Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object Quotes

“At a certain point, memory begins to be a burden.”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object

“We polished off that breakfast like a pair of tigers and went through two pots of coffee. Charlie sat back in his chair, smoking a cigar. There was nothing specious in my happiness. It rang through me like a bell.”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object

“He was the soul of kindness and concern. The fact that he had talked to my father about this made me want to stab him. But I only said, “I’ll talk to Patrick. This doesn’t sit right with me.”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object

“Sam loved me in a way that was as close as love could come to his mother’s indifference. It was playful, bouncy, it accepted the situation between us without annotations, and without realizing it, he stuck me like a buffer between himself and his parents. He had a wife, and that warded them off. How could he be wild if he was settled? How could he be in trouble if he was married? He might have known these things, but coming from that emotionally monosyllabic household, how could he have had a vocabulary for them?”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object

“They wanted me to stay because they wanted me around: I was their direct link to Sam; I was his memento. And they were probably afraid that I might shoot myself, left alone with all Sam’s things.”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object

“I put my lilies in front of Sam’s plaque. I didn’t want him to rest in peace. I wanted him to bounce around in death as he had in life, fearless, goofy, and fleet.”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object

“When he went to college he wrote me letters which I answered within four days. Each letter took at least five drafts before I thought it suitable to send to Cambridge.”
― Laurie Colwin, Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object