Daphne Quotes

“You all probably think I'm a real dragon."
She was weighing her answer carefully.
"Go ahead," I said. "I can take it."
"We give you the doubt benefit. Always doubt benefit. Not easy to be the boss."
It took a moment to untangle the idiom, and then I liked it too much to correct her.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“You do the best with the data you have.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“I told him that if the protesters really wanted change, they should call their senator, raise money, donate, go out canvassing. They talked about real democracy, but no one wanted to slog through legal challenges, legislation, lobbying, fielding candidates, campaigning. "Too much hard work. All the drums and chanting and meetings and speeches" -- I grabbed my phone from him, tossed it on the couch, took his hand in mine and wrestled with him, letting myself brush up against a little attack-- "they're just to make people /feel/ like something's happening”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“Me, I'm hanging back, working the camcorder, videoing it all. For some reason, it helps. Maybe I'm like the observer, not the participant?"
"Interesting." Sherman makes a note of this, as if it were useful advice: You could self-treat by carrying a goddamn camcorder around for the rest of your life.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“The human brain is the universe's most implausible science experiment.”
― Will Boast, Daphne

“Old man comes across a frog one day. Frog says, "Kiss me, and I'll turn into a beautiful princess." Old man picks up it up, puts it in his pocket. Frog says, "Hey, didn't you hear me?" Old man says, "Sure did. But at my age, I'd rather have a talking frog.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“Your whole deal sounds kind of hard."
"Well, I guess you just keep pulling.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“Depression is just a survival mechanism. Ego reinforcement. There's a little voice in you that says, "No one has ever suffered like this. No one. I'm special. I've received some special punishment. No one can /ever/ understand what it's like to be me." You see, our overwhelming sense of individual destiny keeps us from erasing ourselves. It's a purpose-built, evolutionary mechanism. Because the sole specimen really isn't of consequence, but species survival, of course, is of the utmost.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“Politics is /all/ emotion-- hating the other side, valorizing your own, propping up your own identity. I'm right, I'm righteous, I /care/. No one can stand to admit they're as compromised and clueless as everyone else. People decide something /feels/ right, then they warp all their thinking around that.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“Some people enjoyed these wild swings. They crested and troughed, thrilled and wallowed, and came out strangely purified. I probably would have to fire Staci for her sensitivity, her excess. After all, she might go on like this her whole life. Or maybe, with all her yawning lows and staggering highs, she'd finally just get worn down. Maybe.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“The emotions of others affect us unpredictably. Sometimes they resonate like a struck bell. Just as often they clank and mean nothing at all. Bill's story /was/ sad, yet, today, it couldn't reach me.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“She wanted to ask my advice but left without saying about what. Maybe she was reconsidering vet school. She'd finally gotten a sense of her limitations and wanted to pursue something realistic. Maybe she was going to quit and wanted a reference.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“We should at least /talk/ about it. You're mad at me. Admit it. It was completely my fault we were even there."
But I didn't blame him for his curiosity. I'd been curious too. And it wasn't up to him to know my limits, especially when I'd been testing them myself.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“Reliability," I said. That's what this lab needs. More importantly" -- she wasn't the only one who could play on feelings-- "that's what the dogs need. Someone who steps up every day. Ask yourself if that's you. If it isn't, maybe it's time to start--”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“With the muffling of the pills, my response to him was bland, impersonal, and I saw him more clearly: a man so afraid of being ignored or passed over that he'd turned himself into the group's villain just to get some, any, kind of recognition.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel

“In a world where everyone was trying to radiate success while praying for actual profits, Brooke's margins narrowed and narrowed.”
― Will Boast, Daphne: A Novel