“He waved to the city and said good-bye.
The city responded by carrying on the way it always did, traffic moving forward uninterrupted, without slowing, as if it were trying to demonstrate its permanence and show him it would still be there if he ever wanted to return. That promise was the best and only thing he could ask of it.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Giuseppe would miss them as well, but in a different way than he would miss the city. A city would stay the same. The same buildings. The same streets. Not forever, but for a great long while. But Frederick and Hannah would never again be the people they were right now, standing on the dock, wishing him farewell. Tomorrow they would wake up and be a little bit different and a little bit different the day after that, and in no time they might become people he did not recognize. Giuseppe knew it because they were already different from when he had first met them. He knew it because he was different from when they had first met him.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Clockwork could not run counter to its nature. The seconds, minutes, and hours moved only forward. Patient, precise, and unstoppable. Memory was an indulgence, an illusion that broke like a wave upon the juggernaut of time. The past remained the past.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“In the early morning hours, Hannah read at the table by the dim light of dawn. She leaned in close to the pages, chin resting on her folded arms, eyes racing over the words, like chasing butterflies over the hills, to catch as many as she could before going to work. She wondered at how such tales of magic could be contained by mere paper and ink for her to read again and again.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“I hate them!' she cried. 'It's not fair!'
'No, it isn't,' Frederick said gently.
'I can't do it all!'
'No. You can't.' After a long moment he said, 'But you can do what you can.'
'And what if that isn't enough?'
Frederick held her shoulders and took a step back. He looked in her eyes. 'Enough for what?'
'For my family.'
'What more could they ask for than what you've given?”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Sharing his memories felt like handing over a sharp knife. A knife that others might handle carelessly. A knife that could be used to hurt him.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“The hours trampled her on their way through the day.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“It was his fault too,” Fredrick said. “He never really asked her why. It was like he didn’t want to know.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“You see, in all his travels through the fallen ruins of civilizations, he picked up this notion that mankind is insignificant. That nothing we create will last. That we will all turn to dust. And it is only in nature that we find constancy and immortality.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Giuseppe was not tied down, not by rope, not by fear. He stood up, and spoke with a loud voice in the language of his parents, his brother and sister. "You kidnap children because they're the only ones you can bully. You tie up an old reverend and think you're getting back at a city that hates you. You try and make everyone afraid of you because you think that makes you powerful." Giuseppe looked him up and down. "I say you're weak. I say you're a coward.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
Matthew J. Kirby
Born place: The United States
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“A well constructed plot should, therefore, be single in its issue, rather than double as some maintain. The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.”
― Aristotle, quote from Poetics
“The purification of the Soul is simply to allow it to be alone; it is pure when it keeps no company.”
― Plotinus, quote from The Enneads
“Remember the infamous question that most of us learned back in the days of youth group powwow sessions? That’s right. How far is too far? Which is really a code question asking, “How much can I get away with and not make God mad?” Let’s start asking a new question: “How far can I possibly go to bring joy to the heart of my heavenly Father in this area of my life?”
― Eric Ludy, quote from When God Writes Your Love Story
“Time spent looking back in anger is time wasted.”
― Mary Stewart, quote from The Last Enchantment
“What is madness but nobility of the soul at odds with circumstance.”
― Theodore Roethke, quote from The Collected Poems
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