Rats Quotes

“Deep in their rat tendons, rats know history.”
― Robert Sullivan, Rats: Observations on the History and Habits of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

“Sometimes I think the city is naturally conducive to coincidences in the same way that Plains states like Nebraska and Oklahoma are conducive to twisters, in the same way that mountain lakes are conducive to lightning.”
― Robert Sullivan, Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

“Ingesting poison, fighting for food, being attacked by a larger rat or beaten with a toilet plunger: these are everyday rat dangers that make the life expectancy of the rat in the city approximately one year.”
― Robert Sullivan, Rats: Observations on the History and Habits of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

“It is neither God's grace nor innate goodness which saves man's soul alive; it is rather his need for the community, his concept of the desirable life as one lived collectively.”
― Robert Sullivan, Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

“A historic measure of Paris's urbanity has been the description by Parisians of large rats on its subway system, or metro. I recently visited Paris with an eye toward seeing large rats. When I did not, after spending several hours being watched on metro platforms by wary Parisians, I began to realize that being able to readily spot rats in a specific city is an acquired skill, akin to learning a local dialect.”
― Robert Sullivan, Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants