Speaks the Nightbird Quotes

“... some wounds refuse the remedy of time.”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“He felt, though, that if love was the desire to possess someone, it was in reality the poor substance of self-love. It seemed to him that a greater, truer love was the desire to open a cage - be it made of iron bars or the bones of tormented injustice - and set the nightbird free.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“Everyone goes on, " he repeated, with a taint of bitter mockery. "Oh, yes. They go on. With crippled spirits and broken ideals, they do go on. And with the passage of years they forget what crippled and broke them. They accept it grandly as they grow older, as if crippling and breaking were gifts from a king. Then those same hopeful spirits and large ideals in younger souls are viewed as stupid, and petty… and things to be crippled and broken, because everyone does go on." He looked into the woman's eyes. "Tell me. What is the point of life, if truth is not worth standing up for? If justice is a hollow shell? If beauty and grace are burnt to ashes, and evil rejoices in the flames? Shall I weep on that day, and lose my mind, or join the rejoicing and lose my soul? Shall I sit in my room? Should I go for a long walk, but where might I go so as not to smell the smoke? Should I just go on, Mrs. Nettles, like everyone else?”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“Love. What was it, really? The desire to possess someone, or the desire to free them?”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“Because of that, there was something frightening about it … something wild and uncontrollable, something that would not be constrained by logic.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“The evening crept up, as evenings will. In the fading purple twilight, with the last bold artist's stroke of red sun painting the bellies of clouds across the western horizon, Matthew took a lantern and went walking.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“Matthew fell on his belly, the pain in his ribs making him curl up like a stomped worm.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“It had been a joyful day for frogs and mud hens. For the human breed, however, the low gray clouds and chill rain coiled chains around the soul.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“Tell me. What is the point of life, if truth is not worth standing up for? If justice is a hollow shell? If beauty and grace are burnt to ashes, and evil rejoices in the flames? Shall I weep on that day, and lose my mind, or join the rejoicing and lose my soul? Shall I sit in my room? Should I go for a long walk, but where might I go so as not to smell the smoke? Should I just go on, Mrs. Nettles, like everyone else?”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“There was a small noise—a snake’s hiss, perhaps—and the cup clamped tightly as the heated air within compressed itself. An instant after the hideous contact was made, Woodward cried out around the sassafras root and his body shivered in a spasm of pure, animal pain.”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“He lit a candle, as the morning was so caliginous,”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“she has a knife for a tongue,” Cherise interrupted, still eating with graceless fingers. “She only apologizes when it cuts herself.”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“veritable”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“Why?"

A great question had been asked, Matthew thought. The ultimate question, which might be asked only by explorers who would not return to share their knowledge of a new world.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“caliginous,”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“You'll recover. Ever'one goes on, as they must."

"Everyone goes on, " he repeated, with a taint of bitter mockery. "Oh, yes. They go on. With crippled spirits and broken ideals, they do go on. And with the passage of years they forget what crippled and broke them. They accept it grandly as they grow older, as if crippling and breaking were gifts from a king. Then those same hopeful spirits and large ideals in younger souls are viewed as stupid, and petty... and things to be crippled and broken, because everyone does go on.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“It was an emotion, perhaps, that defied examination and could not be shaped to fit into any foursquare box of reason.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“into the cell, put the basket down upon the magistrate’s”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“the paradox of Man was the fact that one might have been made in the image of God, yet it was often the most devilish of ideas that gave action and purpose to the human breed. He”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“liquor guaranteed to elevate the earth to the level of one’s nose.”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“At a glance you see the picture, the frame, the nail, and the wall.”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird

“There were no easy answers to any question in this world, and it seemed that year after year the questions grew more complicated.”
― Robert McCammon, Speaks the Nightbird