Nightmare Alley Quotes

“What sort of God would put us here in this goddamned, stinking slaughterhouse of a world?”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“How helpless they all looked in the ugliness of sleep. A third of life spent unconscious and corpselike. And some, the great majority, stumbled through their waking hours scarcely more awake, helpless in the face of destiny. They stumbled down a dark alley toward their deaths. They sent exploring feelers into the light and met fire and writhed back again into the darkness of their blind groping.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Man comes into the world a blind, groping mite. He knows hunger and the fear of noise and of falling. His life is spent in flight - flight from hunger and from the thunderbolt of destiny. From his moment of birth he begins to fall through the whistling air of Time: down, down into a chasm of darkness . . . we come like a breath of wind over the fields of morning. We go like a lamp flame caught by a blast from a darkened window. In between we journey from table to table, from battle to bottle, from bed to bed. We suck, we chew, we swallow, we lick, we try to mash life into us like an am-am-amoeba God damn it! Somebody lets us loose like a toad out of a matchbox and we jump and jump and jump and the guy always behind us, and when he gets tired he stomps us to death and our guts squirt out on each side of the boot of All Merciful Providence. The son-of-a-bitch!”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“The rest of them drink something else: they drink promises. They drink hope. And I've got it to hand them.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“The speech fascinated him. His ear caught the rhythm of it and he noted their idioms and worked some of them into his patter. He had found the reason behind the peculiar, drawling language of the old carny hands—it was a composite of all the sprawling regions of the country. A language which sounded Southern to Southerners, Western to Westerners. It was the talk of the soil and its drawl covered the agility of the brains that poured it out. It was a soothing, illiterate, earthy language.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Loneliness came over him, like an avalanche of snow. He was alone. Where he had always wanted to be. You can only trust yourself. There's a rat buried deep in everybody and they'll rat on you if they get pushed far enough.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Nothing matters in this goddamned lunatic asylum of a world but dough.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“In a patch of silver the Rev. Carlisle stopped and raised his face to the full moon, where it hung desolately, agonizingly bright - a dead thing, watching the dying earth.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Dust when it was dry. Mud when it was rainy. Swearing, steaming, sweating, scheming, bribing, bellowing, cheating, the carny went its way. It came like a pillar of fire by night, bringing excitement and new things into the drowsy towns- lights and noise and the chance to win an Indian blanket, to ride on the ferris wheel, to see the wild man who fondles those reptiles as a mother would fondle her babes. Then it vanished in the night, leaving the trodden grass of the field and the debris of popcorn boxes and rusting tin ice cream spoons to show where it had been.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Stan, sitting beside Zeena, tried to concentrate on the words and guess what the reverend was going to say next. Anything to keep from thinking. It’s not my fault he’s dead. I didn’t mean to kill him. I killed him. There it starts again and all day I wasn’t feeling anything and I thought I’d lost it.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Hoatley - First Carnival Owner: Now this creature - There he is, THE GEEK! He has puzzled the foremost scientists of Europe and America. Is he the missing link? Is he man or beast? Some have pronounced him man. But beneath that shaggy mane of hair lies the brain of a beast.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Fear is the key to human nature.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“If dad had always been as weak and as friendly as he was now that he was dying. If only he could have been dying for twenty years, Stan might have loved him.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“«A volte ho l’impressione che se davvero ho un talento non è di natura letteraria. Il mio è piuttosto un talento per la pura e semplice sopravvivenza. Sono sopravvissuto a tre matrimoni naufragati, alla perdita dei figli, alla guerra, alla tubercolosi, al marxismo, all’alcolismo, alla nevrosi e ad anni di scrittura da freelance. Sono troppo cocciuto e miserabile perché mi si possa far fuori, mi sa». - W.L.Gresham”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Un tempo sembravano puttane. Adesso somigliavano a studentesse universitarie. Volevano tutte sembrare studentesse. Perché non ci andavano davvero, all’università, allora? Non avrebbero avuto niente di diverso dalle altre. Nessuno le avrebbe mai notate. Cristo, che maniera assurda di stare al mondo.