quotes by J.R. Moehringer

"Of course many bars in Manhasset, like bars everywhere, were nasty places, full of pickled people marinating in regret."
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)

"History is the narrative of people searching for a place to go."
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)

"It takes just as many men to build a sturdy man, son, as it does to build a tower. You will look back on this time and remember remarkably little of it, excpt the extent to which I tried or did not try."
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)

""While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us." "
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)

"Do you know why God invented writers? Because he loves a good story. And he doesn't give a damn about the words. Words are the curain we've hung between him and our true selves. Try not to think about the words. Don't strin for the perfect sentence. There's no such thing. Writing si guesswork. Every sentence is an educated guess, the readers as much as yours."
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)

"Do you know why God invented writers? Because he loves a good story. And he doesn't give a damn about the words. Words are the curtain we've hung between him and our true selves. Try not to think about the words. Don't strain for the perfect sentence. There's no such thing. Writing is guesswork. Every sentence is an educated guess, the readers as much as yours.

"
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)

"I began dividing life in absolutes... Things and people were either perfectly bad, or perfectly good, and when life didn't obey this black-and-white rule, when things or people were complex or contradictory, I pretended otherwise. I turned every defeat into a disaster, every success into an epic triumph, and separated all people into heroes or villains. Unable to bear ambiguity, I built a barricade of delusions against it. "
— J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar: A Memoir)