Quotes from Tenth of December

“It was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new desire rising from within it.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Why was she dancing? No reason. Just alive, I guess.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Why were we put here, so inclined to love, when end of our story = death? That harsh. That cruel. Do not like.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Dad had once said, Trust your mind, Rob. If it smells like shit but has writing across it that says Happy Birthday and a candle stuck down in it, what is it?

Is there icing on it? he'd said.

Dad had done that thing of squinting his eyes when an answer was not quite there yet.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Based on the experience of my life, which I have not exactly hit out of the park, I tend to agree with that thing about, If it's not broke, don't fix it. And would go even further to: Even if it is broke, leave it alone, you'll probably make it worse.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Every step was a victory. He had to remember that.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“It was like either: (A) I was a terrible guy who was knowingly doing this rotten thing over and over, or (B) it wasn’t so rotten, really, just normal, and the way to confirm it was normal was to keep doing it, over and over.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Somehow: Molly.
He heard her in the entryway. Mol, Molly, oh boy. When they were first married they used to fight. Say the most insane things. Afterward, sometimes there would be tears. Tears in bed? And then they would - Molly pressing her hot wet face against his hot wet face. They were sorry, they were saying with their bodies, they were accepting each other back, and that feeling, that feeling of being accepted back again and again, of someone's affection for you expanding to encompass whatever new flawed thing had just manifested in you, that was the deepest, dearest thing he'd ever -
She came in flustered and apologetic, a touch of anger in her face. He'd embarrassed her. He saw that. He'd embarrassed her by doing something that showed she hadn't sufficiently noticed him needing her. She'd been too busy nursing him to notice how scared he was. She was angry at him for pulling this stunt and ashamed of herself for feeling angry at him in his hour of need, and was trying to put the shame and anger behind her now so she could do what might be needed.
All of this was in her face. He knew her so well.
Also concern.
Overriding everything else in that lovely face was concern.
She came to him now, stumbling a bit on a swell in the floor of this stranger's house.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“He was a father. That’s what a father does.
Eases the burdens of those he loves.
Saves the ones he loves from painful last images that might endure for a lifetime.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“I guess you just have to trust your kids, trust that their innate interest in life will win out in the end, don’t you think?”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“He was like the bed at a party on which they pile the coats.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Which maybe that’s what love was: liking someone how he was and doing things to help him get even better.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“...and that feeling, that feeling of being accepted back again and again, of someone's affection for you expanding to encompass whatever new flawed thing had just manifested in you, that was the deepest, dearest thing he'd ever--”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Is this the baby?" I said.
Ma turned on me again.
"What do you think it is?" she said. "A midget that can't talk?”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“The contours of the coming disaster expanded to include the deaths of all present.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“The thing about girls? Suzanne said. Is we are more content-driven.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“A house on the park. He'd seen it a million times. And now was in it. It smelled of man sweat and spaghetti sauce and old books. Like a library where sweaty men went to cook spaghetti.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Do not really like rich people, as they make us poor people feel dopey and inadequate. Not that we are poor. I would say we are middle. We are very, very lucky. I know that. But still, it is not right that rich people make us middle people feel dopey and inadequate.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Kissing him last night at the pep rally had been like kissing an underpass.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“But hereby resolve to write in this book at least twenty minutes a night. (If discouraged, just think of how much will have been recorded for posterity after one mere year!) (September 5) Oops. Missed a day.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“A bad thing happened to you kids, Dad said. But it could have been worse.
So much worse, Mom said.
But because of you kids, Dad said, it wasn't.
You did so good, Mom said.
Did beautiful, Dad said.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Why were we made just so, to find so many things that happened every day pretty?”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Oh, mansion shmansion. Did Gandhi's house have the largest outdoor trampoline in the tristate area? Did Jesus have a two-acre remote-controlled car track, with mountains to scale and a little village that lit up at night?
Not in his Bible.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Stood awhile watching, thinking, praying: Lord, give us more. Give us enough. Help us not fall behind peers. Help us not, that is, fall further behind peers. For kids’ sake. Do not want them scarred by how far behind we are. That is all I ask.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“...graduate college, win Pam, get job, make babies, move ahead in job, forget former feeling of special destiny...”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“O.K., then, all right, they would adopt a white-trash dog. Ha ha. They could name it Zeke, buy it a little corncob pipe and a straw hat. She imagined the puppy, having crapped on the rug, looking up at her, going, Cain’t hep it. But no. Had she come from a perfect place? Everything was transmutable. She imagined the puppy grown up, entertaining some friends, speaking to them in a British accent: My family of origin was, um, rather not, shall we say, of the most respectable...
Ha ha, wow, the mind was amazing, always cranking out these—”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“Josh joined her at the window. She let him look. He should know that the world was not all lessons and iguanas and Nintendo. It was also this muddy simple boy tethered like an animal.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

“He didn't like the thought of them knowing he'd been scared. Didn't like the thought of them knowing what a fool he'd been. Oh, to hell with that! Tell everyone! He'd done it! He'd been driven to do it and he'd done it and that was it. That was him. That was part of who he was.”
― George Saunders, quote from Tenth of December

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