Long Way Gone Quotes

“No matter where you go, no matter what happens, what you become, what you gain, what you lose, no matter whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no matter what you dip your hands into . . . no gone is too far gone. Son, you can always come home.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“This side of the grave, no one--and I don't care who they are or what sin or sins they have or are committing--is too far gone.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Don't let the fear of what might be rob you of the promise of what can.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“We're all broken, all walk with a limp. Here is the truth about you and me: even when in a far-off country, wasted life, stripped bare, smeared, squandered, nothing but scar tissue and shameful, self-inflicted wounds, the love of the Father finds the son and daughter.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Here's the truth: No matter what happened on the stage tonight, no matter where you went when you drove out of here, no matter where you end up, no matter what happens, what you become, what you gain, what you lose, whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no matter what you dip your hands into...no gone is too far gone.

You can always come home.

And when you do, you'll find me standing right here, arms wide, eyes searching for your return.

I love you.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“...when it comes to the truth, people have a right to know it. Always. No matter how much you think it might hurt, the truth is the only thing that both cuts us free and holds us tight.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“I’m not leaving something for you. I’m leaving something in you.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Music is a gift. We make it to give it away.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“No matter where you go, no matter whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no gone is too far gone. You can always come home.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“A song is a light we shine on others, not a light we shine on us.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“do know this—this right here is just prelude. Dress rehearsal. The intro. One of these days each one of us is going to get called up and given the chance to join our voices in a song we’ve never heard, yet one we’ve known our whole lives.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Colorado..... When God carved this place with His words, He lingered.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“But that’s the thing about music. It doesn’t enter through the mind. It enters through the heart.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Some are wrestling with painful words spoken over them by someone they love or walking around in chains of their own making.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“The requirement is that we turn back. Pivot on our heels and put one foot in front of the other.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Music is its own dimension and it reaches people at a level that is beneath their DNA.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Music cuts people free.” A pause. “It silences the thing that’s trying to kill us.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Everything in me wanted to go home. To fall on my dad, tell him about Jimmy, and tell him 'I'm sorry.' But there was another part of me that would not let me do that. And that part needed to make something of the mess that was me. To walk home with something more than scars and empty hands. To be something other than a failure. I was caught in the middle of that tug-of-war.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“I do know this—this right here is just prelude. Dress rehearsal. The intro. One of these days each one of us is going to get called up and given the chance to join our voices in a song we’ve never heard, yet one we’ve known our whole lives.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“So you can bottle it up and drink it all alone out here by the fire if you want, but before you let the fear of failure keep you from walking in there and playing, you should know that some of those people in there are sick. Some have been burned. Broken. Left out in the cold. Some are wrestling with painful words spoken over them by someone they love or walking around in chains of their own making. A few are dying inside. Whatever the reason, when you sit down in front of them and say, ‘Let me play a song for you,’ you’re giving them something that no amount of money can buy.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“will not let the fear of what might be rob me of the promise of what can.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“To walk them up and set them down in the presence of the One who can help them. Then . . .” He smiled. “Get out of the way.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Music is its own dimension and it reaches people at a level that is beneath their DNA. Nothing else brings about a corporate reaction like music. It exposes what and who we worship.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“That was the night I learned the value of an old hymn. How something so old and “out-of-date” could say words my heart needed to hear and didn’t know how to say.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“What about all that ‘turn the other cheek’ stuff?” Dad’s eyes narrowed. “When someone’s trying to control you, you come out swinging. And keep swinging. Bible never said be a doormat.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Hine had climbed into the Carpathian Mountains to minister when he heard—get this—a Russian translation of Boberg’s Swedish poem attached to the Swedish melody. Hine was standing in the street preaching on John chapter 3 when a nasty storm blew in, so a local schoolteacher housed him for the night. As Hine watched the storm roll through those mountains, he added what we now call the first verse. Next he crossed over into Romania and Bukovina, and somewhere beneath the trees and birds, he added the second verse. He finished the third verse after spending time with the Carpathian mountain dwellers and, finally, the fourth verse when he returned to Britain. The song as we know it ended up in the States at a youth camp in California in the early 1950s, where crusade team member George Beverly Shea handed it to a man named Billy Graham. Then in 1967, a fellow by the name of Presley recorded ‘How Great Thou Art,’ and the album went platinum.” Dad held up two fingers. “Twice.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“One day we passed a gas station with a bunch of velvet Elvises hanging over clotheslines. He nodded once. “Pop stars may set the world afire, but they come and go. They’re a flash in the pan. So are their songs. But good hymns? They live past the people who wrote them. Hymns never die.” He looked down at me. “How many Grammys did Elvis win?” I shrugged. “Two.” He palmed the sweat off his face. “For what song?” Another shrug. Dad loved the history of music. And he loved to share it. “In the mid-1880s,” he began, “a Swedish preacher named Boberg wrote and published a poem. No music. Just words. A few years later he attended a meeting and heard his poem sung back to him, attached to an old Swedish melody. Nobody really knows how or who put the two together. Then in the 1920s, a missionary named”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Music is meant to be experienced, not described.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“Melanzana, a small, privately owned company that makes the world’s best fleece jackets and sweaters right out of its shop on Main Street. The “Mellie” is standard-issue among serious Coloradans. You see one and chances are you’re dealing with a native. Or a wannabe.”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone

“not. And before you start”
― Charles Martin, Long Way Gone