The Returned Quotes

“Some folks locked the doors of their hearts when they lost someone. Others kept the doors and the windows open, letting memory and love pass through freely. And maybe that was the way it was supposed to be, Harold thought.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“If there’s one thing America will always lead the world in,” Harold said, “it’s assholes with guns.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“There is a music that forms sometimes, from the pairing of two people. An inescapable cadence that continues on.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“But isn’t that the way it is with memory? Give it enough time and it will become worn down and covered in a patina of self-serving omissions.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“People and events of wonder and magic are the lifeblood of the world.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“It was a good word: progress. A safe word that you snuggled up against when you were nervous. The kind of word you took home to meet your parents.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Mommies are always okay because the world couldn’t get along without them. That’s what my daddy said back before he died. He said that mommies were the reason the whole world worked the way it did and that without mommies everybody would be mean and hungry and people would be fighting all the time and nothing good would ever happen to anybody.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Spending your life on nothing but gossip and hearsay isn’t any way to stay informed.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Devils?” he said, his mind finding its train of thought as his hand found his cigarette lighter. “Devils are superstitions. Products of small minds and even smaller imaginations. There’s one word that should be banned from the dictionary— devils. Ha! Now there’s a flippant word.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Death is only the beginning of the reunion you did not know you wanted,”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“No one anybody would miss.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Reading the article he wished for more detail ... But the media was the last place one should look for truth. A person was lucky to find the facts, let alone the truth.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Never would have imagined it in my entire life. But I guess just because I can’t imagine something doesn’t mean it can’t happen—that’s the solipsist’s flaw! The truth of things is right out there. All you have to do is open the door and there it is, all of it, everything I can’t imagine, right there for you to reach out and shake hands with.” Her voice broke. The”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“It’s a unique time for everyone,” the man from the Bureau said.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Like many people, she had spent most of her adult life trying to recreate her childhood, trying to grow back into it, as if time were not all-powerful.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“If there's one thing America will always lead the world in," Harold said, "it's assholes with guns.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“And after everything was settled, after Jean Rideau and his wife were taken from Rio—with the French government screaming for their return—nothing was fixed for them on account of how, at some point in all the madness, Jean's wife had taken a blow to the head and now lay in a coma, with the world still screaming for her and her husband to do some unknown thing, to fill some undisclosed role, to say something secret about life after death via his art.
    But all Jean wanted to do was be with the woman he loved.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“The colonel had been fortunate. When his father was discovered as one of the Returned, the colonel was informed of it and given the choice of seeing him. He chose not to, but only because it was the best for everyone. It simply wouldn't do for him to get biased, to become swayed by memory and presumptions on a future with someone whose future ended years ago.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“How are you feeling?” Bellamy asked, notebook at the ready.
    “I’m alive, I suppose.” Harold flicked the end of his cigarette, dropping ashes into a small, metal ashtray. “But who ain’t alive these days?” He took a puff of his cigarette. ‟Elvis make it back yet?”
    “I’ll see what I can find out.”
    The old man chuckled.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“La muerte no es más que el principio de la reunión que no eras consciente de desear.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Some folks locked the doors of their hearts when they lost someone. Others kept the doors and the windows open, letting memory and love pass through freely.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“But isn't that the way it is with memory? Give it enough time and it will become worn down and covered with a patina self-serving omissions.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“It had been another night of restlessness for him and, as is often the case with certain types of men, he’d decided that being angry in general was the best way to deal with whatever was going on in his heart that he didn’t understand. “What’s”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“It was a good word: progress. A safe word that you snuggled up against when you were nervous. The kind of word you took home to meet your parents. The”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Then he leaned over and kissed his wife, holding his breath as if it could hold the moment, as well, as if this single kiss could keep his wife and family and everything he loved from ever coming to harm, from ever leaving him alone. "What was that for?" Connie asked when their lips finally separated... "For everything I don't know how to say with words.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“—Las cosas cambiarán —sostuvo él—. Es lo único de lo que estoy genuinamente seguro. Pero cómo se producirá ese cambio y en qué consistirá se me escapa.
Lucille recogió su Biblia.
—Entonces ¿qué hacemos? —preguntó.
—Hacemos lo que podemos.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“I’m a realist.” “You’re a misanthrope.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“But the media was the last place one should look for truth. A person was lucky to find the facts, let alone the truth.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“And as any man does when faced with the raw terror of emotion, he surrendered to his wife and buried his thoughts below the anvil of his heart.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned

“Max said. “Mommies are always okay because the world couldn’t get along without them. That’s what my daddy said back before he died. He said that mommies were the reason the whole world worked the way it did and that without mommies everybody would be mean and hungry and people would be fighting all the time and nothing good would ever happen to anybody.”
― Jason Mott, The Returned