Danielle > Danielle's Quotes

“It’s so hard to communicate because there are so many moving parts. There’s presentation and there’s interpretation
and they’re so dependent on each other it makes things very difficult.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“It makes one realize that the physicality if our world is a boundary to us only if our will is weak; a true champion can accomplish things that a normal person would think impossible.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Rain amplifies your mistakes, and water on the track can make your car handle unpredictably. When something unpredictable happens you have to react to it; if you’re reacting at speed, you’re reacting too late. And so you should be afraid.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“The visible becomes inevitable...”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles--preferably of his own making--in order to triumph. A hero without a flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which, after all, is based on conflict and opposition, the irresistible force meeting the unmovable object.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“To be a champion, you must have no ego at all. You must not exist as a separate entity. You must give yourself over to the race. You are nothing if not for your team, your car, your shoes, your tires. Do not mistake confidence and self-awareness for egotism.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Many of us have convinced ourselves that compromise is necessary to achieve our goals, that all of our goals are not attainable so we should eliminate the extraneous, prioritize our desires, and accept less than the moon.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“We are all afforded our physical existence so we can learn about ourselves.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“[M]emory is time folding back on itself. To remember is to disengage from the present.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“That which you manifest is before you.

The visible becomes inevitable. Your car goes where your eyes go.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Because memory is time folding back on itself. To remember is to disengage from the present. In order to reach any kind of success in automobile racing, a driver must never remember.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Inside each of us resides the truth,” I began, “the absolute truth. But sometimes the truth is hidden in a hall of mirrors. Sometimes we believe we are viewing the real thing, when in fact we are viewing a facsimile, a distortion. As I listen to this trial, I am reminded of the climactic scene of a James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun. James Bond escaped his hall of mirrors by breaking the glass, shattering the illusions, until only the true villain stood before him. We, too, must shatter the mirrors. We must look into ourselves and root out the distortions until that thing which we know in our hearts is perfect and true, stands before us. Only then will justice be served.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Very gently. Like there are eggshells on your pedals, and you don’t want to break them. That’s how you drive in the rain.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Perhaps that's what life is about--the search for such a connection. The search for magic. The search for the inexplicable. Not in order to explain it, or contain it. Simply in order to feel it. Because in that recognition of the sublime, we see for a moment the entire universe in the palm of our hand. And in that moment, we touch the face of God.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Suppressing the symptom does nothing but force the true problem to express itself on a deeper level at some other time.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“We are all connected. The living to the nonliving, as the nonliving to the living. All things in all directions in all times. It is only in the physical dimension that we have limitations. (The membrane between us is thinner than you think.)”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“I know this much about racing in the rain. I know it is about balance. It is about anticipation and patience. I know all of the driving skills that are necessary for one to be successful in the rain. But racing in the rain is also about the mind! It is about owning one's own body. About believing that one's car is merely an extension of one's body. About believing that the track is an extension of the car, and the rain is an extension of the track, and the sky is an extension of the rain. It is about believing that you are not you; you are everything. And everything is you.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“There is no dishonour in losing the race," Don said. "There is only dishonour in not racing because you are afraid to lose.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“What I have always liked best is when he talks about having no memory. No memory of things he'd done just a second before. Good or bad. Because memory is time folding back on itself. To remember is to disengage from the present. In order to reach any success in automobile racing, a driver must never remember. Which is why drivers compulsively record their every move, their every race, with cockpit cameras, in-car video, data mapping; a driver cannot be a witness to his own greatness. This is what Danny says. He says racing is doing. It is being a part of a moment and being aware of nothing else but that moment. Reflection must come at a later time. The great champion Julian Sabella Rosa has said: “When I am racing, my mind and my body are working so quickly and so well together, I must be sure not to think, or else I will definitely make a mistake.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Inside each of us resides the truth, I began, the absolute truth. But sometimes the truth is hidden in a hall of mirrors. Sometimes we believe we are viewing the real thing, when in fact we are viewing a facsimile, a distortion.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain