A City Dreaming Quotes

“It surprised M not at all to discover that though the library had technically been closed for hours, there was a small door in the back that was still open, and that it led to a long, hushed corridor, and then into a chamber, which was more like the nave of an immense cathedral than the checkout room in a library. Libraries—like train stations, crossroads, church belfries, and attics—are places where worlds leak together, where the Management, in its ineffable wisdom, tends not to look too closely on what goes on.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“I never give anyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to stupidity. People do very, very stupid things, and smart people more than most.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“Time is the name humans use to describe the expansion of the universe. It’s used to arrange events in sequence, and generally to avoid going mad.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“I am. I like my skull. It’s got all my thoughts inside.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“M did not like communities, which were usually filled with people, whom M liked even less.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“The train slowed to a crawl. “What’s below the turtle?” Flemel asked finally. “It’s turtles all the way down,” M informed him, stepping out of the now-open doors.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“knew you wouldn’t come if I called you, not after last time. What can I say? I’m fucked up.” The addict’s lament—the addict and everyone who knows him.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“The thing about an addict, as anyone who has ever dealt with one knows, is that it becomes impossible to determine where exactly their instinct toward self-destruction becomes intertwined with a desperate need for attention, if they’re running into walls because they want you to help them up or because they’ve come to love the taste of blood.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“Do you suppose you could go an entire paragraph without resorting to profanity?” “Maybe,” M supposed, “but why chance it?”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“moving as seamlessly from sex to violence as an ’80s action movie.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“Cresting above the deja vu, as if coming up for air, Flemel squatted and lifted the thing cleanly in his arms and pulled the wounded creature against his breast.

A voice wept in the darkness.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“One does not love because doing so is prudent; one loves because it is ultimately the only thing powerful enough to offer distraction from what we see and what we are.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“It was worth the walk, wasn't it?" she asked.

"Yes," M agreed. "Yes. By God, yes.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“Libraries—like train stations, crossroads, church belfries, and attics—are places where worlds leak together, where the Management, in its ineffable wisdom, tends not to look too closely on what goes on.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“M grunted. Infinite power would have been OK, at least he could see how it might come in handy on occasion”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“He’s gonna chill for a minute. Now offer him some motherfucking Froot Loops.” The man shrunk his head into his shoulders. “You want some Froot Loops?” M did not.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“As far as immortality went, that was obviously not any sort of good at all. Who had ever met death without some partial measure of joy?”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“There is no position so critical, no office so important, that the occasional, and even the more than occasional, utter incompetent will not wind up filling it. Heart surgeons, popes, presidents, it makes no difference. Look around and you will see an existence replete with people who are betraying, in a most egregious manner, the powers and responsibilities that have been entrusted to them.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“...and is there anything to compare to love? Is there anything at all, anything that has ever been built, grown or coalesced that can compare to love? Love as deep as the Mariana Trench and wild as a summer storm?”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming

“The Fifth Brother lived in a housing development, and his room was guarded by a crackhead with six arms, holding (in descending order, and going right to left) a dirty razor, a scale, a crumbled wad of five-dollar bills, a Saturday-night special, a human head, and nothing. Blood dripped from its mouth. “What is the secret to life?” it asked. “Crack,” M said. “Correct!” the thing replied happily. “Do you have any?” “No,” M said, but the crackhead with six arms let them by anyway.”
― Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming