Plumes of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air, elegant fountains and twisting snow devils, shapes of veiled Arab women and ghost riders dissolving in white fume.
Warren made bursting noises under the bed. A rancorous stench. Dog Farts Fell Family of Four.
Their faces were scarified in hideous whorls and dots. As for clothing, they dressed in vegetable matter. Another.
Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.
It is a good thing for a man a hit bottom because that’s when he learns what he’s made out of.
These homes of love we build, house many rooms, sanded and painted in the shades and colours of our life, furnished with those moments that, however inconsequential they may seem to others, have in fact, defined us.
Everything that counts is for love, Quoyle. It’s the engine of life.
Quoyle experienced moments in all colors, uttered brilliancies, paid attention to the rich sound of waves counting stones, he laughed and wept, noticed sunsets, heard music in rain, said I do.
In this life we meet difficult people. We must take the time to listen and try to understand them.
Gammy Bird was a hard bite. Looked life right in its shifty, bloodshot eye. A tough little paper. Gave Quoyle an uneasy feeling, the feeling of standing on a playground watching others play games whose rules he didn’t know.
The words poured down with the rain.
In Wyoming they name girls Skye. In Newfoundland it’s Wavey.
It is not my place to like or dislike, I shall get along...
Cars creeping the other way, fog lights as dull as dirty saucers.
It was the idea of abandonment she dreaded. All her life she had been afraid of being left alone while everyone around her vanished.
The moon’s reflection bored into the flat water like a hole into the sea...
The moon’s reflection bored into the flat water like a hole into the sea, like the ice well where Tert Card’s father’s hairy devil washed his pots and pans.
I’m not actually planning anything. A certain period of drifting is in order.
Money’s a good point, said Jack, and Ennis had to agree. They were respectful of each other’s opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he’d never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon.
They climbed through the stony landscape, limestone beds eroded by wind into fantastic furniture, stale gnawed breadcrusts, tumbled bones, stacks of dirty folded blankets, bleached crab claws and dog teeth.