Am I Alone Here? Quotes

“Yeah, I want to retreat from the world and ponder in solitude. At the same time I wouldn’t mind at least a couple of people pondering my whereabouts.”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“For we are like olives: only when we are crushed do we yield what is best in us.”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“Maybe the kids will always be stronger. It’s us—the impostors masquerading as protectors—who are unimaginably weak. For”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“The difference between a short story and a novel is the difference between an inarticulate pang in your heart compared to the tragedy of your whole life.”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“Los cuentos naufragan cuando se los lee una única vez. Debemos reencontrarnos con un cuento una y otra vez, en distintos momentos de la vida y en diferentes estados de ánimo.”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“Considering the multitude of things that happen in any one person’s life, it seems fairly unlikely that those little boys remembered the incident for very long. It was an introduction to what was to come. And cruelty could never again take them totally by surprise. But I have remembered it. I have remembered it because it was the moment I learned I was not to be trusted.”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“It comes down to this. When we die, not only will our bodies be gone, but so will the people we remember. We live in the world, and we recall the world, and one day we won't do either anymore. The church bells will ring and the drunks will drink.”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

“For me, all stories are fiction. The only question is: Does it rattle the soul or not?”
― Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live