A Ladder to the Sky

by John Boyne

“Love,” I said. “Love is always the subject.” “Not for you,” he replied. “But what is loneliness,” I pointed out, “other than the lack of love?

“Don’t you ever think, Erich, that perhaps you’ve seen me as you wanted me to be and not as who I am?”

There are people who will sacrifice anyone and anything to get ahead, after all.

“I’ve known a lot of whores in my life,” added Gore, running his hand along the red bathrobe that hung on the bedroom door before stepping outside into the corridor. “Both men and women. And in general, I’ve always found them to be good company, with a highly evolved sense of honor. A whore will never cheat you, they have too much integrity for that. But you, Mr. Swift, you give the profession a bad name.”

Ha! Freaking love Gore, one of the best scenes in the book!

Writers are all fascists. We like to control the discourse and crush anyone who dares to disagree with us.”

“Whenever a friend succeeds,” said Theo, “a little something in me dies.

“And you’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, haven’t you?” He shook his head. “That it’s like setting a ladder to the sky. A pointless waste of energy.

“You’ve heard the wonderful news, I presume?” “No. Has Mr. Trump died?”

And at that moment I understood only too clearly that it was him or me. If I helped him, my career would be over, and I could not—I would not—allow that to happen. I had worked far too long and far too hard to let it go. I was a writer, for fuck’s sake. I was born to be a writer. No one would ever take that away from me.

This scene was the most horrific event in the book for me.