Forever Quotes

“I don't know what that means. To truly live."
"To find work that you love, and work harder than other men. To learn the languages of the earth, and love the sounds of the words and the things they describe. To love food and music and drink. Fully love them. To love weather, and storms, and the smell of rain. To love heat. To love cold. To love sleep and dreams. To love the newness of each day.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Human beings want to know too much abut each other, and that's why there are so many lies.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“To love women. To pleasure them, to make them laugh. To be foolish for them. To protect them. To respect them. To listen to them. They are life-givers. To live is to love them.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“The boy admonished himself for wanting everything to be a story. And now realized that some journeys were not stories. On some journeys, nothing really happened. You just kept taking steps.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Cormac heard that glorious word for the first time in the1850s, and it came to epitomize for him all of New York's rough skepticism. It had much greater weight than the word 'horseshit.' Horseshit was flaky and without substance; it dried in the sun and was blown away in a high wind. Preachers were the master of horseshit. But bullshit was heavier, filled with crude truth, a kind of black cement. The voters knew the difference and they appreciated bullshit when practiced by a master. Any politician who used God in a speech was practicing horseshit. When he talked about building schools, getting water into Chatham Square, or lighting the darkest streets, Bill Tweed was practicing bullshit. If a third of the bullshit actually came into existence, their lives were made better. Tweed, as he moved up in the system, was a master of bullshit.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“He looked at her for a long moment, as if remembering unfinished conversations, and then went back to place some damp, slow-burning turf on the fire.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Until that night, the well-fed, respectable whites had convinced themselves that slaves loved being slaves.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Quakers quaking. Congregationalists congregating, Baptists baptizing, Dutch Reformers reforming; Episcopalians pissing on the lot. All asked for money to support the war against evil.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“In your life, I hope you will never oppress the Weak, that you will oppose Human Bondage in all its guises, that you will bend your Knee to no man.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Everywhere, men and women changed their names and embraced strange gods in order to live.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“How strange it seems, with so much gone Of life and love, to still live on.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“I don’t know what that means. To truly live.’ [...]
‘To find work that you love and work harder than other men. To learn languages of the earth, and love the sounds of the words and the things they describe. To love food and music and drink. Fully love them. To love weather, and storms, and the smell of rain. To love heat. To love cold. To love sleep and dreams. To love the newness of each day.’
He stared at his hands.
‘To love women. To pleasure them. To make them laugh. To be foolish for them. To respect them. To listen to them’ He paused. ‘They are the lifegivers. To live is to love them’
‘You will see,’ he said. ‘The proof will be in your living”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Aye, they are noble. Noble bastards, they are. How did it begin? And how will it end? I’ll tell you how. The story’s in the history books, if you know how to read them’ [...] ‘Together, they stole from weaker people and then used the money to create armed theater. That’s what is was, lad. That’s what it is! Armed theater! Castles and music and fine robes and crowns and jewels-- it’s all theater. Acting! Performing! And all of it made possible by the use of swords nad muskets and cannon, and driven by jealousy and theft! [...] They bow down to the Great Actor, the King Himself, [...] The kings sneer at them for being fools, and with all that stolen money, they build armies and fleets and export their skills at robbery to the entire world! That’s how it all began, lad. A few cynical actors who fooled entire nations!’
‘And how will it end?’
‘If there’s a God in Heaven,’ he said, ‘it will end at the gallows.’
He sighed.
‘Any civilized man must be against homicide,’ he said ‘But negicide seems a most admirable crime”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“Normalcy was the byword, even when it was a lie.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“There he is, three days after his fifth birthday, standing barefoot upon wet summer grass. He is staring at the house where he lives: the great good Irish place of whitewashed walls, long and low, with a dark slate roof glistening in the morning drizzle. Standing there, he knows it will turn pale blue when the sun appears to work its magic.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“They are worse than fools. They are murderous fools.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“If you think you'll get tired, then you will get tired. If you think you'll lose, you will lose.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever

“You lived in the present, but that present always contained a past, some image of a ruined paradise.”
― Pete Hamill, Forever