Since We Fell Quotes

“...you have to bear witness to your dead. You simply have to. You have to step into their energy field of whatever remains of their spirit, their soul, their essence and let it pass through your body. And in the passing, maybe a wisp of it adheres to you, grafts itself to your cells. And in this communion, the dead continue to live. Or strive to.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“We live in a world of disposable memory, nothing's built to last, not even shame.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“Monsters don't dress like monsters; they dress like humans. Even stranger, they rarely know they're the monsters.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“What was a strong marriage? What was a good marriage? She knew terrible people who had wonderful marriages, glued together somehow in their terribleness. And she knew fine, fine people who’d stood before God and all their friends to profess their undying love to each other only to toss that love on a slag heap a few years later. In the end, no matter how good they were—or thought they were—usually all that remained of the love they’d so publicly professed was vitriol, regret, and a kind of awed dismay at how dark the roads they’d ventured down became by the end.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“We are not special. We are lit from within by a single candle flame and when that flame is blown out and all light leaves our eyes it is the same as if we never existed at all. We don't own our life. We rent it.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“A man is the stories he tells about himself, and most of those stories are lies. Never look too closely. If you uncover his lies, it’ll humiliate you both. Best just to live with the bullshit.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“She was guilty, after all, of success, a success that stemmed from birthright and privilege. She took hope for granted, saw opportunity as her due, and had never really had to worry about vanishing into a sea of unseen faces and unseen voices.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“He held up a hand to stop her. “Then one day, about six months ago, it hit me—love doesn’t trump all for you, safety does. And I knew sooner or later you’d dump me before I’d dump you because—and this is the important part, Rach—I would never dump you.” He gave her a beautiful, broken smile. “And that’s been my purpose all along.” After”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“She felt like weeping. She didn't know why at first, but then it hit her.

He knew her.

He knew her, this man she'd married, this man she'd committed herself to walking through this life with. He knew her.

And—wonder of wonders—he was still here.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“There's darkness in this world you can't learn about by watching TV and reading books.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“We age as the rest of the world watches, she thought, but somehow we’re the last to know. There”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“It’s like I’m in a beautiful library but none of the books have titles.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“The only people who ask questions like, ‘Did he want to be something besides a bartender,’ are people who can become whatever they want. The rest of us are just Americans.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“A complaint that's not looking for a solution is a disease that's not looking for a cure.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“That if you believe, really believe, and if your strategy is sound, and if you’re willing to leave everything you’ve got on the field of battle to win the day”—he held his arms wide—“you can do anything.” She’d”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“It’s been a complicated decade for me.” She”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“The soul seemed to flower as the body declined.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“Do you know what it’s like to fight with someone every day? Someone who claims to dislike conflict but who in fact lives for it?”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“He knew her. He knew her, this man she’d married, this man she’d committed herself to walking through this life with. He knew her. And—wonder of wonders—he was still here.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“But in those final seconds, a catalogue of emotion found his eyes. There was dismay. Self-pity. Terror. An abandonment so total it took thirty years off his life and turned him into a ten-year-old before her eyes.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“A complaint that’s not looking for a solution is a disease that’s not looking for a cure.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“I want the capital-G God the televangelists claim moves tornadoes out of their paths. The one who cures cancer and arthritis in the faithful, the God professional athletes thank for taking an interest in the outcome of the Super Bowl or World Cup or home run in the 87th of 162 games played by the Red Sox this year.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“It had happened before she was born, this wholesale discarding of American industry, this switch from a culture that made things of value to a culture that consumed things of dubious merit. She’d grown up in the absence, in other people’s memory of a dream so fragile it had probably been doomed from the moment of conception. If there had ever been a social contract between the country and its citizens, it was long gone now, save the Hobbesian agreement that had been in play since our ancestors had first stumbled from caves in search of food: Once I get mine, you’re on your own.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“There seemed to be little rhyme or reason as to why one day snatching the correct words from the ether was like opening a faucet and other days it was like opening a vein,”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“If it’s ever within your power to do so, she considered saying aloud to Brian (but didn’t), you have to bear witness to your dead. You simply have to. You have to step into the energy field of whatever remains of their spirit, their soul, their essence and let it pass through your body. And in the passing, maybe a wisp of it adheres to you, grafts itself to your cells. And in this communion, the dead continue to live. Or strive to. Instead,”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“in the”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“punching cracks through the foundations. It had happened before she was born, this wholesale discarding of American industry, this switch from a culture that made things of value to a culture”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“immediately upon her return—alcohol, Oxycontin, and Ativan sprang immediately to mind—but not panic.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“It was the feeling she’d had as long back as she could remember that she was unforgivably inadequate and worth abandoning”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell

“only people who ask questions like ‘Did he want to be something besides a bartender?’ are people who can become whatever they want. The rest of us are just Americans.”
― Dennis Lehane, Since We Fell