Hal Bennett > Quotes

“The very fact of being human panics us into the most grotesque play-acting imaginable; and we deal in absurdities to keep life from being a total waste, like one constant jacking-off party.”
― Hal Bennett, Lord of Dark Places

“My way always has been to be as contrary to everything as I can be. When the Bible says black, I say white. When it says good. I say evil. When it says, Behold, Jehovah is a God of Light, I say, Behold, He is the Lord of dark places”
― Hal Bennett, Lord of Dark Places

“When the Bible says black, I say white. When it says good, I say evil. When it says Behold, Jehovah is a God of Light, I say, Behold, He is the Lord of dark places, for his children gnash their teeth and cry unto him and are not heard.”
― Hal Bennett, Lord of Dark Places

“I found out a long time ago that the duty of the Church is not to save sinners but to make a man sin. It is the fear of the example of Christ that causes good men to turn bad. Follow the example of this man, the Church says, and you'll wind up on the cross just like he did. The promise of Heaven is pale indeed when a man has to die in order to achieve it.”
― Hal Bennett, Lord of Dark Places

“Then Joe felt Titus unbutton his jeans. His heart skidded to a stop and then started again. Twisting, he slumped to the ground, dragging Titus with him. Ramona had warned him not to let Titus do anything to him there. But it felt so good, he sprawled back with his eyes closed. Sweat broke out on him everywhere. The sun was so hot for that time of year. A current of fire raced from his brain down his backbone. Then he felt evil and empty, but relaxed”
― Hal Bennett

“Let him grow up clean and strong and without fear. Let him never have to lie down in weeds in Vietnam and beat his meat. Let me do all that is right for him and none of the wrong that my father did to me. Let him show Odessa that the world is still all right to have babies in.”
― Hal Bennett

“You're so much like my husband was. A great deal of self-love, an equal amount of self-pity. He felt that no one loved him—he was certainly right about that as far as I was concerned—and he thought that gave him the license to love himself. And to pity himself at the same time.

Self-love is perhaps the greatest sin of all. It stifles the basic drive of man, which is to search for love until he finds it. Self-love is simply the easy way out; self-pity is the justification for it.”
― Hal Bennett, Lord of Dark Places