The Open Curtain Quotes

“God has drawn a curtain between myself and heaven and there is no parting it.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“He knew how to get her into a discussion, the conversation building quickly into an attack.
"You don't know when to stop," she would tell him, eyes burning.
"I know when to stop," he claimed. "I just never stop there.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“You have to let someone, at least one person in the world, know who you are.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“He waited for someone to tell him who to be next.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“It was all a mistake, but what else was there for her? It was meant to happen, it had to happen, it had happened. She had set something in motion and now there was no stopping it.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“Or perhaps, as a perversion of the temple ritual, it was an attempt to defile, an attempt to close the curtain between God and this Earth, a gesture toward apocalypse.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“Admittedly, there was a certain incentive not to piece things together.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“Things escape him? she thought, waiting in the kitchen for him to finish dressing. Is it catching? she wondered. Apparently things were beginning to escape her as well.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“He was normal now, she thought, subdued. Having his throat slit a second time had made him tractable.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“He gave her a hug so awkward and crushing that it was clear his experience with women was entirely theoretical.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“There were dreams in which Lael consumed him, chewing off pieces of his limbs. Rudd felt simultaneously disturbed and gratified.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“Lael stumbled, woozy, steadying himself against the wall with one hand. He shook his head, his nose flicking blood across his cheekbones and onto the wall. Rudd watched him, his fists clumsily up. Lael looked at him and smiled slowly. Spreading his arms, he stepped forward and toward Rudd to embrace him. And this, to Rudd, was somehow more terrifying than if he had leaped forward swinging.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“At church tomorrow—" she started.
"—I'm not going to church tomorrow," he said.
He could not look at her while he said it. He heard her wheeze. "Excuse me?" she said, her voice severe. His heart was beating terrifically, though he told himself that there was no reason to worry, that he was long past caring about what she thought, though he knew he did care, fuck all.
"Excuse me?" she said.
"You heard me," he said.
"I swear, your father would roll over in his grave."
"Let him roll.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“He shook his head, dizzy. If you didn't know for certain what you might do in advance, you were capable of anything. There was nothing solid to you.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“Yet there was satisfaction in the half trip, in turning around at the cement plant with his brother unseen, as well as in the full trip. He had come to think of both as something he needed.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“When he was a sophomore, his English teacher, Mrs. Frohm, praised to the whole class a half-page essay he had written on an Emily Dickinson poem. He was pleased and embarrassed, instantly worried that the others would tease him about it afterwards, which they did. Two days later Mrs. Frohm was dead from an overdose of sleeping pills. He felt vaguely responsible.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“You're my cross to bear," his mother would tell him, "A heavy cross." Likewise, he wanted to answer her, but never did.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

“He had learned by this time not to raise his hand and ask, "If people who are good are blessed, why was The Prophet Joseph Smith shot to death?" He knew the answer, which was, "He wasn't shot to death, he was martyred.”
― Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain