“A weapon does not decide whether or not to kill. A weapon is a manifestation of a decision that has already been made.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“She felt an enveloping happiness to be alive, a joy made stronger by the certainty that someday it would all come to an end. Afterward she felt a little foolish, and never spoke to anyone about it.
Now, however, she knows she wasn't being foolish. She realizes that for no particular reason she stumbled into the core of what it is to be human. It's a rare gift to under stand that you life is wondrous, and that it won't last forever. ”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“This is how....life happens. One small thing at a time. A series of inconsequential junctions, any or none of which can lead to salvation or disaster. There are no grand moments where a person does or does not perform the act that defines their humanity. There are only moments that appear, briefly, to be this way.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“You don't choose what to believe. Belief chooses you.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? A pessimist says ‘Oh dear, things can’t possibly get any worse.’ And an optimist says, ‘Don’t be so sad. Things can always get worse.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“It's a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won't last forever.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Because civilization isn't a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, recreated daily. It vanishes far more quickly than he ever would have thought possible. And if he wishes to live, he must do what he can to prevent the world he wants to live in from fading away. As long as there's war, life is a preventative measure.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“If this city is to die, it won't be because of the men on the hills, it will be because of the people in the valley. When they're content to live with death, to become what the men on the hills want them to be, then Sarajevo will die.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Do they hate the idea of her, because she's different from them, and that in this difference there might be some sort of inferiority or superiority that is hers or theirs, that in the end threatens the potential happiness of everyone?”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“He knows the sniper will fire again, but he isn't afraid. At this moment fear doesn't exist. There's no such thing as bravery. There are no heroes, no villains, no cowards. There's what he can do, and what he can't. There's right and wrong and nothing else. The world is binary. Shading will come later.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“He stares at the cellist, and feels himself relax as the music seeps into him. He watches as the cellist's hair smoothes itself out, his beard disappears. A dirty tuxedo becomes clean, shoes polished bright as mirrors...The building behind the cellist repairs itself. The scars of bullets and shrapnel are covered by plaster and paint, and windows reassemble, clarify and sparkle as the sun reflects off glass. The cobblestones of the road set themselves straight. Around him people stand up taller, their faces put on weight and colour. Clothes gain lost thread, brighten, smooth out their wrinkles. Kenan watches as his city heals itself around him. The cellist continues to play...”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“The fingers on his flesh told him he was loved, that he had always been loved, and that the world was a place where above all else things that were good would find a way to burrow into you.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“The choices she's made have left her without choice.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“It screamed downward, splitting air and sky without effort. A target expanded in size, brought into focus by time and velocity. There was a moment before impact that was the last instant of things as they were. Then the visible world exploded.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“The opportunity to die was everywhere, and it just wasn't surprising when that opportunity became an event.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Arrow let the slow pulse of the vibrating strings flood into her. She felt the lament raise a lump in her throat, fought back tears. She inhaled sharp and fast. Her eyes watered, and the notes ascended the scale. The men on the hills, the men in the city, herself, none of them had the right to do the things they'd done. It had never happened. It could not have happened. But she knew these notes. They had become a part of her. They told her that everything had happened exactly as she knew it had, and that nothing could be done about it. No grief or rage or noble act could undo it. But it could all have been stopped. It was possible. The men on the hills didn't have to be murderers. Then men in the city didn't have to lower themselves to fight their attackers. She didn't have to be filled with hatred. The music demanded that she remember this, that she know to a certainity that the world still held the capacity for goodness. The notes were proof of that. ”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“The sniper puts the cellist in his sights. Arrow is about to send a bullet into him, but stops. His finger isn't on the trigger...His hand isn't even in the vicinity of the trigger...His head leans back slightly, and she sees that his eyes are closed, that he is no longer looking through his scope. She knows what he's doing. It's very clear to her, unmistakable. He's listening to the music. And then Arrow knows why he didn't fire yesterday...She is at once, sure of two things. The first is that she does not want to kill this man, and the second is that she must. Time is running out. There's no reason not to kill him. A sniper of his ability has wihtout doubt killed dozens, if not hundreds. Not just soldiers. Women crossing streets. Children in playgrounds. Old men in water lines. She knows this to a certainity. Yet she doesn't want to pull her trigger. All because she can see that he doesn't want to pull his...The final notes of the cellist's melody reach him, and he smiles. ”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“There is no way to tell which version of a lie is the truth.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“He's been asleep since the war began. He knows this now. In defending himself from death he lost his grip on life. He thinks of Emina, risking her life to deliver expired pills to someone she's never met. Of the young man who ran into the street to save her when she was shot. Of the cellist who plays for those killed in a mortar attack. He could run now, but he doesn't.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Civilisation isn't a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, recreated daily. It vanishes far more quickly than he even would have thought possible".”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“... life is a series of tiny, unavoidable decisions.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“The men on the hills told her that she hated them, and they did everything they could to make it true. She did not fight very hard. It was an easy thing to do. She wonders whether it would have been possible to behave any differently. She hopes it is. She hopes that, somewhere in the city, there are people who are resisting the temptation to turn these men into devils, to say that all men are like them, to oppose their very existence the way they always said the people of Sarajevo did.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“As she rounded a corner one of her favourite songs came on the radio, and sunlight filtered through the trees the way it does with lace curtains, reminding her of her grandmother, and tears began to slide down her cheeks. Not for her grandmother, who was then still very much among the living, but because she felt an enveloping happiness to be alive, a joy made stronger by the certainty that someday it would all come to an end. It overwhelmed her, made her pull the car to the side of the road. Afterwards she felt a little foolish, and never spoke to anyone about it. Now, however, she knows she wasn’t being foolish. She realizes that for no particular reason she stumbled into the core of what it is to be human. It’s a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won’t last forever.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“A bullet leaves evidence that a mortar doesn't.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“It’s a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won’t last forever.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“This is how she now believes life happens. One small thing at a time. A series of inconsequential junctions, any or none of which can lead to salvation or disaster. There are no grand moments where a person does or does not perform the act that defines their humanity. There are only moments that appear, briefly, to be this way.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Because civilization isn’t a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, re-created daily. It”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Because civilization isn’t a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, re-created daily.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
“Because civilization isn’t a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, re-created daily. It vanishes far more quickly than he ever would have thought possible. And if he wishes to live, he must do what he can to prevent the world he wants to live in from fading away. As long as there’s war, life is a preventative measure.”
― Steven Galloway, quote from The Cellist of Sarajevo
Steven Galloway
Born place: in Vancouver, Canada
Born date July 13, 1975
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“I think of Krishna and his deep blue eyes. It is said, in the hidden scriptures in India, that to focus on the eyes of the Lord is the highest spiritual practice a human being can proform. It's suppose to be equal to the greatest act of charity, which Jesus describes in the Bible as sacrificing one's life to save the life of another.
The Vedas, the Bible, it's true, they overlap a lot.
Maybe gazing into Krishna's eyes...
Pain...Pain...Pain...
Is equal to Christ's sacrifice.
I'm only suffering this pain to protect John. It doesn't matter that he won't see me. I still love him, I will always love him. And in this exquisitely agonizing moment, I realize he refused to see me because he wanted to force me to see him inside. Ah, that's the key! This practice of visualizing that I'm staring into Krishna's blue eyes, I've done it before.
But this is the first time I see him staring back at me!
The Agony comes, and it does not get transformed into bliss.
If anything it is worse than before. Except for one thing.
The pain does not obliterate my sense of "I."
I'm still Sita, the last vampire.”
― Christopher Pike, quote from Thirst No. 3: The Eternal Dawn
“If there are three things I’ve learned in my time among the fey, they are this: don’t eat anything you’re offered in Faeryland, don’t go swimming in quiet little ponds and never, ever, make a bargain with anyone.”
― Julie Kagawa, quote from Winter's Passage
“WITHOUT LAUGHTER, WHAT MAN of sense could endure either politics or war?”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Last of the Wine
“Brenda descended the great staircase step by step through alternations of dusk and rainbow.”
― Evelyn Waugh, quote from A Handful of Dust
“When you talk about any difficulties with money, a relationship, an illness, or even that the profits of your business are down, you are not talking about what you love. When you talk about a bad event in the news, or a person or situation that annoyed or frustrated you, you are not talking about what you love. Talking about the bad day you had, being late for an appointment, getting caught in traffic, or missing the bus are all talking about what you don’t love. There are many little things that happen each day; if you get caught up in talking about what you don’t love, every one of those little things brings more struggle and difficulty to your life. You have to talk about the good news of the day. Talk about the appointment that went well. Talk about how you love being on time. Talk about how good it is to be full of health. Talk about the profits you want your business to achieve. Talk about the situations and interactions you had in your day that went well. You have to talk about what you love, to bring what you love to you.”
― Rhonda Byrne, quote from The Magic
What I Saw and How I...
Daisy Fay and the Mi...
Never Knowing
Hitchcock
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