Lot Quotes

“She read beautifully, deeply. I don't know how else to describe it.
Eventually, I finally asked her what she got out of reading these books by old dead men, what the words on the page had to do with her. The kind of question an idiot asks. But she took it seriously, she pursed her lips.
It's just another way to talk to the dead, she said.
It's another way to make a way, she said.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“Your eyes will show you what they want to, or whatever they think you should see.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“This is how easy it is to walk out of a life. I’d always wondered, and now I knew.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“You bring yourself wherever you go. You are the one thing you can never run out on.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“Eventually, I finally asked her what she got out of reading these books by old dead men, what the words on the page had to do with her. The kind of question an idiot asks.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“of course sometimes people see things. Your eyes will show you what they want to, or whatever they think you should see. They’ll show you a happy family when all you have is bodies in a room. They’ll show you a man worth walking out on your whole fucking life for, a man who will leave you with three kids and a half-rotting lot, but because your eyes are your eyes and you know what you know, you won’t see the train until it finally hits you.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“Denise lived in one of those walk-ups that look like garbage from a distance, then you get a little closer and they don’t look any better.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“But then I was born, and he stepped out for a glass of water, and believe it or not he’s been thirsty ever since.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“But after the storm, they pushed the rest of us out, too: if you couldn't afford to rebuild, then you had to go. If you couldn't afford to leave, and you couldn't afford to fix your life, then what you had to do was watch the neighborhood grow further away from you. (202)”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“But the neighborhood’s changed. With our not-legals shuffling in, people who don’t have time for the violence, people whose only reason for bouncing was to get away from the violence, we’ve mellowed out, found our rhythm. Slowed down. You can raise a kid in the complex. Start a garden or some shit.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“She said if we remembered nothing else she taught us, to know that love is a verb. She had makeup all over her brow. Smears of it on her lips.
When I'd started to open my mouth Javi kicked me under the table. Didn't even change the look on his face.
It is an active thing, she said. Something you have to do.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“People think about things all the time, he said. All people fucking do is think.
But really, he said, you do things or you don't.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“Desire don't discriminate,said Avery. Desire's gonna swallow every motherfucker out here.

So we don't discriminate neither, said Avery. We're equal opportunity pharmacists!”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“When the boy finally comes, it's like he's been shot.

Afterwards, we deflate. Roll to opposite ends.

I tell him not to get too comfortable.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“He was, despite everything, still one of us.
So we put our heads together.
We pulled the change from nowhere.
We plugged Big A for the quarters under his bed. We asked Mr. Po for some of his flower money. We drilled Gonzalo and Erica for a little of their comp-pay. We pestered Juana for some alimony, and Rogelio for his overtime, and the three Ramirez daughters for their baby shower stash. We poked Charlie for those international checks, Adriana for her allowance, Neesha for her government check, and Dante for his lunch money. Nigel and Karl for the pennies they stole. LaToya for those side jobs, Benito for his Hazelwood, and Hugo for the paystubs he'd been cashing on the West Side.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“And if this were a different story, a story about something else, a story where we did the things we know we need to do, I’d have smiled real wide, the same as with the whiteboy, and with a little more feeling, or maybe a different one entirely. But I just put my hand on his shoulder, and I squeezed around the edges, and I loudly, gracefully, told him to go fuck his mother.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“She looked me in the face, and said, The thing about slow learners is that they eventually do learn.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“Your eyes will show you what they want to, or whatever they think you should see. They'll show you a happy family when all you have is bodies in a room. They'll show you a man worth walking out on your whole fucking life for, a man who will leave you with three kids and a half-rotting lot, but because your eyes are your eyes and you know what you know, you won't see the train until it finally hits you.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot

“He brought greasy sacks from Brothers Tacos, splitting the aluminum evenly across the carpet—but Poke wasn’t a fool. He’d seen the other boys eyeing him. He knew he’d have to contribute. He just wanted to know the stakes. Luckily for Poke, everyone had an answer for him. Before Rod, Nacho’d been another orphan junkie working the Latin bars on Washington. He’d lived in Humble with his aunt and some pocho from El Paso, until they caught him with the poppers. Then he needed a new situation. He hustled day to day before Rod cut him off at South Beach, snagging Nacho from the lap of some whiteboy by the door.”
― Bryan Washington, Lot