Arkansas Quotes

“He planned for his son or daughter to have three or four toys, minimal sports equipment, and a thousand books. He didn't care for the rhymed nonsense of Dr. Seuss, but preferred anything that instilled basic knowledge sets. He could abide a talking animal, but not an inanimate object that spoke.”
― John Brandon, Arkansas

“I've been asleep at the wheel of the American dream.”
― John Brandon, Arkansas

“Why do people keep doing stuff?" he said, talking to himself it seemed.
Swin hesitated.
"Wiping counters down and taking pictures. Cheating. Defending things."
Swin couldn't see Kyle's face. It appeared he was about to say more, then thought better of it. It seemed he was going to laugh or cry; of course he was going to do neither. It was a moment of defeat, nothing more. Kyle looked back toward the woods where he'd thrown the gun. Swin felt he had to speak.
"It's involved," he said. "Many schools of thought. In layman's terms, being the most sophisticated monkey makes you the most confused monkey. Taking action, any at all, is a way to alleviate that confusion. You, you're one of the least sophisticated of us sophisticated monkeys, and therefore suffer less confusion, and have less use for the empty actions that alleviate confusion. I don't mean that as a put-down."
Though Kyle didn't move, Swin knew he was listening, knew the explanation was somehow helping.”
― John Brandon, Arkansas

“The conversations seemed to belong to the rooms and not to the people—conversations whose very appeal was that they never yielded answers.”
― John Brandon, Arkansas