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“n tempo sembravano puttane. Adesso somigliavano a studentesse universitarie. Volevano tutte sembrare studentesse. Perché non ci andavano davvero, all’università, allora? Non avrebbero avuto niente di diverso dalle altre. Nessuno le avrebbe mai notate. Cristo, che maniera assurda di stare al mondo.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“La gente è sempre in ansia. Puoi tenere in pugno chi vuoi, se scopri di cosa ha paura.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Le persone muoiono dalla voglia che qualcuno gli predica il futuro e tu li rincuori. Che diamine, dai loro qualcosa da desiderare e in cui sperare. È quel che fanno i predicatori la domenica. Tra essere un’indovina e un predicatore, la differenza è poca, per come la vedo io.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Sviare l’attenzione, il segreto è tutto lì, tesoro. Non hai bisogno di chissà quali marchingegni, botole, casse con il doppio fondo, tavoli strani. Ho sempre sostenuto che un uomo disposto a imparare come si svia l’attenzione della gente può sfilare un oggetto dalla tasca, metterlo in un cappello e infine estrarlo. Resteranno tutti a bocca aperta, chiedendosi da dove è spuntata quella roba.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Siccome ti sono amico, ti risparmio le vaccate. Vuoi sapere da dove vengono i mangiabestie. Stammi a sentire, allora. I mangiabestie non si trovano. Si creano.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Any place is grand, long as you got the old do-re-mi in the grouch bag,”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Also Dad said it was a shame to go to bed early and miss everything when you could sleep late the next day and catch up...”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“geek, a drunkard driven so low that he would bite off the heads of chickens and snakes just to get the booze he needed.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“He was staring at the woman who stood holding the door open into another room . He weaved to his feet, lurching as he came near her, then he caught a whiff of perfume. The gray eyes seemed as big as saucers, like the eyes of a kitten when you hold its nose touching yours. He looked at the small mouth, the full lower lip, carefully tinted but not painted. She said nothing. As he started to push past her he seemed to fall; he found his arm around her and held on knowing that he was a fool, knowing something terrible would strike him dead, knowing he wanted to cry, to empty his bladder, to scream, to go to sleep, wondering as he tightened his arm around her…Stan lay sprawling on the floor.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Oh, Christ, why do you have to grow up into a life like this one? Why do you ever have to want women, want power, make money, make love, keep up a front, sell the act, suck around some booking agent, get gypped on the check—?”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Si alguna vez ella mirara hacia aquí mientras estoy sin la túnica, no me importaría morir en ese momento. Me arrancaría el corazón y se lo entregaría en una bandeja. ¿Es que no se da cuenta? No consigo armarme de valor para tomarle la mano en el cine. ¿Por qué un hombre siempre ha de enamorarse de una mujer así? Ni siquiera puedo decirle lo loco que estoy por ella”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Si alguna vez ella mirara hacia aquí mientras estoy sin la túnica, no me importaría morir en ese momento. Me arrancaría el corazón y se lo entregaría en una bandeja. ¿Es que no se dá cuenta? No consigo armarme de valor para tomarle la mano en el cine. ¿Por qué un hombre siempre se enamora ha de enamorarse de una mujer así?”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“La prisa, la veloz caída de los años hacia la muerte, se apoderó de él, y apretó con fuerza a la mujer, la atrajo hacia sí en un feroz intento de agarrarse a la vida. Ella le permitió que la abrazara, y él se oyó sollozar en voz baja mientras frotaba sus mejillas contra aquellos cabellos lisos.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“La soledad se apoderó de él, como una avalancha de nieve. Estaba solo. Donde siempre había querido estar. Solo puedes confiar en ti mismo. Hay un delator en lo más profundo de cada uno de nosotros, y cualquiera te delatará si lo presionan lo suficiente”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley

“Carlisle se detuvo en un charco plateado, levantó la cara hacia la luna llena y la vio desolada, tristemente brillante: algo muerto que contemplaba la agonía de la tierra.”
― William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley