In Theory, it Works Quotes

“Balance isn’t always a good thing. Or all the world would
be gray, lukewarm and taste like oatmeal.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, In Theory, it Works

“Marissa Theodora took out her journal, put it on her lap so Mr. Alva would not see. She penciled thoughts as they came. ‘Picture the classroom plunged into dark,’ she wrote. A touchable darkness, like the fur of a black cat. A thick fog of ink. You can move through it; just not quickly. Can’t shout through it; only talk in low soft tones.’ She frowned. Why ‘plunged into dark’? Why not ‘opened’? Darkness was already everywhere. Under the floor, between the walls. Up in space and below the earth. Everyone’s pockets were full of Dark. Our heads? Stuffed with the stuff. Close your eyelids and roll your eyes inward, and gaze into the cavern of your skull. Behold: your secret vault of Dark. Marissa considered writing that. Decided not. It sounded gloomy, even creepy.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, In Theory, it Works

“Math is poetry, kid,” she growled. “Math is sex in the head. All that work of making your mind stroke the
numbers? It’s a natural series of touches you already know by instinct. Once you get over your inhibitions, you
can sit in class or lie in bed and practice formulae and sums, caress the equation till you find the climax of an
elegant solution.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, In Theory, it Works

“You want a defenseless girl to walk home in the near dark?”
“Seriously? The biggest danger in the streets of Theory, Texas is some farmer letting his dog drive the tractor. A lot of the dogs around here drink.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, In Theory, it Works

“He turned to check the stands again. Maybe dad came after all. To cheer him on, shout how proud he was of his boy. But that was stupid. Dad wasn’t coming to soccer practice. ‘Not a real sport’, he’d shouted. ‘Shit, they have an old woman for a coach’. Dad wanted his football starter back. Living proof he’d fathered a boy in the missionary position to go forth and populate the living-room mantel with trophies. Good for mocking dads whose kids lacked spine, sport jersey and high-school chin hairs. Marlon understood exactly what his dad wanted.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, In Theory, it Works

“We are born screaming, and all our lives we continue that scream. We translate the scream to song and poetry, modulate it into words of wisdom and defiance. And when at last we see the teeth coming for us, when we no longer are to consume but be consumed... we give our final scream. Of pain, or defiance, of prayer or poetry. Hell, even a brave laugh. But all these shrieks are mere echoes of the explosive cry we made coming into this life. Echoes of the Great Scream itself, when the stars were born.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, In Theory, it Works