Quotes from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Its hard to show people everything, you know? You never know what they'll do with it once they have it.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I think some love you can stand to let go of because it's ultimately for the best, but other types you have to stick with until the day you die even when it's hard.You have to think about that before you run away from wherever you are. And then when you know, you either stay or you go and pray thatyou're making the right decision.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Love. People threw that word around like carzy.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I stopped wanting to float away from my life, because in the end my life was all I had. I'd walk the Fairmont campus and look up to the sky and I wouldn't see myself drifting off like some lost balloon. Instead I saw the size of the world and found comfort in its hugeness. I'd think back to those times when I felt like everything was closing in on me, those times when I thought I was stuck, and I realized that I was wrong. There is always hope. The world is vast and meant for wandering. There is always somewhere else to go.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“The world is vast and meant for wandering. There is always somewhere else to go.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“gettimg attached to things is pointless. Thats how things get screwed up.People care to much about everything. Let it go. You'll be happier.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Dade Kincaid is not afraid of the things of which the world is made.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Let it all out. If only I could. Letting it all out would involve me exploding like a firework, a beautiful riot of rainbow sparks bouncing around the car and lighting up the entire lot.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I practiced saying I was gay to inanimate objects around the house. I told the soap dish in the bathroom, the ceiling fan above my bed, the blue drinking glass I favored above all the others simply because over the years its entire family had perished one by one during various interactions with hard surfaces around the kitchen and I'd convinced myself our solitude was linked.
"I'm gay," I told these things. "I'm a homo."
I would wait for the orphaned drinking glass to shatter, the ceiling fan to drop, or for the soap dish to let out a bloodcurdling scream. But nothing ever happened. The world went on as ever.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I was touched that he'd brought me here. I didn't know what to say. Up until then there was a part of me that wondered if maybe there was nothing more to him than an aura of danger and a disposable charm that he used to keep himself from getting into too much trouble. I was beginning to realize that like everyone else, he was searching for something, and like everyone else, he had no idea where he could find it.
Thanks for bringing me here," I said. " It really means a lot me."
Does it?" he asked. He seemed genuinely surprised by this. "I'm glad. I wasn't sure if you'd get it. I thought maybe you'd think it was creepy."
No," I said quickly. "Not at all. I like that there's these different parts to you."
Good," he said, smiling. "It's hard to show people everything, you know? You never know what they'll do with it once they have it.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“The truckers are staring," I said after a few seconds.

It was true. They were. The whole row of them was doing a bad job of pretending not to look at us.

"We just got engaged," Lucy shouted over to them. "I just asked this man to be my wife."

The men at the counter traded confused looks. I burst out laughing.

"We're glad you and your ass cracks could share this moment with us," she went on. "Seriously. We really are. Those are serious cracks and this is a serious moment.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Dads are the appendix of humanity. They should just be taken out before they start causing problems.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I looked in the mirror and stared at my reflection, until I was in the head-clearing trance that comes when you stare at something for a long time.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I felt the vacuum in him. It was the same as the one in me. It wanted, but it didn’t know what it wanted, so it pulled at everything.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“I was vaguely worried about how they would cope with wandering the desert of adulthood without the other's hand to hold, but then I remembered that they never appeared to give each other that much comfort in the first place, or at least if they had, those days were buried so far in the past that it was hard to consider them a meaningful part of their life.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“For some reason I didn't believe it. I don't know why. Maybe it was because my father was the kind of person who told himself things over and over until he believed them, who could justify almost anything. What I wanted was for it to really be okay. I wanted him to really not care, to maybe even be happy about it. Instead he was acting like I was making a bad career choice, like I was passing up an English degree at Fairmont in favor of a bartending certificate at the local community college.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Was he coming to bury the hatchet? Was there a hatchet to even be buried? For some reason I started thinking of how weird it was that I would always be his son and he would always be my father, that there was nothing that could ever change. I didn't know whether this permanence was comforting or terrifying.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Love. People threw that word around like crazy.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“The world is vast and meant for wandering.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“Getting older isn’t always about having fun,” he said. “In fact, in many ways it’s about being bored. It’s good if you can find a way to be entertained by your boredom.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

“It's hard to show people everything, you know? You never know what they'll do with it once they have it.”
― Nick Burd, quote from The Vast Fields of Ordinary

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“PATRICK HENRY HIGH SCHOOL  Department of Social Studies   SPECIAL NOTICE to all students Course 410    (elective senior seminar) Advanced Survival, instr. Dr. Matson, 1712-A MWF   1. There will be no class Friday the 14th. 2. Twenty-Four Hour Notice is hereby given of final examination in Solo Survival. Students will present themselves for physical check at 0900 Saturday in the dispensary of Templeton Gate and will start passing through the gate at 1000, using three-minute intervals by lot. 3. TEST CONDITIONS: a) ANY planet, ANY climate, ANY terrain; b) NO rules, ALL weapons, ANY equipment; c) TEAMING IS PERMITTED but teams will not be allowed to pass through the gate in company; d) TEST DURATION is not less than forty-eight hours, not more than ten days. 4. Dr. Matson will be available for advice and consultation until 1700 Friday. 5. Test may be postponed only on recommendation of examining physician, but any student may withdraw from the course without administrative penalty up until 1000 Saturday. 6. Good luck and long life to you all!   (s) B. P. Matson, Sc.D.    Approved: J. R. Roerich, for the Board”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from Tunnel in the Sky

“An interesting thing happened today,” she said, giving me just enough time to get the word “hi” out of my mouth. “I opened the front door and there was a man on my doorstep. A big man. A very big, very black man.”

“Rachel —”

“You said it would be discreet. His T–shirt had the words ‘Klan Killer’ written on the front.”

“I —”

“And do you know what he said?”

I waited.

“He handed me a note from Louis and told me he was lactose intolerant. That was it. Note. Lactose intolerant. Nothing else. He’s coming to the reading with me. It was all I could do to get him to change his T–shirt. The new one reads ‘Black Death.’ I’m going to tell people it’s a rap band. Do you think it’s a rap band?”

I figured it was probably his occupation, but I didn’t say that. Instead, I said the only thing I could think of to say.

“Maybe you’d better buy some soy milk.”

She hung up without saying good–bye.”
― John Connolly, quote from The White Road

“He didn’t like being the sensible one of the group. Everyone always made fun of the sensible one. He’d rather be the wild and crazy one. But, somehow, he always ended up sensible.”
― R.L. Stine, quote from Say Cheese and Die!

“The level of the Pacific was not twenty feet higher than that of the Atlantic, as had been the accepted view for centuries. Sea level was sea level, the same on both sides. The difference was in the size of their tides. (The tides on the Pacific are tremendous, eighteen to twenty feet, while on the Caribbean there is little or no tide, barely more than a foot. When Balboa stood at last on the Pacific shore, he had seen no rush of lordly breakers, but an ugly brown mud flat reaching away for a mile and more, because he had arrived when the tide was out.)”
― David McCullough, quote from The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

“Don't lose out on something that could be forever because you think the timing isn't right. Don't let fate decide.”
― Nicole Reed, quote from Ruining You

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