The Book Of Speculation Quotes
"The Long Island Sound is peppered with the remains of homes and lifetimes, all ground to sand in its greedy maw. It is a hunger."
"Measures that should have been taken—bulkheads, terracing—weren’t. My father’s apathy left me to inherit an unfixable problem."
"At the bottom of the steps Frank McAvoy waves to me before turning his gaze to the cliff."
"To look at Frank is to remember me, young, crawling among wood set up for a bonfire, and his huge hand pulling me away from a toppling log."
"The water’s been coming up high the last couple years, though."
"The Sound is icy for June, but once in I am whole and my feet curl around algae-covered rocks as if made to fit them."
"The trick to holding your breath is to be thirsty."
"She disappeared often. She would quit jobs or work two and three at once."
"Once the women left, Ryzhkova cursed their idiocy."
"The Tenets of the Oracle. That’s all I’ve got at the moment. Lovely edition. 1910."
"Lenders and sellers. Neither with a penny to rub together."
"The only greeting is an atmosphere of shame, which has a broad embrace."
"I can’t listen, not even when she launches into how much she’s enjoyed working with me, seeing me grow. Pretending to listen is a favorite mask that wears comfortably."
"Fixing a broken gutter is pointless when there’s no money for the rest."
"Twelve years of solitary work—stacking, sorting, scanning, cataloging, researching, letter and grant writing, fund begging, and book repairing."
"You can’t find family in a book, Simon."
"I’ve become part of the papers. They were mine, twelve years of pages and volumes."
"It’s brutal to realize that someone might find a life with you in it unbearable."
"Having all the time in the world makes getting things done impossible."
"Houses don’t take care of themselves, but they do need money."
"Those who long to live in past dream just as much for the future."
"Be certain that the lad is valued most highly and I, as ever, intend to look after his interests, romantic or otherwise—they are aligned with my own."
"If you stay, waiting for your father, she will take away any man we love."
"I was taught to watch for gentle souls, as they’ve not the wit to look after themselves."
"Love, Madame, is nothing to worry oneself with overmuch. With time it will right itself."
"If they pull him under, what am I gonna do?"
"Stop it with the book stuff. It doesn't have to be more than being sad. Being that sad is enough."
"The quickest flash of memory—Mom, pressing her lips to a bump on my head after I smacked it against the corner of the coffee table."
"I could just lie here, couldn’t I? Just for a little while."
"It’s very easy for someone like you or me to get lost in an object, to accept certain ideas as fact without proper exploration."
The joy has gone," Peabody said after the closing of a lean show. "The showmanship, my fine fellow, is not what it could be.
"You see what you want. You taint cards with your hope. You do not read future, you see wishes."
"It’s been a while since we’ve had any good athletics, but a breath-holder, a swimmer, that’s a hard sell for a man."
"No matter how much I wished you were mine sometimes."
"She could forgive him anything except losing his life."
"I’ve always found that the sorrow of a departure is best remedied with a greeting—onward to romance!"
"Why the hell don’t people understand there are some things you don’t talk about? You keep it to yourself so you hurt fewer people. You’re supposed to pay with guilt. Guilt is penance."
"Ever love something so much you start to think it’s yours?"
"Nobody loves you quite like someone who’s sorry."
"I thought you’d come back but you never did."
"We would bury ourselves in books until flesh and paper became one and ink and blood at last ran together."
"To break a curse you destroy the source."
"It’s good to have things that are yours. Keep them."
"Greta Mullins m. Jonathan Parsons. Three children: Jonathan Parsons, Jr.; Newton Parsons; Theresa Parsons."
"Martin Churchwarry would spend an unremarkable life as a bookseller until one day stumbling across a fascinating book."
"The computer blinks and the screen goes dark. My chest feels strange, hollow."
"I don’t wait for a greeting. 'You’re a Ryzhkov.'"
"Libraries would have wanted it. A circus museum, maybe. There’s always a demand for something that old, you just need to know where to look."
"How fitting: a book procured me. Utterly fantastic."
"It’s as if we’ve been pulled together, haven’t we?"
"I have to hang up, but I wanted you to know. You should know who your family was."
"Her ribs stood out and it seemed each tug of the child’s mouth at her breast sucked away life."
"Stop. He is afraid. If we give him nothing to fear, he’ll come around."
"It should not be as if they had never been. Every child needed to know her parents."
"I didn’t know I’d wanted her worried about me until I’d been supplanted by books."
"We’re going to leave. I’ll go with you. Anywhere you want."
"I’ve been holding my breath since before I was born."
"A fresh start can be a very good thing."
"I didn’t think he was gonna do that, Little Bird."
"I can work anywhere. We’ll be good again."
"They passed the cards to each other creating history, fingers touching paper, imbuing it with hope and fears."
"We carry our families like anchors, rooting us in storms, making sure we never drift from where and who we are."