The Great Wide Sea Quotes

“Sometimes when you read a book or watch a TV show, you see the people and you think, Don’t do that. Don’t open that door. Don’t answer that phone. You know everything is about to change. “Stop!” you want to say. “Rewrite the story. Rewind the tape. Don’t let it happen that way.” But you can’t. The people always open the door or answer the phone. The bad thing always happens, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“He was an eleven year old man.
-(inside joke)”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“What’s up?” I said.
“Nothing.”
“I mean what’s wrong?”
“My leg is broken.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“Usually when you’re steering a boat, it’s like steering a car – you aim yourself in the right direction and move the tiller a little this way or that way on keep on course. Occasionally a stronger puff of wind or a sudden wave pushes you off – like a bump in the road or a car that swings too far into your lane. But you correct. You get back on course. And you start again with the little movements. It’s easy. Anyone can do it.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“Ben,” Dad snarled. He was tired. “Life jacket and safety harness. Always. When you’re alone on deck at night, we’d never know if you fell off. You’d be left behind. We’d never find you.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad,” I said.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“When you’ve been on a boat for a while, its sounds gets to be like the sound of your own heartbeat. It’s always there, constant, steady, until after a while you don’t hear it anymore. Then something changes. The speed, or the rhythm, or the tune. Suddenly the sound rings in your ears.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“So we cooked the flounder and ate every single bite. It was huge, and we were stuffed. It was worse than Thanksgiving. I mean it was better.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“Gerry breathed loudly and slowly. “Dylan,” he said accusingly, “that was a sad story.”
“Not it’s not. It’s a happy story. It’s about a mom who loved her baby very much.”
“But she’s gone,” Gerry said in a very little voice.
“That doesn’t mean she loves you any less,” Dylan said.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“I wished we had milk – milk for strong bones. Dylan said he would eat the fish bones if I would quit talking about milk.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“(After Gerry fell overboard and they set sail)
“Dad.” I held my teeth tight. “I guess you forgot. Planning this whole trip, I would have thought you’d remember, but I guess you didn’t.” I looked at Dad again. He was watching the sail. “Dad,” I said, “Gerry can’t swim. Remember?”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“I was letting myself come back to life and it wasn’t good.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“I thought that it was possible at a time like that to cry. There was a switch inside somewhere, and a person could just decide to flip it and start crying. Maybe it looked and felt like the toggle switch on the engine. Silver and smooth. One direction was on; the other direction was off. Easy to flip. You do it without looking. Up -- you’re happy and strong. Down – you’re crying and weak.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“The present doesn’t change the past. Is the fact that the past happened enough to make the present good? Is the past real? Was it real anymore?”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea

“The thing about life is that it goes on. You wake up and there is the sun like always. There is your own body with bad breath and bruises and a headache. You have to move. You have to pee. You have to get a drink. No matter what happened the day before, you wake up and there is life and you have to do something about it.”
― M.H. Herlong, The Great Wide Sea