The Return Quotes

“In my country, politics is tragic, and all our great politicians have been tragic figures, either saints or demons. You, clearly, are one of the saints. But no one expects real change, because the nation reflects the human condition, original sin, call it what you like. There will always be a chingón and a chingada, and the only question is which men fall into which group. In your country, on the other hand, you believe that change is possible, and so your politics is comic. All your politicians are therefore clowns.”
― Michael Gruber, The Return

“Well, we start with this outrageous idea that the ground of being, existence itself, is a person, and that this person is intimately concerned with each of our lives and desires us to turn our hearts toward him. Once you accept that level of insanity—or faith, as we prefer to call it—then it makes perfect sense to try to discern what God’s purpose is for your life through a disciplined process of prayer and self-examination, discernment, as we say.”
― Michael Gruber, The Return

“Yes, well, irony is no protection when you can feel the breeze from his scythe on your skin and hear the rustle of his wings.”
― Michael Gruber, The Return

“They talk about adrenaline, but Marder knew it was much more than adrenaline; it was a mystical cocktail that comes only from this one act, from killing men at the risk of yourself dying, a Pleistocene inheritance, disgusting and marvelous at the same time. Sports, even violent sports, were just a pale shadow of this. Why they’d never abolish war.”
― Michael Gruber, The Return

“That’s remarkable too, she thought; whenever we make a noble statement it sounds false in our ears.”
― Michael Gruber, The Return