The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals Quotes

“Once upon a time there was a woman who was just like all women. And she married a man who was just like all men. And they had some children who were just like all children. And it rained all day.

The woman had to skewer the hole in the kitchen sink, when it was blocked up.

The man went to the pub every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The other nights he mended his broken bicycle, did the pool coupons, and longed for money and power.

The woman read love stories and longed for things to be different.

The children fought and yelled and played and had scabs on their knees.

In the end they all died.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“Yesterday from my office window I saw a crippled girl negotiating her way across the street, her shoulders squarely braced. At each jerky movement her hair flew back like an annunciatory angel, and I saw she was the only dancer on the street.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“So the price of careless rapture is a twisted history chronicled by envy.

You were too busy being. And you are too busy now. You couldn't spare the time to note down a few facts: how the sun and silence poured into the big room with the yellow curtains; how everything was never-ending and expendable. ”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“If you are overwhelmed, you might as well relax in the whirlpool. It's winning. All you can learn is ecstatic surrender.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“The body (see above): whatever I said, I fear we must abuse it just a trifle if we are ever going to make a statement. Because IT only wants ease and absence from shock, and comfort, and the strength to go on; and shies off efforts that might hurt it or leave it overlooked.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“Afterwards, what a relief! There is luxurious sinking back into sleep, lovely deep undemanding undisciplined sleep. (Plus dreams, of course, but never mind.)”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“Is it a mistake to try to BE: good, kind, considerate, a bolsterer-upper etc., etc.,? Perhaps it is impossible to be as well as to do. Being and doing: parallel lines that can never meet.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“But the body, the body, the perishable instrument through which all work and visions have to trickle! Assailed by the cold the heat the hunger the exhaustion the heaviness. The difficulty of coddling it on, making it work, keeping it sweet, keeping it clean, condoning its decay, trying not to regret its earlier phases. It's only the body! [...] But not to belittle it. Not to misunderstand it. Give it a chance. Urge it on when necessary. Try to be kind to it.
But what a daring thing to do, God: to make such a flimsy, vulnerable, decay able, corruptible, demanding delicate casing for the soul (spirit).”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“Well get a furious weapon.
Look how the springs are whirling round and you with your hat askew, without time to catch your breath and decide that THIS is the hour. Lying like an immobile amoeba, gigantic, out of season, and idiotically waiting for instigation. You know this can’t be. Leave the washing up and take a look around.”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals

“«Cuando cayó Jericó, llorar estaba permitido, y en Babilonia estaba de moda proferir memorables lamentos por las aguas separadas. Pero aquí debes ir a tu oficina, llena de vida, con una chispa en los ojos, aunque sea sintética. Porque quién se atreve a ponerse en pie y decir: «¡Qué cansados estamos! ¡Oh, Dios, qué cansados estamos!».
Debo vigilar el objetivo, que es: la aniquilación del amor, para que el amor pueda sufrirse; o, más bien, el cese del sentimiento, para que el dolor sea soportable, y el amor, así, pueda renacer bajo nueva forma.»

—Los pícaros y los canallas van al cielo, Elizabeth Smart—”
― Elizabeth Smart, The Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals