The Record Keeper Quotes

“People in darkness don’t know they’re in darkness because it’s all they’ve ever known. It’s their world. They navigate primarily by bumping off things that are stronger. Immovable. They don’t know darkness is darkness until someone turns on a light. Only then does the darkness roll back like a scroll. It has to. Darkness can’t stand light. And it hasn’t. Not since God spoke it into existence.”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“Maybe only an orphan can understand this, but we had been cut free from our anchor and the blow was crushing. We didn't know who we were, and more importantly, we didn't know whose we were -- forever proving that identity precedes purpose. You can't know who you are until you've settled whose you are.

[Bones, to Murphy Shepherd, about himself and his brother Frank]”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“...man's greatest need is forgiveness while his greatest desire is power.

[Bones]”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“I, as much as anyone, knew that hope is what feeds us. It's the currency of mankind. The fuel of the soul. Without it, we wither and die.

[Murphy Shepherd]”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“How do I breathe in a world without you? Do I still breathe in?”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“Those of us who stand in the light wonder sometimes, How much longer can it last? This onslaught. How much more can we take? This constancy. Those of us who walk in the light grow weary. Our hope wanes. Fades. Darkness rages and threatens to drown us. We look around and wonder what happened. Where’d it go? Where’s the light?”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“And while you may think very little of me, God himself actually thought me up. What you see in the lens of your eye, this thing we call ‘me,’ started in his mind. He actually took the time to think me up. Imagine.” Another”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“as you age, you start to thinking that the end is closer than the beginning, and one thing all us old guys think about a good bit is who’s going to lay us to rest. A friend, or just some guy sent to dig a hole?”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“I am beautiful. I am one in a billion. And I am priceless.”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“hope is what feeds us. It’s the currency of mankind. The fuel of the soul. Without it, we wither and die.”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“Sometimes, given their depth, we become little more than the sum of our wounds, and it takes someone else to see what we can be instead of what we are.”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“Whose you are matters more to the soul than who you are or what you are.”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“People”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“...every man has a basement. Some lay dark. Unlit. Concealed. Others sprawl like airport runways for all the world to see. The difference is determined by whether he is hiding something or digging it up. Hammer or shovel says much about a man.

[Murphy Shepherd']”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“...I've come to understand, no...to know...that nothing matters more than a name....A name establishes a record. Drives a stake in the ground. Shouts across the stratosphere, 'I'm here! I matter! I'm not invisible!' And while you make think very little of me, God himself actually thought me up. What you see in the lens of your eye, this thing we call 'me,' started in his mind. He actually took the time to think me up. Imagine....God thought of me. Molded my bones like a potter. And if that's true, and he thought of me, and then made me, and then named me, then there's a record of my existence. Evidence that I'm real....When you're in hell, slavery, nothing matters more than a name. Because with it, someone can walk up to the bars that shackle you, point at you among the many, and call you out--by name. A name is the singular thing that separates us from the ninety-nine. A name makes us the one....Without a name...there is no record.

[Bones]”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper

“...the soul is like Velcro, and when you brush up against someone else, especially when there are no clothes to separate you, part of you clings to them and part of them clings to you. Soon you find yourself carrying pieces of souls that you don't want and don't want you. But you can't help it. It's like being handcuffed to a stranger on the subway and your stop never comes.

[Casey]”
― Charles Martin, The Record Keeper