Dig Quotes

“MAKE SMARTER MISTAKES!
STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP!
CONTROL YOUR VARIABLES!
BLEND AND STRAIN!
CHANGE YOUR MIND!
The Freak knows this sounds corny because you're so used to looking at hateful shit, right? News shows and conspiracy theories. Rape jokes and dank memes. You're so used to the humor of the put-down that you didn't see that you slid down a hole and into a tunnel.
DIG YOUR WAY OUT!”
― A.S. King, Dig

“You wonder why I'm so uptight about entitle white culture? It's not just that I live here half the time and see real poverty. It's not just the snack baskets in first class. It's because entitled white culture encourages those inside it to never look outside their own fucking worlds. We blow everything off because we're so concerned with looking good we can't just feel.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“When I smile at you, I’m being sincere because I pity you. I pity anyone who says gimme. The world is going to be a giant disappointment for you. All you’ll ever get is the kindness of the Drive-Thru girl after growling your entitled order into my head. Gimme-gimme-gimme: the battle cry of millions of people every day. People who want.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“You can do whatever you want. You've got arms. You've got legs. You've got existence. Don't waste it. Trust me.

I have existence? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
― A.S. King, Dig

“I've never understood white people who can't admit they're white. I mean, white isn't just a color. And maybe that's the problem for them. White is a passport. It's a ticket. The world is a white amusement park and your white skin buys you into it. A woman in economy argued with me about this once. She said, "I've heard this idea and it makes me uncomfortable."

"It probably should," I said.

Dad and I have been broke since he got cancer and sometimes he can't put the heat on over sixty-two or put food in the fridge, but we were always white and he always made sure I knew that. Which sounds stupid because how can a person not know they're white, right?

You don't have to be racist to not know you're white.

But sometimes you do. And Marla has no idea she's white or that the whole world was made for people like her.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“Because this has to stop now. Life's too short to live the whole thing underground.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“But we already know that adults are mostly assholes who think we’re mostly assholes.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“I try to be the healthy bacteria.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“We're all products of convenience. I don't judge.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“I mean, accidents are usually fast, right? Can’t say the last four hundred years counts as fast. Can you?”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“We sit in his living room and he puts on some music and it sounds like a painting in my head and my chest. It’s hard to explain.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“It’s not just a passing comment or a racist quip in the hallway. My whole house is wallpapered with hate. My dinner is made with hate. My Christmas gifts are bought with hate. I started doing my own wash when I was ten just so my clothes can feel clean when everything else feels dirty.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“Marla yells when she talks on it—as if she still hasn’t figured out that a phone without a cord is not a lesser phone.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“He gives no fucks. Jake never gives any fucks. It was once suggested that the school should rename the in-school suspension room the Jake-Marks-Gives-Zero-Fucks Room.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“The boy doesn't know what to do with his grief. A minute ago, he had a sister. A minute ago, he had someone with which to share the burden.
Family - even though it was just a naked stranger.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“You don't have to be racist to not know you're white.

But sometimes you do. And Marla has no idea she's white or that the whole world was made for people like her.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“Who cares where we dream?”
― A.S. King, Dig

“Existence is wasted on the living."
"You're stoned."
She takes another pull of the cigarette. "What do you think happens when we die? You believe in Heaven and Hell and all that shit?"
We're outside of a Catholic church, sitting on a bench next to a statue of Mary. "This is the closest I ever got to a church. Wasn't even baptized," I say.
"So?”
― A.S. King, Dig

“I am pressing the boxing glove button. I am punching this person in the face a hundred times. I don't know what to say. I'm tired of being a doormat. I say, "Second window.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“Nobody knows what he's doing this for - but I think I'm slowly beginning to figure it out. He wants to find out the point of it all. He's trying to comprehend the meaning of life. He's trying to finish the puzzle before it finishes him.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“Fucked if I do, fucked if I don't," That's the Freak's motto.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“But it’s all stupid. Like. American History is bullshit. Andrew Jackson for three whole days? And no mention of the Removal Act.” Dad cringed. “Same when I went to school. Wish I could have raised you in a place where the history books don’t lie, but pretty much all history books lie.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“In Gottfried’s mind, Marla hit him with the bird towel for what seemed like twenty years.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“She stands quietly at the kitchen counter and weighs her options. She could be nice about Harry dying or she could just keep pretending it isn’t happening.”
― A.S. King, Dig.

“If I was a superhero, my name would be Lonerman. My superpower would the the Existentialism--a ray I could shoot out of my hand that renders people powerless to face anything but their own personal pointlessness in an absurd world.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“Judging from our last fifteen flights, I can tell you that poverty is not a popular conversation choice in first class. Or any class. In any class. Going anywhere. Which is really handy for the people on the plane, I guess.”
― A.S. King, Dig

“You think this is crazy. You think states can't be controversial. You're reading this in your own state thinking that your state is great, right? But everyone sees the world different from everybody else. If you're from the South, some people don't like the North because it's full of elites. If you're in the North, some people think if you're from the South, you're stupid or a racist if you're white. If you're from the East Coast, some people on the West Coast think you're too uptight. If your'e from the West coast, some people on the East Coast think you're a weirdo whose parents probably smoke weed. You'd be surprised at the assumptions people make based on the answer to this question.”
― A.S. King, Dig