J.R. Moehringer > Quotes

“I hate when people ask what a book is about. People who read for plot, people who suck out the story like the cream filling in an Oreo, should stick to comic strips and soap operas. . . . Every book worth a damn is about emotions and love and death and pain. It's about words. It's about a man dealing with life. Okay?”
― J.R. Moehringer

“I don't know. Sometimes I try to say what's on my mind and it comes out sounding like I ate a dictionary and I'm shitting pages. Sorry”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“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

“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

“Your best is whatever you can do comfortably without having a breakdown.”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“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

“History is the narrative of people searching for a place to go.”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“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

“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

“The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star.”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“Angst ist der Schlüssel zum Erfolg und der Hauptgrund für dein Scheitern, Angst ist das zugrunde liegende Dilemma in jeder Geschihte, die du dir über dich selbst erzählst. Und was ist die einzige Chance, die du gegen Angst hast? Folge ihr. Lass dich von ihr leiten.”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“Ich wollte ihm erklären, dass Bücher nicht unbedingt denselben Zweck erfüllen wie Werkzeuge, dass es keinen klaren Unterschied gab, ob man sie benutzte oder nicht. Bücher geben mir ein Gefühl der Genugtuung, es war schön, sie aufgereiht in Regalen und am Boden zu sehen. Sie waren der versöhnlichste Blickfang in meiner verwahrlosten Wohnung. Meine Bücher leisteten mir Gesellschaft, munterten mich auf. Und da jedes Buch, das ich seit meiner Kindheit besaß, vom Keller verschimmelt war oder keinen Umschlag hatte, war ich besonders pingelig. Ich schrieb nicht an den Rand, machte keine Eselsohren in die Seiten und lieh sie nie aus”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“Your ancestral homeland is Queens, fuckface.”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“... as if I’d said I wanted to sell cheese sandwiches outside Grateful
Dead concerts...”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar

“If you think Sigourney Weaver is
sexy then you are a homosexual.”
― J.R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar