The Changeling Quotes

“Unsupervised reading is a blessing for a certain kind of child”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“A bad fairy tale has some simple goddamn moral. A great fairy tale tells the truth.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“History isn’t a tale told once, it’s a series of revisions.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“In folktales a vampire couldn’t enter your home unless you invited him in. Without your consent the beast could never cross your threshold. Well, what do you think your computer is? Your phone? You live inside those devices so those devices are your homes. But at least a home, a physical building, has a door you can shut, windows you can latch. Technology has no locked doors.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Do you know how much harm ‘happily ever after’ has done to mankind? I wish they said something else at the end of those stories instead. ‘They tried to be happy.’ Or ‘Eternal happiness is a fruitless pursuit.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Women only like jerks.’ That’s the mantra of dudes who have made themselves undateable but aren’t willing to take the blame.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Posting online is like leaving your front door open and telling any creature of the night it can enter.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“To believe in only the practical, the rational, the realistic was a kind of glamour as well. But he couldn't enjoy the illusion of order anymore. Monsters aren't real until you meet one.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Even if you choose to ignore the truth, the truth still changes you.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“A thought, an idea, a shared dream; parenthood is a story two people start telling together.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“And they lived happily ever after,” Apollo whispered. Emma leaned into him. “Today,” she said. “And they lived happily today.” “Is that enough?” he asked, looking at Brian, looking at her. “That’s everything, my love.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Every human being is a series of stories; it’s nice when someone wants to hear a new one.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“People call us witches,” Cal said quickly. She grabbed Apollo’s hand. “But maybe what they’re really saying is that we were women who did things that seemed impossible. You remember those old stories about mothers who could lift cars when their kids were trapped underneath? I think of it like that. When you have to save the one you love, you will become someone else, something else. You will transform. The only real magic is the things we’ll do for the ones we love.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“When you have to save the one you love, you will become someone else, something else. You will transform. The only real magic is the things we’ll done for the ones we love.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“If our relationships are made of many small lies, they become something larger, a prison of falsehoods.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“They scolded working mothers who were damaging their poor kids by their need to make a living.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“No one wants to learn their history,” Jorgen said firmly. “Not all of it. We want our parents to provide but don’t want to know what they had to sacrifice to do it. No nation was ever built with kindness.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Children sniff out secrets better than the NSA.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“You leave a trail of breadcrumbs any wolf could follow, then act shocked when the wolf is outside your door.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“There are no secrets anymore. Vampires can't come into your house unless you invite them. Posting online is like leaving your front door open and telling any creature of the night it can enter.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Apollo greeted the other fathers, and they greeted him. He didn’t remember their names. They didn’t remember his. They knew the names of each other’s children, and that mattered more.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“...a person never really knows how he or she will react at those worst moments, do they? Each of us hopes to be brave, to be kind, to be heroic. But how often do we get the chance to find out which it'll be?”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Unsupervised reading is a blessing for a certain kind of child.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“All those tales were told right here, one after the next, each informing the one that came after. History isn't a tale told once, it's a series of revisions.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“What lengths will people stretch to believe they’re still good?”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Exactly how many men have you killed here?” Apollo said. “We’re like the police,” Cal said. “We don’t track those numbers.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Maybe having a child was like being drunk. You couldn’t gauge when you went from being charming to being an asshole.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“a passerby would never know—or probably even imagine—that inside a basement apartment in southeastern Queens there lay such a beautifully appointed dinner table. It was like catching a glimpse of the glittering soul inside a rumpled passenger on a subway train.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“even as he knew what kind of parent he’d become, the kind that used to make him gag as recently as two months ago. The ones who blithely assumed their online friends were gluttons for punishment. Here’s my baby lying on his back! And here’s my baby also lying on his back! And how about this one: blurry baby on his back! Good God, the vanity of it all, the epic self-centeredness. He knew all this, and still he uploaded eleven pictures of Brian.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling

“Tipsy people are chatty. Drunks harangue.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling