The Dinner Party and Other Stories Quotes

“Everywhere we'd gone that day, bronze plaques kept popping up to mark some historical occasion. Here resistance fighters had dug a tunnel, here the dissidents had withstood the tanks. The whole city was like that: one giant monument to the heroes and martyrs. But what about those of us just trying to get by? I put on my sunglasses and stared out at the water.”
― Joshua Ferris, The Dinner Party

“This was a simple exchange, labor for cash. It had nothing to do with gestures of kindness, or if you knew the other guy's name or not, or what mans' ultimate purpose on earth might be. What the market would bear--that was the only relevant question. (from the short story 'A Fair Price')”
― Joshua Ferris, The Dinner Party and Other Stories