A Sudden Light Quotes

“Perhaps that's what life is about--the search for such a connection. The search for magic. The search for the inexplicable. Not in order to explain it, or contain it. Simply in order to feel it. Because in that recognition of the sublime, we see for a moment the entire universe in the palm of our hand. And in that moment, we touch the face of God.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“We are all connected. The living to the nonliving, as the nonliving to the living. All things in all directions in all times. It is only in the physical dimension that we have limitations. (The membrane between us is thinner than you think.)”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“If you feel you don’t have enough, you hold on to things,” he said. “But if you feel you have enough, you let go of things.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“One’s nature comes from within, not from without. The abomination occurs in subverting one’s instinct in favor of a rigid code written by others. Trying to force yourself into a role that confounds your spirit will always break you.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“With a book—presuming it’s a good book—you can depend upon an outcome that adheres to the necessities of drama. The question will be answered. It has to be. The answer may not be happy; we can’t guarantee a comedy. Sometimes tragedy strikes. But there will be a conclusion. Of that we can be sure. That’s the whole point of a book. But in real life, there is no guarantee that any question will ever be answered. Real life is messy because we don’t know where it’s going to go.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“No, you don’t remember, and sometimes it’s best that way. Sometimes it’s best to start fresh. Every day, fresh. Living always in the present, unburdened by the pain of the past. Most of us drag around our misdeeds like giant dead birds tied to our necks; we condemn ourselves to telling every stranger we meet the story of our anguish and inadequacies, hoping that one day we will be forgiven, hoping that we will find a person who will look at us and pretend to ignore the ridiculous dead birds hanging from our sunburned and weather-beaten necks. And if we find that person, and if we don’t hate him for not hating us, if we don’t hold him in contempt for not treating us contemptuously, as we expect to be treated—nay, as we demand to be treated—well, that person will be something of a soul mate, I imagine.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Stories continue in all directions to include even the retelling of the stories themselves, as legend is informed by interpretation, and interpretation is informed by time.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“You know,” he said, “at some point you’re going to realize that being a smart-ass isn’t as much about being smart as it is about being an ass.” “That’s good,” I said. “Did you read that in a fortune cookie?”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Perhaps that’s what life is about—the search for such a connection. The search for magic. The search for the inexplicable. Not in order to explain it, or contain it. Simply in order to feel it. Because in that recognition of the sublime, we see for a moment the entire universe in the palm of our hand. And in that moment, we touch the face of God.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“I realized, then, that being an adult was just about bullshitting everyone around you. Just do things until someone stops you from doing those things, and then say, “Oh, that isn’t allowed?”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Oh, my faith has flagged at times. It's easy to fall back into the same routines and paint over the sublime with coat after coat of indifference... I promise you something: when you have touched the face of God, you can never unlearn what you have learned. You can never unsee what you have seen.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“I hear hundreds of years of life. I hear wind and rain and fire and beetles. I hear the seasons changing and birds and squirrels. I hear the life of the trees this wood came from.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Because the earth calls. The soil, the rocks, the clay. It calls to us to remind us, to make sure we remember. The earth will ultimately win. It always does. We will, all of us, end our lives here. Even the birds.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“I hoped...something...words, maybe; stories -- something I could touch, and when I touched it, it was different than when other people touched it. I wanted very badly to have an affinity for something that would become transcendent when I held it in my hands... Perhaps that's what life is all about -- the search for such a connection. The search for magic. The search for the inexplicable. Not in order to explain it, or contain it. Simply in order to feel it. Because in that recognition of the sublime, we see for a moment the entire universe in the palm of our hand. And in that moment, we touch the face of God.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“if money affects who you love, then it isn’t really love.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“the result is what people live with, not the cause.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“With a book—presuming it’s a good book—you can depend upon an outcome that adheres to the necessities of drama.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“What did we do before Google? Before Wi-Fi? Before cable modems? Before cell phone towers on every building? Before that? We did what we had to do because we were resourceful. We had initiative. And we understood that the process is fundamental to the result: a poor process produces a poor product. And now? Now we let someone else worry about the messy details. We delegate that responsibility. And so we delegate our privacy. And so we delegate our liberty. And so we forsake the control of our own destinies.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Truth, honesty, integrity, he said. "And loyalty. Above truth, honesty, and integrity, I would demand loyalty. Loyalty above all. You have to swear an oath."

"I can never put loyalty above truth honesty and integrity. . . don't demand loyalty over truth. Don't ever do that.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“I have made mistakes and I have hurt people, I do not deny that fact. But I have corrected those mistakes vigorously once I understood the error of my ways.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“With a book—presuming it’s a good book—you can depend upon an outcome that adheres to the necessities of drama. The question will be answered. It has to be. The answer may not be happy; we can’t guarantee a comedy. Sometimes tragedy strikes. But there will be a conclusion. Of that we can be sure. That’s the whole point of a book.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“You know,” he said, “at some point you’re going to realize that being a smart-ass isn’t as much about being smart as it is about being an ass.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“More wine helps; it takes the edge off the despair.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“I wanted very badly to have an affinity for something that would become transcendent when I held it in my hands. I don’t know that I’ve ever found that thing; sometimes I suspect I have, but then I doubt myself. Perhaps I’m looking for it still. Perhaps that’s what life is about—the search for such a connection. The search for magic. The search for the inexplicable. Not in order to explain it, or contain it. Simply in order to feel it. Because in that recognition of the sublime, we see for a moment the entire universe in the palm of our hand.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“(C)hoice without alternative is only a sleight of hand; it is a magician's force-play, during which you believe you have free well, but your fate has already been decided: the magician knows which card you will pick!”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“You know, he said, at some point you're going to realize that being a smart-ass isn't about being smart as it is about being an ass.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“You know what your potential was when you were young: you could have done anything! But instead of doing anything, you did nothing.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“The rain has been incessant. It feeds my soul. I feel that it washes over my body, and a part of me drips into the soil with the rain, and a part of me becomes the soil and is drank into the roots of these trees and I have become one with them.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“Stories continue in all directions to include even the retelling of the stories themselves, as legend is informed by interpretation, and interpretation is informed by time. And so I tell my story to you, as the Mariner told his: he, standing outside the wedding party, snatching at a passing wrist, paralyzing his victim with his gaze; I, standing with my family at the edge of this immortal forest. I tell this story because telling this story is what I must do.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light

“no man is beyond redemption as long as he acts in redeemable ways.”
― Garth Stein, A Sudden Light