In The Distance Quotes
"The hole, a broken star on the ice, was the only interruption on the white plain merging into the white sky. No wind, no life, no sound."
"Nothing in him revealed agitation. If he was out of breath, the vapor of his exhalations was invisible in the uncolored background."
"The swimmer opened his eyes and looked ahead at the even, horizonless expanse."
"His hands were the only living things he could see."
"Against the rich, detailed reality of that exhalation, the faint sounds from the boat seemed to be leaking from a dream."
"He was as large as he could possibly be while still remaining human."
"With the rifle as a measure, the hatchet over his shoulder revealed itself to be a full-fledged ax."
"My name," he said and sat down on a barrel. "Håkan Söderström."
"By the time I could speak and explain, I was the Hawk."
"The sky remained indistinguishable from the ground, but both had now grayed."
"His grief was indistinguishable from his ease—both had the same texture and temperature."
"Comfort and gloom, he realized, came from the combination of cold water and the scent of pine resin."
"He wondered what he would find on the other side if he made it all the way up and straddled the sepia wall stretching into the drained, dim sky."
"It was impossible to know how much time had elapsed or how far he had traveled."
"His face was shut up like a fist—even if the pelleted wind had allowed it, there was no point in keeping his eyes open in that double darkness."
"Morning never broke. The blackness just paled."
"All he needed was food and water, if they could spare some."
"Their convoy was headed east anyway, at least until reaching its next destination."
"The study of nature is a barren enterprise if stones, plants, and animals become frozen under the magnifying glass."
"The life the scalpel has ended ought to be honored by a caring, devoted appreciation."
"Each minuscule being has spokes radiating out to all of creation."
"Looking at any particle with sufficient care, we can arrive at the universe—the correspondences are there."
"Life is a struggle against the downward pull of gravity—life is an ascending force."
"Because even though nothing can ever be retained, nothing is ever lost."
"Evening," said the man, whose beard had not quite caught up with the mustache that must have preexisted it.
"He looked like the happiest man Håkan had seen since arriving in America—maybe even the happiest man he had seen in his life."
"Her children annoyed her. The elements annoyed her. Her husband annoyed her. The animals annoyed her. Håkan annoyed her."
"Gold nuggets. That’s what these are. When did I have one of these last? Years?"
"But where are they? So rifles and pistols, eh? How many did you say they were?"
"Do you know how to use a gun?" Jarvis asked when the lull was getting awkward.
"I don’t know," said Håkan, looking down at the boy and then away at the floor.
"We all saw what happened a few days ago. Our future can’t wait. Our children can’t wait."
"They’ll never get us," said Jarvis in a loud whisper to the whole party. "They can’t get close enough. They can’t."
"Why attack us? We got nothing. We’re poor," said one of the emigrants.
"Like the prophet said, there are three kinds of poor."
"The Lord’s poor, the Devil’s poor, and the poor devils."
"The sun itself, red and uncertain, was suffocated behind the unmoving cloud."
"And yet, when the gift of death had been presented to him, he had used every single one of his poisoned muscles to push it away."
"A year and an instant are equivalent in a monotonous life."
"The business of being took up all of his time."
"The world was new, complex, and frightening."
"He was reconciled with the idea of dying, but he did not want to share that singular, final experience with these brutes."
"Seasons went by and returned, and Håkan’s occupations never changed."
"He seldom considered his body or his circumstances—or anything else, for that matter."
"He realized, fleetingly, that it was the first time in his life that he was scared of men younger than himself."
"It had been years since he last stood next to another person or something of a more or less constant size."
"The disgrace, the guilt, the fear came rushing back, wiping out all the years spent in solitude."
"In the fraction of an instant, all the faces he could remember flashed through his mind."
"Briefly, he wondered if those uniforms meant that the newcomers were lawmen."
"Knowing that he would soon leave it forever, he understood its magnitude for the first time."
"Every now and again, they turned around and, still mesmerized, stared at Håkan."
""I walked," he said, addressing only the last part of the question."
""Quite a place," the gray soldier said again."
""We like your place. We’re tired. We’ll stay for a few days.""
"Nothing left behind in the wilderness could ever be retrieved. Every encounter was final."
"He had grown too accustomed to privations to feel them."
""Now, I may be able to walk over the sea. Otherwise, next winter. Then, a straight line west. To Sweden.""