Louise Murphy · 320 pages
Rating: (9.8K votes)
“God didn't come down and kill us. I don't see God shooting children and priests. None of us met God beating up Jews and shoving them into railroad cars. This is men doing the murdering. Talk to men about their evil, kill the evil men, but pray to God. You can't expect God to come down and do our living for us. We have to do that ourselves.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“Do not struggle when the hook of a word pulls you into the air of truth and you cannot breathe.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“There is much to love, and that love is what we are left with. When the bombs stop dropping, and the camps fall back to the earth and decay, and we are done killing each other, that is what we must hold. We can never let the world take our memories of love away, and if there are no memories, we must invent love all over again.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“Make love to me,” she whispered. “If you make love to me then it is two of us. There is just one of him when he takes my blood, but we are two.” “We are two and more than two,” he whispered in her ear, and then he lifted her and carried her to the bed.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“All those stars in that big streak that goes over the whole sky? You see them? Those are all the Jews who’ve died. All of them died and went up in the air, and the stars are the stars that they wore on their coats. The stars on the coats come off when their souls float up and the stars live up in the sky forever.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“Two of the men tiptoed to the pile of brush. One of them”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“Help me,” said the Brown Sister. Her face”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“It is finished. The tale is told truthfully, and truth is no heavier, no more beautiful than lies. Yet there is something that makes me love the truth, and that love made me wander and worry until the truth was given to you, like a gift. For this in the end is what we have. The love of something. Wild ponies. A kiss salted by tears. The scent of raspberry syrup in a bottle. Oranges. Two lost children who come to your house in the dark forest. There is much to love, and that love is what we are left with. When the bombs stop dropping, and the camps fall back to the earth and decay, and we are done killing each other, that is what we must hold. We can never let the world take our memories of love away, and if there are no memories, we must invent love all over again. The wheel turns. Blue above, green below, we wander a long way, but love is what the cup of our soul contains when we leave the world and the flesh. This we will drink forever. I know. I am Magda. I am the witch.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“The Germans have eaten the Gypsies of Poland for breakfast, child, and then they ate the Jews for lunch, but soon it will be supper."
"What will they eat then?"
"All the rest of the Poles.”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“Wiktor almost smiled. His suspicions were”
― Louise Murphy, quote from The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
“The Last Toast
I drink to our demolished hose,
to all this wickedness,
to you, our loneliness together,
I raise my glass -
And to the dead-cold eyes,
the lie that has betrayed us,
the coarse, brutal world, the fact
that God has not saved us.
1934”
― Anna Akhmatova, quote from Selected Poems
“Another difference between amateur and professional writers, almost by definition, is that the latter more successfully engage their audience. It is partly a question of skill, but more often a matter of goals. Amateur writers tend to write primarily for self-expression, whereas writers able to become professional can hide or transform their own agendas enough so that they are of interest to others. Is this position the same as Freud's famous dictum that artists take unacceptable drives and present them in an acceptable way?”
― quote from The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
“He palmed Prophet’s cock and started a rhythm that made Prophet try to escape and move into it at the same time. Prophet groaned. “Now he listens to me.” “Never gonna forget that, right?” “No,” Prophet ground out. “Next time, we’ll do your legs too. Easier to position you.” “Next time, you’ll be the one taped and bound,” Prophet promised. “And over my goddamned knee.” “Proph!” Tom’s strangled cry sounded surprised, made Prophet close his eyes and shoot against his stomach and chest, hitting his goddamned chin because he came so hard. But Tom groaned then, bucked his hips up, and rode his climax against Prophet’s ass. After a few minutes, he laughed once. Then again, and said, “You’re such an asshole. Can’t even let me win. Have to call this a tie.” “What does this mean?” “Means our desire’s equal.” “That’s not a bad thing,” Prophet said.”
― S.E. Jakes, quote from Long Time Gone
“When you finally realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible”
― Lisa Desrochers, quote from A Little Too Far
“Running so hard, her breath stippled with pain to go faster, hit the grass harder, move forward faster, like she could break through something in front of her, something no one else saw.”
― Megan Abbott, quote from The End of Everything
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