The Boy Detective Fails Quotes

“What I've learned is that there is nothing in this life that does not fail to disappoint us, even our own deaths.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Where do you go when you die? Ha ha. Go on, go on and tell her, Billy."

Billy smiles. "You become a little voice in someone's ear telling them that things will be alright.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“The most important things in your life are almost always impossible to predict.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“It is the strain of walking around the world-down the street, riding city buses and elevators, moving from place to place to place-and not knowing who might want to destroy you, who might like to fill your heart with poison, who might rob you and stab you, who might stand above you in the dark with a tarantula.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“In our town there is a secret spot where you can still see the stars at night, believe it or not. It is the only spot like that left, unclouded by the dwindling skyscrapers rising nearby. It is a good place to go to walk and talk in whispers. Following the little hill that rises from the park to a small clearing which overlooks the statue of the armless general on his bronze steed, most of us later remember this spot as the first place we knew we might be in love.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“The only thing all men have in common with one another is their inherent capacity to make mistakes. But there is wonder in the attempt, knowing we are all destined to fall short, but forgoing reason and fear time and time again so deliberately.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“It is what we see when we imagine what the afterlife must be like: our happiest triumphs, our most sincere moments, stolen from the seam of our lives, a respite just before the onset of imminent tragedy.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Above the dirt of an unmarked grave and beneath the shadow of the abandoned refinery, the children would play their own made up games: Wild West Accountants! in which they would calculate the loss of a shipment of gold stolen from an imaginary stagecoach, or Recently Divorced Scientists! in which they would build a super-collider out of garbage to try and win back their recently lost loves.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“We did something very simple," Effie says.
"Yes, and what was that?"
Effie Mumford stares off the porch into the night sky. The first stars of the evening are quietly arriving, and Billy, following her gaze, listens as the small girl speaks.
"We allowed ourselves, for one brief moment, to believe in something we could not see.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Without death, there is hardly any threat strong enough to truly appreciate human life. He thinks: I am as good as dead--too afraid to live, only waiting, never taking a risk--I am as good as dead already.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“-Are you ready to return to the outside world, Billy?
-No, definitely not, sir.
-Well, you can't stay here forever now, can you?
-Why not? I'm not bothering anybody, sir.
-Because it's not healthy. You're a very special young man, Billy. It's time you found that out on your own, out there. The world may not be as terrible as you think.
-I would like to stay here one more month, if I may, sir.
-One more month? Why?
-Summer will be over, sir. I can't go out there if it's going to be summertime.
-And why not?
-I wouldn't want to see any young girls playing. I would not want to see any flowers outside.
-Why?
-Because everything happy right now is going to die.
-But Billy...
-I would not like to be reminded of anything pretty.
-But Billy, of course, anything might...
-I would not like to be reminded.
-OK, OK. We will se what we can do, Billy.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“But why? Why did you do the evil things you did?' Billy asks suddenly.
'Ah, because I could not imagine consequences,' the Professor says. 'To do harm, to live through evil, is to align oneself with chaos. Now it is the same chaos which is slowly destroying me.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Our worlds are so momentary. We are along all our lives and then go off that way as well.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“The world of evil is only as evil as we allow it to be.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“— Куда мы уходим, когда умираем? Ха-ха. Скажи ей, Билли.

Билли улыбается.

— Мы превращаемся в тихий голос в чьем-нибудь ухе и шепчем ему, что все будет хорошо.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“В наших ежедневных газетах часто встречаются объявления, рекламирующие услуги профессиональных экстрасенсов, обладающих уникальной способностью общаться с усопшими. Объявления, как правило, располагаются на той же странице, где размещают свою рекламу предприятия автосервиса и службы знакомств. В офисах этих контор нет практически никакой мебели. Это — тихие серые помещения, сплошь заставленные радиоприемниками странной формы, которые стоят прямо на голом полу и принимают трансляции со всего света. Во всяком случае впечатление складывается именно такое. Посетителей встречает элегантно одетая женщина, которая интересуется, в какой именно точке земного шара закончил свой земной путь тот человек, с кем вам хотелось бы поговорить. Оглядев ряды странных приемников, она молча кивнет и укажет на какой-то один. «Из Исландии, — скажет она. — Все, кто умерли в Исландии, собираются здесь». Ты прильнешь ухом к динамику, закрытому сеткой. Женщина скажет два слова, а потом включит приемник. И ты удивишься, услышав знакомый любимый голос.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Мир полон зла ровно настолько, насколько мы это ему позволяем.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“It is no parlor trick: There is a skull and, in the dark, it is glowing. Somehow it is now floating above us all. Listen: The skull is speaking. It is saying your name. It knows about you and your favorite flower and all about your tenth birthday. But it does not matter. You are not convinced. For some reason, you are still full of doubt. You stare into the dark, looking for wires. Grasping for strings, you hold your hands out.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“In our town—our town of shadows, our town of mystery—it seems our buildings have, without reason, begun to disappear completely. Still full of their loyal inhabitants, the buildings and the people all disintegrate soundlessly. The air has been hard to breathe, full of regret and the glassy voices of the unsurprised dead. Our commuters have begun carrying photographs of their loved ones with them to work. On the bus, we look at each other, pictures of our sad wives and doubtful children huddled close to our chests, quietly imagining the silent elaborations of our own deaths. We are disappointed coming home that evening because the many photos betray our cowardice: We live in a town that is disappearing, and worse, like the buildings, our hope is gone and we are no longer surprised by anything.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Хотите верьте, хотите нет, но в нашем городе есть одно место, откуда по ночам все еще видны звезды. Оно осталось одно на весь город — такое волшебное место, не затянутое облаками фабричного дыма, не закрытое хаотическим нагромождением небоскребов. Это самое лучшее место для полуночных прогулок и разговоров шепотом. На холме за городским садом, где есть небольшая полянка с видом на статую безрукого генерала на бронзовом скакуне, — большинство из нас вспоминает потом это место, как место, где мы в первый раз осознали, что мы, может быть, влюблены.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Почему, когда мы становимся взрослыми, нас так пугают загадки и тайны? Не потому ли, что с возрастом наши миры превращаются в миры повседневной рутины, безопасности и порядка? Не потому ли, что мы утверждаемся в мысли, что знаем ответы на все вопросы — вернее, ответ всегда только один: никакое сокровище из тайника, никакой потайной ход, никакая зашифрованная записка не спасет нас от безысходной тоски в самый черный из черных дней? Почему мы так яростно сопротивляемся вере, что где-то рядом есть мир, о котором мы ничего не знаем? Неужели тешить себя надеждой — или даже иллюзией надежды — это страшнее, чем принять жизнь такой, какая она есть?”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails

“Perhaps Effie Mumford was only trying to prove something she already knew: that, like all animals, she was at the whim of the general disorder and unimaginative meanness of the world surrounding her.”
― Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails