quotes by Haven Kimmel

"Mother always said she was a size 7 woman she kept wrapped in fat to prevent bruising."
— Haven Kimmel

"On Jesus: "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people.""
— Haven Kimmel

"I honestly believe that people who never have children or never love a child are doomed to a sort of foolishness because it cant be described or explained, that love. I didnt know anything before I had him, and I havent learned anything since I lost him. Everything that isnt loving a child is just for show."
— Haven Kimmel

"Possibility, infinity, beauty -- none of those words were right. [...:] What he really wanted to say was: have you felt this? this phantom life streaking like a phosphorescent hound at the edges of your ruin? "
— Haven Kimmel (The Solace of Leaving Early)

"On the wall next to the table, next to the scones that provided each table with its own circle of lamplight were quotations about reading, her favorite of which was from Kafka: 'A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.'"
— Haven Kimmel (The Solace of Leaving Early)

"Ordinarily my mom just sunk deeper into her corner of the couch and ignored it. She had succesfully ignored a quarter of a century of entropy and decay, had sat peacefully crunching popcorn and drinking soda while the house fell down around us. If I had to guess the number of books she read during that time, I would place the number at somewhere in the neighborhood of forty thousand."
— Haven Kimmel

"The best answer I can give is that poetry is all about the effect it has on a reader, and Robert Frost was very, very good at that. If you're asking whatit MEANS that the line is repeated [and miles to go before I sleep:] I'd have to say I don't know. It's stylistic. But the effect is pretty clear."
— Haven Kimmel

"...he said almost nothing, and ground his teeth against his desire to tell them the truth: God is helpless. We are at the mercy of our own radical freedom, and all God can do is take into God's self the grief, the violence, the sublime acts of kindness, the good sex. God comes to us from the future, and has only one godlike gift: the lure. We are lured toward truth, beauty, and goodness...the lure is pulling at our hearts like some lucid joy inside every actual occasion and all we have to do is...Say yes."
— Haven Kimmel (The Solace of Leaving Early)

"'That cat doesn't have a lick of sense,' I said, sighing.

'Well, honey, he's not right in the head,' Dad said, flipping his cigarette into the front yard.

I glared at him. 'And just what do you mean by that?'

Dad counted on his fingers. 'He's cross-eyed; he jumps out of trees after birds and then doesn't land on his feet; he sleeps with his head smashed up against the wall, and the tip of his tail is crooked.'

'Oh yeah? Well, how about this: he once got locked in a basement by evil Petey Scroggs in the middle of January and survived on snow and little frozen mice. When I'm cold at night he sleeps right on my face. Of that whole litter of kittens he came out of he's the only one left. One of his brothers didn't even have a butthole.'

'I stand corrected. PeeDink is a survivor.' "
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"What kind of good deeds? Like Girl Scouts? Because I got kicked out of Brownies and they won't give me another chance to keep my clothes on at camp."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"I respect every way in which you are a troublemaker, now get up and do what your mother says."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"My mom insisted on saying such things, even though almost no one understood what she meant. My Dad sometimes called her Addlebrain because she read so many books."
— Haven Kimmel

"...she waited until she and my grandfather Anthel were just home from their honeymoon, and then sat him down and told him this: "Honey, I know you like to take a drink, and that's all right, but be forewarned that I ain't your maid and I ain't your punching bag, and if you ever raise your hand to me you'd best kill me. Because otherwise I'll wait until you're asleep; sew you into the bed; and beat you to death with a frying pan." Until he died, I am told, my grandfather was a gentle man."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"They did a lot of cleaning in their house, which I considered to be a sign of immoral parenting. The job of parents, as I saw it, was to watch television and step into a child's life only when absolutely necessary, like in the event of a tornado or a potential kidnapping."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"I am hyper vigilant and would be dangerous if threatened.... If someone broke into my house or attacked me in the street, it's THEM I would fear for.... But as Yo La Tengo recently put it so succinctly: I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass."
— Haven Kimmel

"Contrary to popular opinion, my dad was not a lazy man. He was not lazy at all, for instance, when it came to Going Places In His Truck. He was also very industrious about Preparing To Go Camping. And if something really interested him, he would work on it all day."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"My mother was good at reading books, making cinnamon biscuits, and coloring in a coloring book. Also she was a good eater of popcorn and knitter of sweaters with my initials right in them. She could sit really still. She knew how to believe in God and sing really loudly. When she sneezed our whole house rocked. My father was a great smoker and driver of vehicles..He could hold a full coffee cup while driving and never spill a drop, even going over bumps. He lost his temper faster than anyone."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

" 'That cat doesn't have a lick of sense,' I said, sighing.
'Well, honey, he's not right in the head,' Dad said, flipping his cigarette into the front yard.
I glared at him. 'And just what do you mean by that?'
Dad counted on his fingers. 'He's cross-eyed; he jumps out of trees after birds and then doesn't land on his feet; he sleeps with his head smashed up against the wall, and the tip of his tail is crooked.'
'Oh yeah? Well, how about this: he once got locked in a basement by evil Petey Scroggs in the middle of January and survived on snow and little frozen mice. When I'm cold at night he sleeps right on my face. Of that whole litter of kittens he came out of he's the only one left. One of his brothers didn't even have a butthole.'
'I stand corrected. PeeDink is a survivor.'

"
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)

"Decoupage hit Mooreland pretty hard..."
— Haven Kimmel (Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana)