The Monsters of Templeton Quotes

“When I was small and easily wounded, books were my carapace. If I were recalled to my hurts in the middle of a book, they somehow mattered less. My corporeal life was slight; the dazzling one in my head was what really mattered. Returning to books was coming home.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Even still, we run. We have not reached our average of 57.92 years without knowing that you run through it, and it hurts and you run through it some more, and if it hurts worse, you run through it even more, and when you finish, you will have broken through. In the end, when you are done, and stretching, and your heartbeat slows, and your sweat dries, if you've run through the hard part, you will remember no pain.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Amor animi arbitrio sumitu, non ponitur; we choose to love; we do not choose to cease loving.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“...no genius, I am a girl who knows too much to know anything at all...”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“we need a mass of ancestors at our backs as ballast. Sometimes, we feel it's impossible to push into the future without such a weight behind us, without such heaviness to keep us steady, even if it is imaginary. And the more frightening the future is, the more complicated it seems to be, the more we steady ourselves with the past.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“...right now, right now, I am strange. It is strange. This life is strange. For now, only for now, I am happy.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“It was somehow clear, even then, that the monster had been lonely. The folds above its eye made the old face look wistful, and it emanated such a strong sense of solitude that each human standing in the park that day felt miles from the others, though we were shoulder-to-shoulder, touching.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Then, when we had done so, we put our hands upon the freezing cold monster, our monster. And this is what we felt: vertigo, an icicle through our strong hearts, our long-lost childhoods. Sunshine in a field and crickets and the sweet tealeaf stink of a new ball mitt and a rock glinting with mica and a chaw of bubblegum wrapping in sweet sweet tendrils down our throats and the warm breeze up our shorts and the low vibrato of lake loons and the sun and the sun and the warm sun and this is what we felt; the sun.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“A man living in a place that doesn't change doesn't expect it ever will.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“...all I'm saying is that worrying about it isn't going to fix anything. The only thing we can do is keep on with our own small thing and try hard to be good and to make life better, and know that if it all ends tomorrow that we were at least happy.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“And this was what we felt: vertigo, an icicle through our strong hearts, our long-lost childhoods. Sunshine in a field and crickets and the sweet tealeaf stink of a new ball mitt and a rock glinting with mica and a chaw of bubblegum wrapping its sweet tendrils down our throats and the warm breeze up our shorts and the low vibrato of lake loons and the sun and the sun and the warm sun and this is what we felt; the sun.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“The writing seemed like the books that held it; crumbly and antique and bearing the stink of centuries. Still, it was compelling. His voice was smooth and kind, and once in a while an observation that would ring so true it vibrated like flicked crystal.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Little Sally is beheading daisies on the drive... couldn't be more eloquent if she could speak...”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“...sick, my brothers are sending me home. This place infects me. Templeton my smooth little pill... such images I have. Such voices, that high voice, the little girl's so naughty, talking to me, all the time now. How I hate her... the train is empty, Albany a small, spangled fish... this train is all brown velvet... the train slows, I am in Templeton, oh. Templeton, Templeton, the train says, slowing down. The lake, the blue, is an embrace.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Publilius Syrus come to me: Amor animi arbitrio sumitur, non ponitur; we choose to love; we do not choose to cease loving.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“And as I walked, I believed myself to be an Adam setting foot in a new Eden, sinless and wild-eyed, my sinews still stiff with creation.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“In the far reaches of the county, cottages were found with skeletons enlaced in the beds, the bones of the baby in the kettle.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Now, don't sigh for envy at my week-end; I am sure it is to be dull, my dear, and you know my horrible shyness and how I loathe such things. If only I had your vivacity and beauty! Alas, what we love in others does not always suit ourselves. I shall get through the weekend by wishing you in my place.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“But it’s not just me, you know. The whole world’s sad,” I said. “It’s like a virus. It’s going to end badly. Glaciers melting, ozone depleted. Terrorists blowing up buildings, nuclear rods infecting the aqueducts. Influenza hopping from the pigeons to the humans, killing millions. Billions. People rotting in the street. The sun bursting open, shattering us eight minutes later. If not that, starvation. Cannibalism. Freakish mutated babies with eyeballs in their navels. It’s a terrible place to bring a child into,” I said. “This world. It is terrible. Just terrible.” I”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“My Templeton is to Cooperstown as a shadow is to the tree that spawned it; an outline that takes texture from the ground it falls on.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“As I touched the beast I remembered how, even on that long-ago night, I could feel a tremendous thing moving in the depths below me, something vast and white and singing.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Ah," he said. "I didn't say it wasn't complicated. Everything is complicated. The older you get, the more complicated life gets. It's one of those joyful things we have to look forward to, I guess.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“My friends, one last word: I will be scrutinizing the election like a hawk. If I weren't, if the newspapers weren't being vigilant against the corrupt men of the world, we would be lost. Ours wouldn't be a democracy. And let us only hope for the peace of our beloved village that propriety in this election, and all future elections, will be observed.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Only years later did it strike me that however weak Vi could be about her own sorrows, when faced with others', she became spectacular.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“Even still, we run. We have not reached our average of 57.92 years without knowing that you run through it, and it hurts and you run through it some more, and if it hurts worse, you run through it even more, and when you finish, you will have broken through. In the end, when you are done, and stretching, and your heartbeat slows, and your sweat dries, if you've run through the hard part, you will remember no pain.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“But it's not just me, you know. The whole world's sad," I said. "It's like a virus. It's going to end badly. Glaciers melting, ozone depleted. Terrorists blowing up buildings, nuclear rods infecting the aqueducts. Influenza hopping from the pigeons to the humans, killing millions. Billions. People rotting in the street. The sun bursting open, shattering us eight minutes later. If not that, starvation. Cannibalism. Freakish mutated babies with eyeballs in their navels. It's a terrible place to bring a child into," I said. "This world. It is terrible. Just terrible.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“In a city, any city, one can be anonymous; this is the blessing of cities.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“His jokes are now bitter, making us take them as we take black coffee: wincing, grimacing, swallowing fast.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“I told her what my friends and I called towns up there: Syracuse was Sorry-excuse.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton

“felt the world around me creak and strain, snapping apart, fiber by fiber, like a rope pulled too tautly.”
― Lauren Groff, The Monsters of Templeton