Mr. Vandemar showed them his teeth, demonstrating his sunny and delightful disposition. It was unquestionably the most horrible thing Richard had ever seen.
He felt her heart beating against his chest. The moment began to transmute, and he wondered if there was something he should do. He wondered if he should kiss her. He wondered if he wanted to kiss her, and he realized that he truly didn’t know.
Chicago happened slowly, like a migraine.
On the whole, stories don’t write themselves.
There were people you could hug, and then there was Silas.
I’m just going to stay here, in the darkness under the arch. I can hear you all out there, trip-trapping, trip-trapping over my bridge. Oh yes, I can hear you. But I’m not coming out.
This is a book for every fiddler who has realized halfway through playing an ancient Scottish air that the Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” is what folk music is really all about, and gone straight into it.
We do what we do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves.
It’s not hard to own something. Or everything. You just have to know that it’s yours, and then be willing to let it go.
The boy had the towering arrogance only seen in the greatest of artists and all nine-year-old boys.
Rain in the graveyard, and the world puddled into blurred reflections.
I can believe things that are true and things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not.
Hunchbacks danced at my wedding for luck. It’s a thing you don’t see nowadays.
There were faces at the windows and words written in blood; deep in the crypt a lonely ghoul crunched on something that might once have been alive; forked lightnings slashed the ebony night; the faceless were walking; all was right with the world.
He was no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring because yesterday has brought it.
Too much talking these days. Talk talk talk. This country would get along much better if people learned how to suffer in silence.
Goodbyes are overrated.
And then it went, and time passed properly once more, every second following every other second just like they’re meant to.
Don’t start anything you’re not prepared to finish.
The only water in the forest is the River.