se inundaba inmediatamente de todo aquello en lo que menos deseaba pensar. Tenía la impresión de que otros hombres se enfrentaban a cada nuevo amanecer con la mente y el corazón renovados, llenos de optimismo y decisión; o bien de que se arrastraban ganduleando durante la primera hora del día en un estado de bendito sopor, incapaces de pensar en nada, ni agradable ni desagradable. Pero, agazapados como arpías en torno a su cama, los pensamientos desagradables esperaban para asaltarle tan pronto como Adam parpadease y abriera los ojos. En aquel momento se veía obligado, como alguien que se ahoga, a examinar su vida entera, dividido entre lamentaciones por el pasado y miedos futuros.”
― David Lodge, quote from The British Museum Is Falling Down


“Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.”
― Ernest Becker, quote from The Denial of Death


“Oh, Timothy, how could you not have loved someone all these years? Loving absolutely seeps from you, like a spring that bubbles up in a meadow.” “Maybe you can convince me of that, but I doubt it. I find myself niggardly and self-seeking, hard as stone somewhere inside. Look how I’ve treated you.” “Yes, but you could never deceive me into thinking you were hard as stone. You’ve always betrayed your tenderness to me, something in your face, your eyes, your voice ...” “Then I have no cover with you?” “Very little.” “ ‘Violet only wanted a friend,’ ” he quoted, “ ‘but every time she tried to have one, she did something that chased them away.”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


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