Tommy Butler > Tommy's Quotes

“Life is in the living," say the brass. "There is no way to fail.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go

“Dark fists of cloud wrestle with a bright blue sky. It is a good fight, a fair fight—the sky cold and high and piercing, the clouds deep and turbulent, their leading edge gilded white, as if inflamed by the conflict. I will always be, proclaims the sky. We will never stop, answer the clouds.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go

“There's a particular ache that results when a person is right there next to you but feels a universe away—a loneliness that is somehow unbecoming, given that you're not alone.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go

“We're just surprised that you left because you weren't happy," she says. "After all, there were so many other things to be.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go

“Compassion is perilous. When there is nothing left of you but an empty vessel, a black hole, immune to the blows of life—the loneliness and confusion, the profound disappointment, the anger—it is the kind word that breaches the event horizon, that rips your heart back open, that compels you to once again suffer the concussion of your existence.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go

“When the weighty parts of your life are jettisoned, you either soar or drift, depending on your metaphor.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go

“Because it’s got a hole in it!” he cries. “And they’ll know it, Merry. They’ll feel it, and they’re going to constantly be looking for things to fill it with. They’ll eat too much. They’ll fall in love with the wrong people. They’ll hoard money, and watch too much television, and buy useless crap from holiday catalogs, like potato scrubbing gloves or a spoonula.”
― Tommy Butler, Before You Go