The Changeling

You must stop worrying about why things happen and wonder what they mean when they do.

Memory is the resurrection. The dead move among us the living in our memory and that is the resurrection.

Pearl suspected God didn't love human beings much. She suspected that what He loved most was Nothingness.

Perhaps the human race had yet to be born. Perhaps it was all a deception by the government. It hadn't happened yet. This life was nothing but the womb.

Children were quite disturbing really. It was difficult to think about children for long. They were all fickle little nihilists and one was forever being forced to protect oneself from their murderousness.

God’s in the room with you,’ and he says, ‘I know God’s here but I want somebody with skin on.’” The woman started to laugh.

Night runs with its children, Sleep and Death, with its twins, the true dream and the false one.

One of the great secrets of life is learning to live without being happy.

To be human was to be homeless, furthest removed from the blessing of God.

But there was a rumble of panic underneath everything. And if it wasn't the fear of death, what was it? She felt it always, the terror, even in the brightest moments. What was it then, when she didn't even care?

Every living thing suffers transfiguration. Yes, until the creation of Eve, Adam had fondled beasts.

How to say anything about The Changeling without blaspheming its deep mystery

No one who has private thoughts going on in his own head is quite sure of their not being overheard. Any child knows that.

with them to bouts with the adults. Children were like drunkards really, determined to talk at great length and with great incoherence. Pearl more or less understood them in that regard.

You cannot keep things the way they are. They go away. They change. There has never been an exception to this rule. No mercy has ever been shown.

Miriam wrung her hands, and said, “Your child dreads to become alive and real because he fears that in doing so, the risk of annihilation is immediately potentiated.

At dusk she switched to gin. Her marrying hour. The hour between the dog and the wolf. It sometimes seemed that dusk came to the island several times a day. Brought in by storms and fog. The change was in the fog. The Devil. Pearl's mother had once told her that she must never be embarrassed to tell another that she had seen the Devil.

One of the greatest secrets of life is learning to live without being happy.

Pearl would smile helplessly back with the sickening feeling that she was collaborating with God. Not the God of her mother's faulty and romantic vision, but the true one. A God of barbaric and unholy appearance, with a mind uncomplimentary to human consciousness.

Freedom was an illusion even when one's instincts were good.

Kids are wonderful,' the man was saying. 'Our four-year-old, the things he says! The other night he wouldn't go to sleep, you know. He was making a little fuss and saying he was afraid of the dark and all and mother here says to him, "Don't be afraid of the dark. God's in the room with you," and he says "I know God's here but I want somebody with skin on."' The woman started to laugh. She was plump and blond and smelled like a rising cake. 'Isn't that a kid though,' the bartender said. Pearl put her hand out and held on to the bar. She thought that this was the most horrible story she had ever heard in her life.

Your child dreads to become alive and real because he fears that in doing so, the risk of annihilation is immediately potentiated.