The Unfolding Quotes

“Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted, apparently at birth, with some presentiment of loss.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“But he didn’t make a lot of eye contact. He didn’t linger on anyone; it was as though he didn’t want anyone to see too deeply into him.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“I am crying about everything. It seems that if one wants to ride astride, to be powerful, and independent, one has to leave things behind…

Like your family… Like everything that people expect you to be.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“For this endeavor, he makes a chart of men who are connected to one another through business, where they went to school, where they play golf, their wives and families. He’s trying to figure out what he can build, where the parts can act both synchronously and asynchronously without the workings being exposed, something operational, and get scrambled well enough so the identity of those pulling the strings can’t be traced.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“Flamethrowers create noise and distraction, which can make our point of view appear more moderate. Depending on how things evolve, they’re potentially an asset.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“The woman says nothing. The silence extends.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“What is clear to me now – in my awakening – is that the subject is not history. The subject is histories. I don’t want to just study it; I want to play a part in it. I want to make history, to live in history, and to be the history of the future.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“You create the bullshit, and then you spread it… Get a good spread, echo, and repeat is how you make it real. The more time it is repeated, the more real it becomes. By real I mean true—your fiction becomes facts. And at this time, despite the fact that the first television was sold in 1929, the majority of people don’t know the power of technology to influence decision-making.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“The shift in the political waters has its own riptide. The fracture on the right, the extremism, will find its voice or voices, and will roll in; then, like a rip current, it will pull away from shore, sucking, and drowning those voices as it does—they will be lost at sea. And while it may appear that we, the party, are lost at sea, the sea level itself will be rising, and the tidal wave, initially imperceptible, will build and slowly roll in. There will be a seamless transition unfolding in the corridors of power, a slow turn to the right that no one sees coming. In the name of what it means to be an American, we will spearhead the development, within the military, and outside it, of separatist soldiers, who believe that they are following the true wishes of their leaders culminating in the erosion of civil liberties under the guise of protection. This combined with the withering of local law enforcement, economic setbacks, and failing infrastructure will become part of a picture that coincides with a period of economic, social, and political unrest; the stabilization in this country will give rise to rogue non-politicians.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“The takeaway is that sometimes, in order to be an agent of change, one must recant, volte-face, leaving behind what one formally held to be true, whether that is one’s politics or one’s family.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“One wants to believe that there are systems in place that protect us; but, in fact, we are all a little more on our own than one might realize.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“Anyone I ever met who seemed regular turned out to be a head case as soon as you scratch the surface.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“There are many Americas; the language and the brand of orange juice might be the same, but they are very different places.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“All men make mistakes, but making the same mistake twice is not a mistake, it's a pattern.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“But it doesn’t need to be perfect, perfection equals pressure.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding

“If I’m hearing you right,” the judge says, “what you’re outlining is a coup of sorts that will sweep across this country largely unnoticed until it is too late—until the American people have been decimated economically, intellectually, and spiritually. It comes together on a decision day that results in the emergence of a new America.” “Yes,” the Big Guy says. “And no one will read it as an inside job. It’s a new American dream.”
― A.M. Homes, The Unfolding