Jack Heath > Jack's Quotes

“It’s remarkable that a device, which fits in your pocket, can hold thousands of books. But a room full of books is an entirely different kind of remarkable.”
― Brandt Legg

“We all love after-the-bomb stories. If we didn't, why would there be so many of them? There's something attractive about all those people being gone, about wandering in a depopulated world, scrounging cans of Campbell's pork and beans, defending one's family from marauders. But some secret part of us thinks it would be good to survive. All those other folks will die. That's what after-the-bomb stories are all about.”
― John Varley

“At some point on your road you have to turn and start walking back towards yourself. Or the past will pursue you, and bite the nape of your neck, leave you bleeding in the ditch. Better to turn and face it with such weapons as you possess.”
― Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black

“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”)”
― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

“I'd never understood why hurting animals for fun was considered an early warning sign of serial killer behavior, while fishing and hunting were seen as healthy male bonding activities.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“Uses her femininity to hide her humanity.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“People often pretend they don't remember something when they're ashamed of it.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“Is gold useful or just expensive?”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“A lot of psychiatry is just common sense.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“If they were rich, they'd be described as eccentric rather than mentally ill.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“We choose to believe whatever seems most likely.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“The memory was like an old videotape, degrading slightly with each viewing.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“Remember, thoughts are funny things. If we try to push them away, often they bounce back, with more force. But if we accept that the thoughts are there, they lose their power over us. We can decide what, if anything, to do with them.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“A thought popped into my head, the same one that appears any time I’m in an elevator with another person: If we get stuck between floors, how long should I wait before I suggest we draw straws?

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Cuthbert said.

I doubted that.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“The pain doesn't fade, it just becomes a different kind of pain.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“If you have a mental illness, people don't trust you. And if you take drugs to fix the illness, they trust you even less.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“Agreeable could sometimes pass as obedient.”
― Jack Heath, Headcase

“Thistle and I had the same start in life - rescued by police from the clutches of our dead parents. But she's become a smart, tough FBI agent who can learn a new song on the viola in only one week or two. I'm a poor, unemployed cannibal. Where did our worlds divide? Where did I go wrong?”
― Jack Heath, Hangman

“So you don't go to church anymore?" she asks.
I don't like the idea of Thistle thinking that I believe in God. I wonder what the Bible says about cannibalism. Eat this, for it is my body.”
― Jack Heath, Hangman

“I'm sorry," I say. "I hate feeling like I let you down."
"It's okay," she says. She puts her arm around my neck.
"In fact, I respect it. Celibacy must take a lot of willpower."
I think of all the times I've eaten someone and sworn I'll never do it again.”
― Jack Heath, Hangman

“Reasoning beats remembering.”
― Jack Heath, The Cut Out

“Lesson 1: Don't trust anybody.
Lesson 2: Be confident.
Lesson 3: Nothing is ever what it seems.
Lesson 4: When you're outgunned, stay quiet.”
― Jack Heath, The Cut Out

“Apparently it didn't take a phone book to stop a bullet. A single sheet of paper would do.”
― Jack Heath, The Cut Out

“Homeless people talk to themselves because nobody else will.”
― Jack Heath, Hangman

“Or I could go out back and roll that boulder onto the hatch. You'd be buried alive. Or how about this? I'll just drop a lit match into the tank. That fertiliser is highly combustible. The whole house could go up. Callum will burn. You'll burn. I'll burn. No-one walks away.”
― Jack Heath

“It's not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others - even my nearest and dearest - there always comes a moment when I'd rather be reading a book.”
― Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books