Babayaga Quotes

“Men have dragged us by our hair through the ages, and whether they give us crumbs or bright, shiny rocks, they truly give us nothing at all. If you have not opened your legs for them so that they could drawl out as babies or crawl in as men, they they will leave you to starve like a dog on the street. So now we are done playing the way they want us to play. Now we are moving to music they cannot hear, to a rhythm they cannot understand. They call it madness and we call it truth and find me the magistrate you can trust to judge between the two? Bah. So we dance on, we dance on.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“... she tried to avoid his gaze but he held her steady and would not look away, Finally her eyes spoke to him. Her eyes said, Words are too weak, too small, they are always too small, even the purest and most simple phrases fail. Her eyes said, Look at who you are, you were asleep when I met you, but now you're awake, so stay awake. I did not need you and I did not want you and yet here you are, awake in my body and in my heart.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“You take a shower, your head is up, far away from everything, lost in the clouds, but down in the tub, man, you know who you are.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Immediately he surprised her, for she like the way he kissed, like a man who wanted to swallow life.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“This is all we are at our best, he thought, tiny instances accumulating up into a greater whole. There is noting magnificent in this world, he thought, that is not born from an act so slight as to go wholly unnoticed. We must be especially attentive to see them, and to remember to perform them, he thought, yes, that is the crux: we must simply pay attention.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“It is the oldest and most simple curse on earth, and when properly applied, no cure can be found. Some might call it love.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Whereas he believed life, any life, was a curious adventure, and if you merely kept your wits about you and stayed alert and in motion, you could find your way to a satisfactory conclusion.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“He was high up now, gazing across to where Montmartre itself gazed out over the city. He was swept along in the wind, admiring the twin steeples of Notre-Dame as he passed, along with the dogged, devilish gargoyles of St. Jacques.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“How old are you?"
"Ah that is a good one. I do not know."
"Before cars?"
"Before trains, before guns. Before people stole the curves from the high clouds and the angles from the flying flocks to build all their little alphabets.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“He remembered that these imaginary conversations always began the same way, with the same phrase, the words he believed lay at the core of what any human being ever wants to hear from another, what affection is in its primary essence, what the bonds of friendship and family mean above all else. So he placed his hand gently on Bemm's shoulder and, softly, slowly, spoke the phrase, over and over again, as if it were a prayer, "I am so glad you are here.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“... she suspected Oliver only wanted some token acknowledgment that despite her moving on, their exchange had not been completely superficial. She found even the most cavalier sorts still hated to let things pass completely unspoken. Everyone wanted to put a meaning to things.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“This is all we are at our best, he thought, tiny instances accumulating up into a greater whole.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“He remembered that these imaginary conversations always began the same way, with the same phrase, the words he believed lay at the core of what any human being ever wants to hear from another, what affection is in its primary essence, what the bonds of friendship and family mean above all else. So he placed his hand gently on Bemm’s shoulder and, softly, slowly, spoke the phrase, over and over again, as if it were a prayer, “I am so glad you are here.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“He is healthy, physically, his body is fine. But his mind, well, it seems he encountered realities greater than he could bear. Many people need the certainty of solid walls and clear windows, but then they meet mysteries they cannot solve.” The priest knew this all too well. “Yes, there are many.” “And when they envelop and overwhelm you, well, if you are not prepared…” He gestured toward Bemm.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“He realized how little he knew, how unimaginably vast the universe was, and how its emptiness was only another word for mystery.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“What a miraculous fountain love was, Andrei thought, ever flowing, ever refreshing, with a force too exhausting to even contemplate.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“You have to want to save someone in order to be saved.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“she described her vision of life as an enormous great act held within an infinite and immutable instant, one where she was present both as a witness and a participant.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Oh, and gosh you wouldn’t believe it, in the nineteenth century they had an exhibit of human beings in the park. Live ones, Zulus and Pygmies. The whole city came out to gawk. I suppose that is what people now do with their National Geographic magazines, ogle the natives’ bare black buttocks and fulsome breasts, but it strikes me as particularly surreal to have it happen live and in person. Do you think any of the sophisticates strolling in that human zoo looked into the noble savages’ eyes and found a universal brother? Seriously, one has to wonder, in that particular scenario, which side of the iron cage the savages were on.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“He recalled his grandfather telling him that the only success that mattered was having a job where no one had to cover for you when you went to take a leak.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Crystalizing within Will was the realization that what he was being asked to participate in now was in a way no different, it was the awful conveyor belt of history, a butcher’s carnival where ultimately no one innocent escaped, they lost their jobs and homes, or their throats were cut and they were dumped in bloody piles. The only ones who ever seemed to get away were the guilty.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“The Nazis and Stalin were the most recent examples, interrogating and torturing innocent citizens until, finally, desperate to mollify their tormentors, the accused denounced their equally innocent neighbors.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Floyd Patterson grew up there, right?”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“You want to kill a place, name it. A name only draws the people there who will kill it again. They slice it up or tear it down; they rape the women, burn everyone on pyres, and then, thinking they own it, they name it again. Stupid. Enough to know ‘there is a hill and good water, a cross in the road and a strong oak tree.’ But do not say it out loud. A home should always stay secret or someone will come to steal it.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Men have dragged us by our hair through the ages, and whether they give us crumbs or bright, shiny rocks, they truly give us nothing at all. If you have not opened your legs for them so that they could crawl out as babies or crawl in as men, then they will leave you to starve like a dog on the street. So now we are done playing the way they want us to play. Now we are moving to music they cannot hear, to a rhythm they cannot understand. They call it madness and we call it truth and find me the magistrate you can trust to judge between the two? Bah. So we dance on, we dance on.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“I liked hashish the few times I’ve tried it, found it fascinating,” Oliver said. “Of course Huxley’s written about the heavier stuff, peyote and mescaline, but even a bit of any mind-expanding drug can reveal a lot. Small wonder society tries to ban it. Too much illumination and people might find a way to connect the dots, they might start wondering why doughboys are dying to protect barons’ bankbooks. Can’t have that.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Watching as Boris’s last chips were scooped away, Will thought it was probably because he had always had an innate sense of how much easier it was to lose than win.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“your character was the only thing you ever wholly and truly possessed.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Instead of taking the elevator, Gwen climbed the stairs. Following her up, Will thought there must be circles of heaven where all one did was ascend staircases behind slender women wearing tight wool skirts.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga

“Oliver paused. “American Indians or Indian Indians?” “The ones from your country, the ones you all killed.” His hand slid down between her thighs. “I’m sure I certainly didn’t kill a single Indian. But I can’t say I personally know any, either.” Zoya looked into her glass of wine. “But it’s funny, don’t you think? The way you Americans killed them. I read about it in a book once. How you would make treaties, yes? And then you would break the treaties so they would get upset and make war, and so you would kill them, and then there were new treaties? And you kept going and going, the same trick, over and again, until there weren’t any more Indians.” “Well, they’re not all dead,” Oliver said, shaking his head. “But, of course, it was appalling.” “Yes, a tragedy, but rather clever too, no?” she said. “You almost made it appear to be an accident. Sloppy and offhand, like spilling red wine on a rug. It was the same way Stalin killed, a few here, a million there, a few sips of vodka in between. That is the way to do it. Now, Nazis, they were serious and efficient about it, so German and well organized, that it could not be ignored. If they were more like you perhaps they would have gotten away with killing all those Jews. But the Germans were simply too obvious and clear in their purpose.”
― Toby Barlow, Babayaga