The Dirty Streets of Heaven Quotes

“You show me what someone listens to, I’ll tell you everything you want to know about his soul. (For instance, a bunch of Nickelback albums would have indicated he never had a soul in the first place.)”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“the road to Heaven is paved with bullshit and busy work.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“I haven't met that many women, human or angelic, who actually like to drive. In my experience they seem to be much more pragmatic about the whole thing than we are. For most males, driving is an extension of their masculinity; they have little fantasy scenarios going all the time - races, chases, and dramatic combat with other drivers. Females, on the other hand, generally seem to view driving as something you do to get somewhere. I know, crazy.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“Just get up. What's your name, kid?"
"G-man"
"I don't mean your codename down at the Dickhead Club. What does it say on your driver's license?”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“It's amazing the stupid things I say sometimes. I mean, you could start an entire branch of scientific research about the stuff I say that gets proved wrong while I'm still busy saying it.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“Sometimes I talk about baseball just to annoy people who don’t understand it.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“If the road to Hell is paved in good intentions, a friend of mine used to say, the road to Heaven is paved with bullshit and busy work.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“I've always preferred the city at night. I believe that San Judas, or any city, belongs to the people who sleep there. Or maybe they don't sleep - some don't - but they live there. Everybody else is just a tourist.
Venice, Italy, for instance, pulls in a millions tourists for their own Carnival season but the actual local population is only a couple of hundred thousand. Lots of empty canals and streets at night, especially when you get away from the big hotels, and the residents pretty much have it to themselves when tourist season slows during the winter.
Jude has character - everybody agrees on that. It also has that thing I like best about a city: You can never own it, but it you treat it with respect it will eventually invite you in and make you one of its true citizens. But like I said, you've got to live there. If you're never around after the bars close, or at the other end of the night as the early workers get up to start another day and the coffee shops and news agents raise their security gates, then you don't really know the place, do you?”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“but sometimes when things go very wrong and even the highest are frightened, innocence is not enough for salvation.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“I don’t get it,” Clarence whispered to me. “We’re the only ones in the place. When are your friends supposed to get here?”

“Why, bab?” asked the cream pitcher, its top opening and closing like a tiny silver mouth. “Are you thinking about asking one of the waitresses out instead?” The chuckle that followed was a little coarser than the silvery-bell variety one usually expects from invisible spirits. Clarence let out a yelp like a dog whose tail has just found its way under a foot and was halfway to the front door before I could convince him to come back. At the other end of the long room the waitresses looked up without interest, then went back to discussing particle physics or whatever else was keeping them from bringing me a glass of water”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“What's the light of Heaven look like on earth? Like sunlight streaming through clouds in the tackiest garage sale painting you ever saw. Really, it's so beautiful it's embarrassing. No subtlety whatsoever.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“sometimes when things go very wrong and even the highest are frightened, innocence is not enough for salvation.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“no other bosses but mine and my opponents’ can have your soul jerked out of your body and sent to the deepest fiery pits to suffer for eternity. Unless you work for Walmart.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven

“I know, I know, numbers are not what you’re interested in, except those of you who are engineers.”
― Tad Williams, The Dirty Streets of Heaven