Richard Brautigan · 144 pages
Rating: (2.3K votes)
“I had become so quiet and so small in the grass by the pond that I was barely noticeable, hardly there. I sat there watching their living room shining out of the dark beside the pond. It looked like a fairy-tale functioning happily in the post-World War II gothic of America before television crippled the imagination and turned people indoors and away from living out their own fantasies with dignity. Anyway, I just kept getting smaller and smaller beside the pond, more and more unnoticed in the darkening summer grass until I disappeared into the 32 years that have passed since then.”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away
“There wasn't a single thing in there that reminded me of my existence.”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away
“When he said this, it was not a form of criticism. It was just a simple observation that led to another bite from the movie on his plate called The Old Man and the Stew.”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away
“I was too young and naive then to link up the meaning of those ridiculingly defunct tennis shoes that I was forced to wear with the reality that we were on Welfare and Welfare was not designed to provide a child with any pride in its existence.”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away
“I had become so quiet and so small in the grass by the pond that I was barely noticeable, hardly there… I just kept getting smaller and smaller beside the pond, more and more unnoticed in the darkening summer grass until I disappeared into the 32 years that have passed since then…”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away
“I guess some people lived like Reader's Digest, but I hadn't met any and at that time it seemed doubtful that I ever would”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away
“Honer and self sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier. We shall remember.”
― Eric S. Nylund, quote from Halo: The Fall of Reach
“It's not me but the world that's deranged.
Yes, that settles it.
At some point in time, the world I knew either vanished or withdrew, and another world came to take its place. Like the switching of a track. In other words, my mind, here and now belongs to the world that was, but the world itself has already changed into something else. So far, the actual changes carried out in that process are limited in number. Most of the new world has been retained from the world I knew, which is why the changes have presented (virtually) no impediments to my daily life - so far. But the changes that have already taken place will almost certainly create other, greater, differences around me as time goes by. Those differences will expand little by little and will, in some cases, destroy the logicality of the actions I take. They could well cause me to commit errors that are - for me - literally fatal.
Parallel worlds.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from 1Q84 #1-2
“America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight.
The real Trinity of Camelot was Look Good, Kick Ass, Get Laid. Jack Kennedy was the mythological front man for a particularly juicy slice of our history. He called a slick line and wore a world-class haircut. He was Bill Clinton minus pervasive media scrutiny and a few rolls of flab.
Jack got whacked at the optimum moment to assure his sainthood. Lies continue to swirl around his eternal flame. It's time to dislodge his urn and cast light on a few men who attended his ascent and facilitated his fall.
They were rouge cops and shakedown artist. They were wiretappers and soldiers of fortune and faggot lounge entertainers. Had one second of their lives deviated off course, American History would not exist as we know it.
It's time to demythologize an era and build a new myth from the gutter to the stars. It's time to embrace bad men and the price they paid to secretly define there time.
Here's to them.”
― James Ellroy, quote from American Tabloid
“How can you call it love when it hurt you so badly?"
"It was love because it was worth it.”
― Jay Asher, quote from The Future of Us
“You’d think that the people who worshiped the real true God would have better sense.' ~Althalus”
― David Eddings, quote from The Redemption of Althalus
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