Before any of it could make sense, it had to be heard.
In the end the listening exposes you even more than it exposes the people you’re trying to listen to.
When you leave a place, it’s best to leave.
But as for me: I must ask the wounded man where he is hurt, because I cannot become the wounded man. The only wounded man I can be is me.
We are now as I wished we could be then.
Maybe we’re grass – our roots so interdependent that no one is dead as long as someone is still alive.
I can’t be you. You can’t be me. You can imagine another well – but never quite perfectly, you know?
By saying you don’t care if the world falls apart, in some small way you’re saying you want it to stay together, on your own terms.
The Romans knew it: quod me alit me extinguit, they said: That which nourishes me, extinguishes me.
I told him they built a statue of Schultz, and then he said that a monument is cold comfort to a dead man, and then I said that the statue was built not for Schultz, but for us – to remind us how to be human.
My regret was immediate and permanent and useless.
The idea is that for ten minutes, we forget that we have feelings. And we forget about protecting ourselves or other people and we just say the truth. For ten minutes. And then we can go back to being lame.
The minister said, “Let us pray,” but as everyone else bowed their head, I could only stare slack-jawed at the sight of Peter Van Houten. After a moment, he whispered, “We gotta fake pray,” and bowed his head.
When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is, ‘you like stuff.’ Which is not a good insult at all, like, ’you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human conscience.
In our hyper-secular world, worship is still inevitable. But it is vital to remember that our gods don’t choose us, we choose them.
Did I help you toward a fate you didn’t want, Alaska, or did I just assist in your willful self-destruction?
It just goes to show, if you try to ruin someone’s life, it only gets better. You just don’t get to be a part of it.
We did a few things worth remembering, and I wish for someone to remember them.
She raised one leg and gave me all her weight as a I dipped her. She either trusted me or wanted to fall.
I could stand up and go to her and kiss her. I could. But there is still too much to be ruined.