The Dead of August Quotes

“Too many fucking French words, that’s what’s wrong with it!” A succession of minor facial earthquakes punctuated his ranting recital of several random examples, all mispronounced; had my back been as hirsute as Douglas’s, a billion cringing hairs would have bristled and punctured my shirt.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“Not wishing, however, to squander my hard-earned advantage, I quickly recovered myself by using the trick of deflection: exerting acute concentration on something innately banal. In the visual equivalent of a fingertip search,”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“and perhaps in general not quite as torn as I liked to imagine - the whiff of success makes for a gullible conscience, as I knew already from other examples).”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“had I been prone to jealousy, I might have thought of it as hubris. In a juicy deluge of death, as though vindictively taking advantage of my absence to avoid a fate worse than death at my ostracized hands,”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“And this whole thing’s completely absurd, I know. Self-indulgent claptrap, that’s what it is, so I suppose it must be Art, mustn’t it, James!”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“June put on her bathrobe instead, and then she followed me back to the scene of her crime, which she had tampered with already - the bloodstained pillowcase was gone, and the blinds were down. For that, at least, I was grateful. On this exceptional occasion, the brightness of daylight could only have heightened the gloom.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“Don’t put that on,” I said, snapping it out of her hands, “it’s covered in blood.” Like a butcher’s apron, I felt like saying, but it would have been untrue, it was the pillow that had taken the brunt.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“An intricately melancholic Persian rug, foisted on June as a family heirloom, had also been consigned to the study, and its unwanted effect was to imbue this chaotic professional mess with the warmth of its perishing reds.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“It was as though, pending a move, the place had been halfway stripped of its soul - it was verging on vacant possession already.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“Having given me time to reflect, and now interpreting my silence as at least impressionable, Douglas judged me ripe for acquiescence. “So, James? Shall we do that?”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“Love longs to declare itself, and sooner or later it does.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August

“Loose ends ought sometimes to be left untied.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Dead of August