Glory O'Brien's History of the Future Quotes

“Not living your life is just like killing yourself, only it takes longer.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“You are not your virginity. You are a human being. The state of your hymen has nothing to do with your worth.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I am tortured too. I am tortured by belly fat and magazine covers about how to please everyone but myself. I am tortured by sheep who click on anything that will guarantee a ten-pound loss in one week. Sheep who will get on their knees if it means someone will like them more. I am tortured by my inability to want to hang out with desperate sheep. I am tortured by goddamned yearbooks full of bullshit. I met you when. I’ll miss the times. I’ll keep in touch. Best friends forever. Is this okay? Are you all right? Are you tortured too?”
― A.S. King, Glory O Brien's History of the Future

“We are all made from star dust and we will all return to star dust, like a cosmic palindrome.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I wished I could take her to the library and hand her over to the librarians. Please teach her about everything, I'd say.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Suicide isn't something people do to hurt other people. It's something people do to release themselves from pain.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Maybe smiling at people would be my new revenge on the bullshit world.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I didn't think about anything past tomorrow because anything past tomorrow was just like cloud busting - it depended soley on the person looking at the clouds and it could rain any minute.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Did all outcasts come to this realization at a certain point in life? That being outcast from a bogus and pornographic society actually was a good thing? I hoped so. I hoped there was an army of us out there, smiling about it that very moment.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“We all had our collective heads in the oven.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“As I walked back to the porch, I was thankful. I'd been so preoccupied with whether or not I would turn into Darla--so busy being the walking picture of emptiness--that I'd overlooked society's expectations of me.

I smiled at this.

Did all outcasts come to this realization at a certain point in life? That being outcast from a bogus and pornographic society was a good thing? I hoped so. I hoped there was an army of us out there, smiling about it that very moment.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“My one regret was that I never photographed the bat before we drank it.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I have wrinkles. I am not tortured by them. I am no one special and so what if I have wrinkles? One day I will be no one special and be dead.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“You are not your virginity. You are a human being.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I took pictures of the people who thought they were my friends, but who I'd never let all the way in.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“By shooting the darkest areas three zones lighter, you turned a black, lifeless max black zone 0 into a zone 3.

I think, in life, most of us did this all the time.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“You are not your virginity. You are a human being. The state of your hymen has nothing to do with your worth. Okay? They’re fucking with us. They’ve been fucking with us since the beginning of time.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I picked up my camera and held it at arm's length and took a picture of myself not caring. I called it: Glory Doesn't Care.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Not living your life is like killing yourself, only it takes longer.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Graduation day means you must now do something with your life. You must grow up and buy your own train tickets, accrue student debt so you can become part of the machine. You must pick a major. The light comes only after that. Sorry about saying that graduation is the light at the end of the tunnel. That was a lie.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“This is where the runaway train started down the track. I was inside the dining car enjoying a plate of cookies or something. I didn't feel it then. But the train had been boarded on Saturday night when we drank the bat. And this was the beginning of its journey. Right here.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“If Darla's question was Why do people take pictures?, then what sort of answer was that? Or were pictures like that why Darla was asking in the first place?
I say to the empty room, "I take pictures because sometimes I can't find the words to say what I want to say.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Before Max Black, the future seemed boring and there wasn't much to think about. After Max Black, it was like I was looking at a negative, a stack of photographic paper, a jar full of emulsion, a paintbrush, and trays full of chemistry. There was now so much to do.
So much to do.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“There is a moment in every photograph's life when it has been exposed but not developed. The light from the enlarger has shone through the negative and made its impression on the paper, but without the magic of developer, the paper will stay white and no one will ever see what that impression is.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Cuando nos despertamos a la mañana siguiente, todo era distinto. Podíamos ver el futuro. Podíamos ver el pasado. Podíamos verlo todo. Podrías”
― A.S. King, Historia del futuro según Glory O'Brien

“Do you mind if I get out of here?” Dad asked after about four minutes. “Nah.” “Not my scene, you know?” He meant people. People were not his scene.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“Either. But if you open it now, it might make you smile.” Only when he said that did I realize I hadn’t been smiling. Not sure for how long. Maybe thirteen years.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“In front of everyone else, I pretended I didn’t care about all the stuff girls start to care about in middle school—the right clothes, shoes, mascara, hair products, sex—but I did. I was interested in the why. Why? Why do we care so much about this?”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“By fifth grade, we’d Googled it. First we Googled penis. We looked for images. That was the day we found the butter penis. A penis carved from butter—anatomically correct. We made jokes about it. What good is that if it melts? Bet it tastes better than the real thing. We wondered why anyone would sculpt a penis out of butter. But then we found penis cakes, penis candy molds and penis lollipops, and we figured adults were gross. That’s as far as it went in fifth grade. Adults are gross. Nothing more to it. We”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

“I looked down mostly but when I dared look at a person, I could see their ancestors and descendants. I could see events in their past and their future. I could see their infinity, I guess.”
― A.S. King, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future